The payments corporation is developing a distributed ledger technology (DLT) mechanism to provide a secure, tamper-proof database for various payment procedures, including UPI.
Vajra is a permissioned blockchain-based platform, which means only a registered party under the network administrator can be part of the blockchain network. There will be three types of nodes on the platform.
Clearing House node: Possesses admin rights for this platform and is maintained by NPCI. It will provide a root-authority-signed TLS certificate from the network’s permissions service to Participant nodes.
Notary node: Validates a transaction only if the Aadhar biometric is used for authentication. It will receive transactions only from the Clearing House node.
Participant node: Represented by the banks. These nodes can post, receive, and view transactions.
NPCI’s move to build blockchain-based solutions comes in at a time when digital payments are on the rise, thus making such transactions vulnerable to cyberattacks. There have also been reports of a massive spike in online banking frauds lately with fraudsters trying to steal money via UPI, a real-time payment model created by NPCI.
Talking to media, Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI, said that the organization is taking all steps to ensure the safety and security of digital payments and is spreading awareness among the users not share personal details under any circumstances or download fake UPI-related apps that could steal personal data in the name of providing banking service.
