Launching a Decentralized Identity for Open Peer Review Networks

Open peer review networks aim to increase transparency and trust in academic publishing by making the review process public and accountable. However, traditional systems rely on centralized platforms that can gatekeep participation, censor content, or compromise reviewer anonymity. Decentralized identity (DID) offers a solution by allowing researchers to create and control their own verifiable credentials—such as institutional affiliation, publication history, and review expertise—without a central authority. This foundation enables a system where contributions are immutable, portable, and cryptographically provable.

At its core, a DID is a unique identifier anchored on a blockchain or other decentralized network, like Ethereum or Polygon. It is controlled by the individual via cryptographic keys, not a central database. For peer review, a researcher's DID can be linked to Verifiable Credentials (VCs) issued by trusted entities—for example, a university attesting to a PhD, or a journal confirming a completed review. These credentials are signed and can be presented to any platform in the network for verification, enabling trustless validation of a participant's qualifications and history.

Implementing this requires a technical stack. Developers typically use the W3C DID Core specification and Verifiable Credentials Data Model as standards. A common approach is to deploy a smart contract as a DID Registry on an EVM-compatible chain to resolve DID documents. For credential issuance, tools like SpruceID's Credible or Veramo provide SDKs for creating, signing, and verifying VCs. The following pseudocode illustrates creating a simple DID document structure:

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{
  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/did/v1",
  "id": "did:ethr:0x1234...",
  "verificationMethod": [{ 
    "id": "#key-1",
    "type": "EcdsaSecp256k1VerificationKey2019",
    "controller": "did:ethr:0x1234...",
    "publicKeyHex": "02abc..."
  }]
}

The primary benefits for an open review network are sybil-resistance and reputation portability. By tying reviews and publications to a persistent, cryptographically-secured DID, the system prevents fake accounts and ensures contributions are linked to a real identity. Reputation scores or review histories become assets owned by the researcher, not locked within a single journal's platform. This allows a reviewer's proven expertise to be recognized across multiple publishing venues, creating a more meritocratic and collaborative ecosystem.

Key challenges include designing for selective disclosure—allowing a reviewer to prove they are qualified without revealing their full identity—and ensuring the underlying blockchain is cost-effective and scalable. Solutions like zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for credential presentation and using Layer 2 networks for transaction efficiency are critical. Platforms like OrbitDB or Ceramic Network can be integrated for off-chain, mutable data storage linked to the immutable DID on-chain, managing dynamic profile information.

To start building, developers should explore frameworks like Veramo for a modular agent system or SpruceID's Kepler for credential storage. The next steps involve defining the credential schema for academic attributes, choosing a DID method (e.g., did:ethr, did:key), and integrating verification into the review platform's submission workflow. This architecture lays the groundwork for a more open, user-owned, and trustworthy scholarly commons.

A foundational understanding of blockchain fundamentals is required. You should be familiar with core concepts like public-key cryptography, digital signatures, hash functions, and consensus mechanisms. Knowledge of Ethereum or other EVM-compatible chains is particularly useful, as many decentralized identity (DID) standards are implemented there. Familiarity with smart contracts and how they manage state and logic on-chain is also crucial for building the registry and verification components of your system.

You will need to choose a Decentralized Identifier (DID) method and understand the associated Verifiable Credentials (VCs) data model, as defined by the W3C. The DID method (e.g., did:ethr, did:key, did:web) determines how identifiers are created, resolved, and managed on a specific blockchain or network. VCs are the tamper-evident, cryptographically signed credentials (like an academic degree or review credential) that are issued to a DID. Tools like the SpruceID SDK or Veramo can abstract much of this complexity.

For development, you'll need a working environment with Node.js (v18 or later) and npm or yarn installed. You will interact with a blockchain, so access to a testnet RPC endpoint (like Sepolia or Goerli via Alchemy or Infura) is necessary. A wallet with testnet ETH (e.g., MetaMask) is required for deploying contracts and paying gas fees. Basic proficiency with a command-line interface and a code editor like VS Code is assumed.

The core of your system will be a smart contract acting as a DID registry or a verifiable credential resolver. You should be comfortable with a development framework like Hardhat or Foundry. Hardhat provides a robust environment for compiling, testing, and deploying Solidity contracts. You'll write tests for your contract's logic, such as registering a DID, issuing a credential, and verifying a credential's signature. Understanding ERC-3668 (CCIP Read) can be beneficial for off-chain credential resolution.

Finally, consider the user experience. Your application will need a frontend to allow reviewers and authors to manage their identities. A basic understanding of a modern frontend framework like React or Next.js is helpful. You will use a library like ethers.js or viem to connect the wallet, interact with your smart contracts, and call DID/VC libraries. The frontend will handle the flow of creating a DID, requesting a credential, and presenting verifiable proof during the review process.

A decentralized identity system for peer review replaces centralized academic databases with user-controlled, cryptographically verifiable credentials. At its core, it uses Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)—URIs that point to a DID document stored on a blockchain or other decentralized network. This document contains public keys and service endpoints, allowing a reviewer to prove control of their identity without relying on a single institution. The system's architecture is built on three foundational layers: the Identifier & Key Management Layer for user sovereignty, the Credential Issuance & Verification Layer for trust, and the Application & Integration Layer for utility within existing publishing workflows.

The trust model is established through Verifiable Credentials (VCs), which are tamper-evident claims issued by trusted entities, such as journals or academic societies. A VC could attest that "Alice is a certified reviewer for Journal of Cryptographic Engineering." These credentials are signed by the issuer's private key and can be presented by the holder (the reviewer) to a verifier (a conference or another journal). The architecture employs Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to enable selective disclosure, allowing a reviewer to prove they have a credential from a reputable publisher without revealing the publisher's name or other sensitive metadata, thus preserving privacy and reducing bias.

For a functional system, you need to choose supporting infrastructure. The DID Method (e.g., did:ethr, did:key, did:web) determines how identifiers are created and resolved. A Verifiable Data Registry, typically a public blockchain like Ethereum or a purpose-built network like Cheqd, stores the immutable DID documents and optionally schemas for credentials. Smart contracts automate governance logic, such as managing a registry of accredited issuers or handling disputes. Off-chain components include issuer/verifier agents (wallets or servers that handle VC exchange protocols) and identity wallets (user-held software that stores private keys and credentials).

A practical implementation flow involves several steps. First, a reviewer generates a DID and publishes its document to the registry. A journal, acting as an issuer, creates a VC for that reviewer and signs it. The reviewer stores this VC in their identity wallet. Later, when submitting a review to a different platform, the reviewer generates a Verifiable Presentation—a package containing the relevant VC or a ZKP derived from it. The receiving platform's verifier agent checks the cryptographic signatures against the issuer's public key (fetched from the DID document on-chain) and the proof's validity, granting access upon success. This creates a seamless, interoperable trust framework.

Key design considerations include revocation mechanisms (using status lists or smart contracts), key rotation policies for compromised DIDs, and gas cost optimization for on-chain operations. The system must integrate with existing Open Peer Review platforms (like OpenReview) or publishing infrastructure (Crossref, ORCID) through standard APIs such as DIDComm or OpenID Connect for Verifiable Credentials. By decentralizing identity, the architecture mitigates single points of failure, reduces administrative overhead for institutions, and empowers researchers with true ownership of their professional reputation across the scholarly ecosystem.

A Decentralized Identifier (DID) is a globally unique, persistent identifier that you control, without reliance on a central registry. In an open peer review network, your DID serves as your immutable, verifiable pseudonym for submitting reviews, building reputation, and receiving attestations. Unlike an email address, a DID is cryptographically secured and anchored to a blockchain, ensuring you own and control your identity data. The foundation is the DID Document, a JSON-LD file describing the DID's public keys, authentication methods, and service endpoints.

Creating a DID typically involves generating a cryptographic key pair. For blockchain-anchored DIDs, like those on the Ethereum or Polygon networks using the did:ethr method, this means creating an Ethereum account. You can use libraries like ethers.js or web3.js. The private key is your ultimate secret—it proves ownership. The corresponding public address becomes the basis for your DID (e.g., did:ethr:0xAbc...). For other methods like did:key, the DID is derived directly from the public key itself.

Once you have a key pair, you must publish your DID Document to make it resolvable by others. For did:ethr, this involves deploying a smart contract (like the ERC-1056 EthrDIDRegistry) or interacting with an existing registry to associate your public keys with your Ethereum address. This on-chain record allows anyone to resolve your DID and fetch your current public keys. For off-chain or sidechain methods, the document might be stored on a decentralized storage network like IPFS or Ceramic, with the DID's blockchain record pointing to that location.

Effective key management is critical. Your initial key is your controller. Best practice is to use this key to add a more secure delegation key (e.g., from a hardware wallet) for daily signing operations, and a recovery key stored offline. This allows you to rotate compromised active keys without changing your core DID. Smart contract registries enable this via functions like changeOwner or addDelegate. Never use your primary wallet's private key for routine DID operations.

Here is a concise example using the ethr-did library to create and manage a DID:

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import { EthrDID } from 'ethr-did';
import { Wallet } from 'ethers';

// 1. Generate a key pair (in practice, use a secure env)
const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider(RPC_URL);
const wallet = Wallet.createRandom().connect(provider);

// 2. Instantiate the DID for the ethr method
const did = new EthrDID({
  identifier: wallet.address,
  chainNameOrId: 'sepolia', // e.g., 'mainnet', 137 (Polygon)
  provider,
  registry: '0xdca7ef03e98e0dc2b855be647c39abe984fcf21b' // Sepolia registry
});

console.log('DID:', did.did); // did:ethr:sepolia:0x...

// 3. Create an initial DID Document (signed by the wallet)
const txHash = await did.createChangeOwner({ owner: wallet.address });
// This transaction writes to the EthrDIDRegistry contract.

After creation, your DID is ready for use. The next step is to use this DID to sign and submit verifiable credentials—such as your academic affiliations or past review history—to begin building your verifiable reputation within the peer review network. Keep your registry address and chain identifier consistent, as they are part of your DID's permanent resolution parameters. Always test on a testnet like Sepolia or Mumbai before committing mainnet resources.

A Verifiable Credential (VC) is a tamper-evident digital attestation, like a digital badge, that proves a specific claim. In our open peer review system, the claim is that a reviewer completed an assessment for a specific manuscript. The credential's issuer (the platform) signs it with a private key, and anyone can verify its authenticity using the corresponding public key. This creates a trust layer where the review activity is no longer locked inside a single platform's database but becomes a portable asset owned by the reviewer.

The credential's data model is critical. It must include specific, machine-readable claims. A minimal schema includes: reviewerDID (the reviewer's Decentralized Identifier), manuscriptId (a unique reference like a DOI or CID), journalOrPlatformId, reviewCompletionDate, and a reviewType (e.g., 'single-blind', 'open'). More advanced schemas can include a reviewScore hash or a link to a public, anonymized version of the review text. This structured data is packaged into a W3C-compliant Verifiable Credential JSON-LD object.

Issuance is a transaction between the reviewer's wallet and the platform. After a review is submitted and accepted, the platform's backend constructs the VC JSON object. The reviewer's wallet (acting as a holder) requests the credential. The platform's issuer service signs the VC, typically using the EdDSA or ES256K algorithm, and sends it to the holder's wallet. The holder then stores it in their identity wallet (e.g., SpruceID's Credible, MetaMask Snaps).

Here is a simplified code example for creating the credential payload using the did-jwt-vc library:

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const vcPayload = {
  '@context': ['https://www.w3.org/2018/credentials/v1'],
  type: ['VerifiableCredential', 'PeerReviewCredential'],
  issuer: 'did:ethr:0x123...', // Platform's DID
  issuanceDate: new Date().toISOString(),
  credentialSubject: {
    id: reviewerDID,
    manuscriptId: '10.1234/zenodo.7890',
    reviewedFor: 'did:web:example-journal.org',
    reviewCompleted: '2024-01-15',
    reviewType: 'OpenPeerReview'
  }
};
// The payload is then signed to produce a JWT-VC
const vcJwt = await createVerifiableCredentialJwt(vcPayload, issuerSigner);

The issued credential enables new use cases. A reviewer can selectively disclose their review history when applying to join a new journal's editorial board, proving experience without revealing confidential manuscript details. Platforms can also issue badge credentials for milestones (e.g., '10 Reviews Completed') using similar mechanics. The verifiable nature prevents fraud, as each credential's cryptographic signature can be instantly checked against the issuer's public DID on-chain or in a DID registry.

Finally, consider revocation. A credential's validity must be checkable. Use a revocation registry, such as the one defined by the W3C Status List 2021 specification, where the issuer maintains a cryptographically secure bitstring. The verifier checks a credential's credentialStatus field to query this registry. This allows a platform to revoke a credential if a review is later found to be plagiarized or submitted in bad faith, maintaining the system's integrity without needing to delete records from individual wallets.

The core of the system is a reputation contract deployed on an EVM-compatible blockchain like Arbitrum or Base. This contract maps a reviewer's address or DID (Decentralized Identifier) to a Reputation struct. This struct stores key metrics: a cumulative score (e.g., an integer), a lastUpdated timestamp, and an array of contributionHashes linking to off-chain attestations. The score is non-transferable (Soulbound) and can only be modified by authorized attester addresses, which would be the Open Peer Review platform's backend or a decentralized oracle network.

The contract's logic must handle incremental updates securely. A primary function, recordContribution, should be callable only by an attester. It would take a reviewer's address and a signed attestation proving a valid action (like completing a high-quality review). The function verifies the attestation signature, calculates a delta score based on predefined rules, and updates the user's reputation struct. Emitting a ReputationUpdated event with the reviewer's address, score delta, and new total score is crucial for off-chain indexing and frontend updates.

To prevent sybil attacks and ensure accountability, the contract should integrate with a decentralized identity primitive. Instead of a simple Ethereum address, the primary identifier could be an ERC-725 or ERC-1056 (Lightweight DID) smart contract wallet. This allows a reviewer to link multiple credentials (like an ORCID iD or institutional email verification) to their on-chain identity without exposing personal data on-chain. The reputation contract would then key scores to this DID, making the reputation portable across applications that recognize the same identity standard.

Here is a simplified code snippet for the core storage and update logic in Solidity:

solidityCopy
struct Reputation {
    uint256 score;
    uint256 lastUpdated;
    bytes32[] contributionHashes;
}
mapping(address => Reputation) public reputations;
address public immutable attester;
event ReputationUpdated(address indexed reviewer, int256 delta, uint256 newScore);
function recordContribution(address reviewer, uint256 scoreDelta, bytes32 contributionHash, bytes memory signature) external {
    require(msg.sender == attester, "Unauthorized");
    // Verify off-chain attestation signature here
    Reputation storage rep = reputations[reviewer];
    rep.score += scoreDelta;
    rep.lastUpdated = block.timestamp;
    rep.contributionHashes.push(contributionHash);
    emit ReputationUpdated(reviewer, scoreDelta, rep.score);
}

Finally, the contract needs view functions to make reputation data composable. A function like getReputation(address reviewer) should return the score and contribution count. For more complex queries—such as calculating a percentile rank among all reviewers—the design should favor off-chain indexing via the emitted events. A subgraph on The Graph protocol can efficiently aggregate this data. The on-chain contract remains the single source of truth for state changes, while the indexed data layer provides the performance needed for applications to query and display leaderboards or reputation thresholds.

To achieve true interoperability, your decentralized identity (DID) system must connect to established standards. The core specifications are defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), primarily the Decentralized Identifiers (DID) v1.0 and Verifiable Credentials (VC) Data Model v2.0. Implementing these standards ensures your reviewer credentials are machine-readable, cryptographically verifiable, and portable across different platforms. This moves beyond a simple on-chain address to a rich, self-sovereign identity that can represent academic affiliations, review history, and expertise badges.

The technical implementation involves choosing a DID method that aligns with your blockchain. For Ethereum-based systems, did:ethr (used by the Ethereum Attestation Service) or did:pkh (used by Ceramic) are common. For Solana, did:sol is emerging. Your smart contract or off-chain service must be able to create and resolve these DIDs. For example, a DID document for did:ethr:0x1234... is resolved to a JSON-LD document containing the public key and service endpoints, allowing any verifier to check signatures from that identity.

Next, you issue Verifiable Credentials (VCs) as attestations. When a user completes a review, your system generates a VC—a signed JSON object containing claims (e.g., "reviewed paper X") and metadata. This VC is issued to the reviewer's DID. A common library for this is did-jwt-vc or vc-js. The credential's proof, typically an EdDSA or ES256K signature, is anchored to your system's DID, providing cryptographic assurance of its origin. The reviewer stores this VC in their wallet or personal data store.

The final piece is enabling selective disclosure and verification. Reviewers should not broadcast their entire history. Using BBS+ signatures or zk-SNARKs, they can generate a Verifiable Presentation that proves a specific claim (e.g., "I have reviewed >5 papers") without revealing the underlying credentials or other details. Verifiers, such as journal submission systems, use your published DID resolver and VC schema to cryptographically verify these presentations. This creates a trustless, privacy-preserving flow for proving review expertise across the scholarly ecosystem.

The architecture we've discussed combines self-sovereign identity (SSI) principles with on-chain verification to create a system where academic contributions are attested, portable, and verifiable. By using a Decentralized Identifier (DID) like did:ethr:0x... anchored to a blockchain, you establish a cryptographically secure root of trust. Off-chain Verifiable Credentials (VCs) issued by institutions (e.g., a PhD credential) or platforms (e.g., a 'Reviewer Score') can then be presented to review networks without exposing unnecessary personal data, enabling selective disclosure. This model shifts trust from centralized platforms to cryptographic proofs and the reputation of credential issuers.

For implementation, start by choosing a foundational stack. The W3C DID and Verifiable Credentials standards provide the interoperability layer. Libraries like did-ethr for Ethereum-based DIDs or veramo for credential management can accelerate development. A practical first step is to write a smart contract for a registry of accredited issuers. For example, a simple Solidity contract could maintain a mapping of trusted issuer addresses to their domain names, allowing the review dApp to check if a presented credential originates from a recognized university or journal.

Your development roadmap should prioritize a minimum viable product (MVP) with core user flows. 1) DID Creation & Management: Integrate a wallet (e.g., MetaMask) to allow users to create and control their identity. 2) Credential Issuance Prototype: Build a simple issuer portal that mints signed JSON-LD VCs for test credentials. 3) Presentation & Verification: Develop the reviewer interface where users present VCs and your dApp verifies the cryptographic signatures against the issuer's DID. Tools like ethr-did-resolver and did-jwt-vc are essential for these tasks.

Looking ahead, consider these advanced topics to enhance your system. Revocation mechanisms, such as using smart contracts for revocation registries, are critical for maintaining integrity. Privacy-preserving techniques like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) can allow a reviewer to prove they hold a credential from a top-tier institution without revealing which one. Furthermore, explore interoperability with existing academic identity systems like ORCID through bridge services that can issue VCs based on traditional verified data, creating a hybrid onboarding path.

The journey toward decentralized scholarly infrastructure is collaborative. Engage with existing communities and standards bodies such as the W3C Credentials Community Group or the Decentralized Identity Foundation. Experiment with testnets, publish your code, and solicit peer feedback on your architecture. By building open, composable identity primitives, you contribute to a future where academic reputation is user-owned, transparent, and seamlessly integrated across the global research ecosystem.