There are many problems with the current state of identity systems. Digital identity is fragmented and siloed between various service providers, prohibiting a holistic view, and delivering poor user experience necessitating repetitive registrations and logins with usernames and passwords. Identity federation and SSO helped by eliminating some of the problems but the recent Facebook exploit demonstrated that user data is at constant risk if data was stored on central servers. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a new concept allowing the user to take full control over its data again and reducing the dependency on central services. Emerging standards like W3C Decentralized Identity (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC) facilitate interoperability between different SSI networks which reduces friction across corporate boundaries by allowing to exchange and reuse rich attestations. A SSI system can be built on any Blockchain or DLT platform. uPort is such a SSI platform based on the Ethereum blockchain. No PII is stored on the ledger and the creation as well as the use of identities does not have any cost to the user and consumer. For most people Ethereum is only the public ledger only although solutions exist to easily deploy private Ethereum networks with different consensus mechanisms. uPort can also be used in conjunction with private Ethereum networks.
Key takeaways:
- How to easily setup blockchain solutions based on Ethereum for enterprises
- Understand the concept of Decentralized and Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI)
- Know how uPort's SSI platform could be used for enterprises
There is broad consensus across the digital identity community that in order to build a self-sovereign identity architecture, we need to start with a new type of identifier that can be created, updated, and revoked by an entity without any intermediary or central authority. Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) fulfill this requirement - they are fully under the control of the subject that the DID refers to. DIDs are stored in blockchains or other decentralized systems, and they form the basis for higher-level technologies such as Verifiable Credentials, DID Auth, Hubs, Agents, etc. They are currently being standardized at the W3C and implemented by various communities such as the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF). In this presentation we will talk about everything there is to know about DIDs, their current state, and next steps.
Key takeaways:
- What are DIDs and how do they fit in with other technologies?
- What is the current state of standardization and development?
- What functionality and use cases do they enable? Who implements them and how are they used today?
