Self-Sovereign Identity

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While ‘classical’ human identity has kept philosophers busy since millennia, ‘Digital Identity’ seems primarily machine related. Telephone numbers, E-Mail inboxes, or Internet Protocol (IP)-addresses are irrelevant to define us as human beings at first glance. However, with the omnipresence of digital space the digital aspects of identity gain importance. In this submission, we aim to put recent developments in context and provide a categorization to frame the landscape as developments proceed rapidly. First, we present selected philosophical perspectives on identity. Secondly, we explore how the legal landscape is approaching identity from a traditional dogmatic perspective both in national and international law. After blending the insights from those sections together in a third step, we will go on to describe and discuss current developments that are driven by the emergence of new tools such as ‘Distributed Ledger Technology’ and ‘Zero Knowledge Proof’. One of our main findings is that the management of digital identity is transforming from a purpose driven necessity towards a self-standing activity that becomes a resource for many digital applications. In other words, whereas traditionally identity is addressed in a predominantly sectoral fashion whenever necessary, new technologies transform digital identity management into a basic infrastructural service, sometimes even a commodity. This coincides with a trend to take the ‘control’ over identity away from governmental institutions and corporate actors to ‘self-sovereign individuals’, who have now the opportunity to manage their digital self autonomously. To make our conceptual statements more relevant, we present several already existing use cases in the public and private sector. Subsequently, we discuss potential risks that should be mitigated in order to create a desirable relationship between the individual, public institutions, and the private sector in a world where self-sovereign identity management has become the norm. We will illustrate these issues along the discussion around privacy, as well as the development of backup mechanisms for digital identities. Despite the undeniable potential for the management of identity, we suggest that particularly at this point in time there is a clear need to make detailed (non-technological) governance decisions impacting the general design and implementation of self-sovereign identity systems.

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Digital identity: enabling secure collaboration with blockchain technology. With self-sovereign identities, companies, individuals and things operate securely on the net.

Who are you, and can you prove it? The new Gemalto Trust ID Network enables users to give digital service providers fully verified and secured answers to these simple yet critical questions. By creating and managing their own 'Self-Sovereign' Digital ​ID, users can enroll with a host of different digital banking, eCommerce and eGovernment services, without having to go through repeated due diligence processes  for each of them. This innovative distributed approach to Digital ID management enables service providers to leverage ubiquitous identities certified by trusted parties whilst putting users firmly in control of their data.

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Despite the economic value of online identities, major concerns remain around privacy issues. Could the self-sovereign identity model be the solution?

To help solve the identity problem, enter Self-Sovereign Identity (SSID), which enables users to own, control, and present their identity data as needed all the while enabling service providers to securely validate and trust the identity claim.

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After introducing key concepts and definitions in the field of digital identity, this paper will investigate the benefits and drawbacks of existing identity systems on the road towards achieving self-sovereign identity. It will explore, in particular, the use of blockchain technology and biometrics as a means to ensure the “unicity” and “singularity” of identities, and the associated challenges pertaining to the security and confidentiality of personal information. The paper will then propose a model of blockchain-based self-sovereign identity based on attestations, claims, credentials and permissions, which is globally portable across the life of an individual. Such a system is not dependent on any particular government or organization for administration or legitimacy, although it might include government issued identification and biometrics as one of many indicia of identity.

To clear up some of the misconceptions around self-sovereign identity, we wanted to return to the basics and strip SSI down to its three pillars.

Learn about the importance of Self-Sovereign Identity, how it works, and its benefits for organizations and individuals.

Civic makes it easy to control and protect your identity. With blockchain-powered decentralized authentication solutions, reusable identity elements & KYC, you can upgrade identity security, on-boarding and every day use.