Self-sovereign identity isn't new. It's just a new term. People having been carrying credentials around to prove who they are for thousands of years. When we entered the digital age, something weird happened. Our digital credentials became locked up inside databases owned by corporations and governments. We couldn't get at them, and instead had to get by with vastly inferior usernames and passwords.
Compared with physical passports, driving licenses or even business cards, today's digital identity is stupid. Constrained in silos, riven with fraud, and a user experience nightmare. In a perfect world, we'd carry our own superpowered digital credentials with us, and be able to use them wherever we want privately and securely. In this talk Andrew describes what is being done to make this perfect world a reality.
In 2005, Kim Cameron proposed something called an identity metasystem that would serve as the infrastructure for the many context-specific identity systems we have. Such an identity metasystem would not only allow these various identity systems to interoperate but would, importantly, unify the user experience to ensure people were an integral part of the identity exchange and understood what was happening. Now, in 2019 we are on the verge of finally realizing this dream. This talk will talk about the properties of an identity metasystem and how it will support digital identity that is privacy preserving, secure, and most importantly respectful of human dignity.
The convergence of digital identity and blockchain technology has caught the imagination of governments, enterprises and developers around the world. Lots of approaches are being tried. But it only works if it all works together. The world needs a digital standard that is as ubiquitous as paper is in the physical world. We need the SMTP of identity that everyone can use, that is open and non-proprietary. This panel will be enlighten the audience about the development efforts that are under way, how the gurus of digital identity are focusing on standardisation, and the barriers still to be overcome.
