ABSTRACT

The chapter addresses the issues of expiring digital signatures in the context of long term digital preservation. The three studies, two e-government and one e-health, of soon expiring or already expired digitally signed records are analyzed. A blockchain-based model for preservation of validity of digital certificates used in digital signatures and seals is proposed. Using the model called TrustChain, institutions will be able to prolong the validity of digitally signed records either in digital archives, during long term archiving, or in the systems for long term records management, thus preserving them as authentic and reliable for a longer period than by using archival timestamps.