Peter Busch: Opportunities and Challenges for Decentralized Identity

Good. So let's start. Okay.

Again, I'm working for the mobility strategy think tank at Bosch. That means we look really at all the addressing new technologies coming up in the connected space. And my responsibility there definitely is look into the decentralized technologies. So this is what we are trying to come forward with and looking into the future here, really a few, very few words to the Bosch group and what makes it clear, why it's so important for us to look into these technologies. We go more and more in this connected technologies coming from a very, very automotive and mobility focused area.

We change more and more as well in the other connected areas, like building technology and consumer goods and that. So you all know, I guess some of the products you'll see here, however, all of these different products and services will be connected in future. And this definitely means that we have to think about the con the connectivity issues that we see there, but as well as opportunities. And that's what I talked about is, so how are we all started at our company?

Of course, we thought about a lot of the internet things and what kind of consequence we'll see talked about a lot of that as well. However, when it comes now to the new technologies, like these opportunity of the blockchain technologies, we found that it's very interesting to think about not only the data, but really as well as talking about value, which is transferred between devices and as well subjects like persons and as well would need to talk about here about the issues in the future we see and trust and as swell on value exchange.

Because when we talk about that, we come to one expression is called economy things, and this is as well. The name of our main project we're talking about here, because all these connected devices, exchanges, data, get economic devices, they doing business with each other, which makes it more interesting. And as a challenge as well for us as for us all, they get autonomous legal entities more and more.

This is well, some very interesting consequences when we look really a little bit deeper into the automotive sector and the automotive vision that we see as we see today, we have just smart vehicles really as well, connected to each other, talking to each other, using this very interesting new technologies coming in from the it sectors. And we see more and more the cloud technology going into the car.

And when that happens, we see a more and more, they're very big issues of the smart infrastructure where a car connects, not only to the infrastructure, but communicates and as well transfers and exchanges, data and value. So here in this phase, we see just the communication with the infrastructure like traffic lights, like edge computers, somewhere in the smart city and so on. So we have lots of mobile edge computing here.

However, when it goes further in the future, we see more and more personalized mobility. So not only the car is in the center or the infrastructure, but the person using, of course the car should be in the center. And then more and more the rights, the data of the personal of the subject is getting more and more important. And when you look here into the smart city, it's very, very important to come up with products services, which use the opportunities, which only really the internet of things is available or offering here.

But as well, we have to look at the, the challenges here, but when we look at the, the opportunities, definitely we talk about platforms a lot. We talk about data serenity because when we look at the data, which is exchange here, then very, very important, as well as what spec general previous presentation talked about is who owns the data who is really available to do what with the data. A lot of data sharing is taking place. You have to trust the ground truth. You have to trust the data which comes on the roads into your car and into your other devices.

And this is what I'm mainly talking about. When we talk about in ecosystem of the things we talk about trust digital trust, because we have to pay digitally. We have to trust the cars and the data which comes into the car. And definitely one of the major things we Bosch talk and think about is safety. So safety is one of the major issues that we see in the car because the car needs to be safe when we use more and more autonomous system, of course, we have to trust the data which comes into the car.

And however, that's what Ari was said is that we really need a, a more means of trust structure. And this is what we not have really in imperfection at the moment I would call it. The big problem here is we have lots of interesting centralized trust infrastructures out there. We federated systems with all these huge companies that you see here.

However, the main thing here is not you as the subject are in the center, it's always another platform. It's always a corporate, always any other system who controls that data, you can use it. It's nice and comfortable.

However, there are some issues with that. One of the solutions maybe, and it's what we heard again in the previous talks could be some kind of decentralized digital identity. And that's the reason why we looked as well into this workshops of the German generally and as well, talk, talk in talks with other corporates and our customers and our, the other car manufacturers. For example, that we see that the SSI approach self-sovereign entity holds a lot of opportunities for us since what is very, very important, I think is the standardization we talk about.

So when you look here in this, in this areas, lots of interesting cream coor, trying to standardize these digital decentralized identity, and you always have this triangle here that you have always this issuer who gives out these credentials. You have always the customer, the, the subject who holds this in a wallet somewhere in the car. And you have always someone who needs to verify which you present your identity and this Verifi then trusts. You sells you. Something gives you data that you have to trust. And this all is then saved and verified via a decentralized system.

It can be a blockchain can be any other decentralized systems. And this is the complete, maybe quite high level overview of course of SSI already is already very interesting enough to understand why this is so important because everybody needs data. Everybody wants to trust that data, but needs to have the sovereign itself of that data. So I think the self sovereign identity is a very fitting expression for that. And let me come now to some interesting approaches where we try to use it in, in some of our products on our productions of the future.

When we start to think about these products and services, what we nearly really have to think about is how could such a trust infrastructure look like? Of course we do not have a Korean field out there. There are a lot of interesting marketplaces already there. And we think about how a decentralized marketplace, a decentralized structure could fit into the already existing infrastructure.

When you talk about decentralized marketplaces, when you talk about service platforms out there, which need then to be based and founded on some common trust infrastructure, of course, there is a lot of already working infrastructure out there, but as well, we have some issues. When you look at social media, for example, these days what's happening with your data there, what's happening. If you have lots of data out there, which has very interesting and weird effects on what, what you call sometimes of trust issues like fraud, like hacking approaches and all that stuff.

We don't want to have this in the cast of the future. We don't want to have this in the smart infrastructure and the smart cities of the future. And therefore, again, we need this decentralized infrastructures based on some kind of a public infrastructure, because this is what is working out there already. This is what is very common, and it's not some proper charity, but proprietary thing, which from one company, because it's not working for one company, the complete industry needs to work on that as well with the governance as well with other consortium belong.

That, and that's what I said before. We really are looking at these standardization approaches. What is out there because definitely open source is very important, open standards and the not, not proprietary usage of this data. So it needs of course, to be cryptographically controlled and verifiable, and it needs to have a privacy by design.

Yeah, that's what we heard as well in the previous presentation, why it's so important. And the thing about blockchain history again, is so interesting for us as well. Cause you have a common combination of very interesting technologies, which are out there for years, which we in the industry know quite well and have already our products.

But when we now talk about decentralized structures, then it's very interesting how to fit them in, into this existing, the platforms and marketplaces this, what it makes so interesting, but it's well challenging because of course you, the main thing I think is the awareness of the public, the movement. They do not really understand. Most of them do not really understand why do we need decentralized infrastructure? The only thing about, okay, what I see was Google, apple, Amazon, and the like is working quite nicely. It's all I need.

However, if you look a little bit further in the future and all your data from the car, from the autonomous driving, maybe as well, other data from where are you located, where driving to have you been at the doctors, what kind of data we're flowing around there, then maybe it's getting more and more interesting who is able to access the data. Is it centralized on one platform which can be accessed by hackers, maybe which can be maybe as well, get, get into an incident of what we heard in the few, in the past, what happened sometimes decentralized to other places.

And what I think is decentralized platforms will maybe be a solution for that. And so we look in very, very D different and a lot of broad portfolio of different products. And spa is a very, has a very broad portfolio. We definitely look in all these areas here where I definitely looked more and more in this mobility, but what we see is that all the different other industry sectors are getting more and more connected.

So I really talk with my colleagues, which, which are product owners in industry, product owners, in the other areas, which deal with eHealth, maybe with government, with education, finance and so on, because all these different products you can't look at at, at proprietary or at single some kind of a solo product portfolio, they all get connected and they all need some kind of a similar identity procedure.

So what you see here in the, in the common traffic scenario of the future, you have everywhere, this SSI, wallets, maybe, yeah, you have all your needs of storing your identity and get authenticated authorized with it. And so that you really be able yeah. To have some kind of customer journey and solution digitalized digital identity. And that one thing which needs to be remarked really is not only a car or a device has its identity. It's the users, it's the organization who all have well, these identities. And then the interesting thing is here.

What we had before the governments are looking into this, all the corporates are looking into the same infrastructure algorithms and structures and ecosystem foundations that this has really a big chance to be realized in the next years, one specific product or service. We are had a nice proof of concept.

The last, the mobile fair in Munich was the deep parking or seamless parking use case. That's what we really tried out having this self-sovereign identity agents in a car where we tried out to find parking spaces and parking lots, which normally are not accessible. So in a future ecosystem, all participants, because it's open, open data, open platform can enter this marketplace and offer their parking place maybe as well. They charging stations. So what we tried out is one car needs to drive from a to C and wants to find a parking lot, somewhere in inner city of Munich.

And it found someplace due, due to the decentralized fine and search algorithms we used already, which are there, which are already out there. And it, it found a private target place, which just was available for him in Alfred in the next few hours was reserved and he could get paid digitally. So this was one of the interesting approaches products visions in the future we showed and this already yet accessible. So you can go to get up, download these different libraries and work with them and use them in your products. And this is what it makes them very interesting, which is happening.

Of course, you need a car. You need a little bit more understanding when it goes into the connected cars, what is happening inside the car, what is happening in the infrastructure? And this is what we are doing with partners there together, and trying to use this as well in upcoming public funded projects. What we talk about.

So when we look a bit, a little bit more in the future on designing and defining ecosystems, then definitely going a little bit more inside of these platform ideas, because the big interest has interesting samples of this huge central platform, which are out, which are out there. Everybody wants to copy them.

Of course, when we come to the new centers, everybody wants to own a new platform, but nobody wants to get a lock in. So this of course is some kind of deadlock because everyone wants to copy that approach wants to earn lots of money, but this won't work. So really to break this catalog.

Again, this account of things could work where everyone works on one open scaled network. Then we really come maybe to a vision in the future where we have real decentralized marketplaces to parallel, to decentralized marketplaces, where we can use like parking network, where we have like a charging network where we have zoning in the, in the cities where you only can be access, or you can only access with your car.

If you meet certain criteria maybe, and you can all do that with the same identity, the same decentralized identity protocols, infrastructures in your car, in the infrastructure or whatever else you are using. This is what it makes really so interesting for us. This makes a real interesting new vision of the ecosystem ecosystem of the future, what we call a economy of things in that case. So I think quite through earlier than I needed to be, so we have a little bit more time for the questions.