Method and apparatus for online and offline generation of unique digital certificates

An apparatus for generating a digital certificate, comprising:

• at lest one processor;
• at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing processor instructions comprising instructions for
• computing a hash of a public key;
• comparing the computed hash of the public key with hashes of public keys previously generated;
• generating the digital certificate having the public key and a device identifier only if the computed hash of the public key does not match any of the hashes of public keys previously generated;
• and
• providing the digital certificate.

An apparatus for generating a digital certificate, comprising:

• means for computing a hash of a public key;
• means for comparing the computed hash of the public key with hashes of public keys previously generated;
• means for generating the digital certificate having the public key and a device identifier only if the computed hash of the public key does not match any of the hashes of public keys previously generated;
• and
• means for providing the digital certificate.