Trusted Service Provider

Trust Services and Trust Service Providers

In the context of digitalization, online signing, and electronic transactions, trust services refer to a set of services that ensure the authenticity, integrity, and legal validity of electronic transactions or documents. These services include, but are not limited to, the issuance and management of digital certificates, signature validation, timestamping, certificate revocation checking, encryption, and decryption. Through trust services, participants can be confident that electronic documents have not been altered, that the signer’s identity is genuine, and that the signing action carries legal effect.

A Trust Service Provider (TSP) is a qualified, regulated, or standards-compliant organization responsible for delivering such trust services—for example, issuing digital certificates, managing their lifecycle, validating electronic signatures, and providing trusted timestamps. Within an electronic signature ecosystem, the TSP plays a central role by binding the signer’s verified identity to a digital certificate and ensuring proper management of that certificate. This enables electronic signatures to achieve authenticity, non-repudiation, and tamper resistance.

Digital Signature

Digital signature is a form of electronic signature based on digital certificates, designed to provide higher security and legal effectiveness for the document signing process. It ensures that:

::: Trusted identity: verify the true identity of the signer;

Content integrity: prevent the signed document from being tampered;

Legal recognition: In some jurisdictions, digital signatures are considered legal equivalent to handwritten signatures. :::

Therefore, digital signatures are often a necessary option in important or legally binding scenarios involving contracts, finance, government instruments, etc.

Generation of digital signatures

The generation of digital signatures relies on a public key infrastructure (PKI), the core of which includes:

Certificate Authority (CA, Certificate Authority)

• Responsible for issuing digital certificates to prove the identity of the signatory, following a compliant and regulated process.

Trusted Service Provider (TSP, Trust Service Provider)

• It is usually a qualified institution that issues and manages digital certificates for users.

• The certificate stores the identity information of the signer so that it can generate a legally valid digital signature in the electronic document.

• Once used, digital certificates can provide authenticity, non-repudiation and tamper-proof guarantees for signing behavior.

Storage Methods of Digital Certificates

Different tsps may use different certificate storage modes:

• Cloud storage: Digital certificates are hosted in a secure cloud platform and can be used remotely at any time;

• Local hardware storage: digital certificates are written to physical media, such as smart cards, USB keys, etc;

In some countries or regions, local regulations specify that certificates must be stored in a specific way to meet regulatory and compliance requirements.

Compliance Description

To ensure global compliance with digital signatures, eSignGlobal has full access to trusted Service providers (TSP,Trust Service providers) in multiple countries/regions, supporting a variety of high-level digital signature capabilities.

• Users can choose the right TSP according to the requirements of the country or industry;

• The signature process complies with local laws and regulations to ensure legal recognition of cross-border contracts;

• Whether it is a cloud certificate or a hardware certificate, it can be used securely under the compliance framework.

This global TSP network not only expands the scope of digital signatures, but also allows enterprises and individuals to use them in different jurisdictions with peace of mind.

Access trusted service provider (TSP)

eSignGlobal has continuous access to trusted Service providers (TSP,Trust Service providers) around the world to meet the compliance requirements of individual countries/regions.

Asia:

European Union:

Europe (non-EU):

America: