Would you like to know about the decentralized identity model?
You have to listen to me attentively.
It a new model, inspired by blockchain technology, first surfaced in 2015.
(The FIDO,Fast IDenfication Online. Alliance started in 2013; however, it uses a hybrid
approach where connections are peer-to-peer but key management is performed centrally by the FIDO Alliance rather than by a blockchain.)
This model no longer relied
on either centralized or federated identity providers but was fundamentally decentralized.
It accelerated rapidly, assimilating new developments in cryptography, distributed
databases, and decentralized networks.
It began spawning new decentralized identity
standards such as verifiable credentials (VCs) and decentralized identifiers (DIDs)
However, the most important difference in this model is that it is no longer accountbased.
Instead, it works like identity in the real world: i.e., it is based on a direct relationship between you and another party as peers
Neither of you provides,controls, or owns the relationships with the other.
This is true whether the
other party is a person, an organization,
or a thing.
In a peer-to-peer relationship, neither
of you has an “account” with the other.
Rather, you both share a connection.
Neither of you fully owns this connection.
It is like a string that you are both holding, if either one of you lets go, the
string will drop.
But as long as you both
want it, the connection will persist.
Peer-to-peer connections are inherently decentralized because any peer can connects
to any other peer anywhere, exactly how the internet works.
But how does this
become an identity layer?
And why does it need blockchain technology?
The answer lies in public/private key cryptography: a way of securing data via mathematical algorithms based on cryptographic keys held by each party.
Instead of using
blockchain technology for cryptocurrency, identity management uses it for decentralized public key infrastructure (DPKI).
In the next few chapters, we’ll go into this in
greater detail. But in essence, blockchain technology and other decentralized network
technologies can give us a strong, decentralized solution for
Exchanging public keys directly to form private, secure connections between any
two peers
Storing some of these public keys on public blockchains to verify the signatures on
digital identity credentials (aka verifiable credentials) that peers can exchange to
provide proof of real-world identity
Ironically, this means the best overall analogy for the decentralized identity model is,
in fact, exactly how we prove our identity every day in the real world: by getting out
our wallet and showing the credentials we have obtained from other trusted parties.
The difference is that with decentralized digital identity, we are doing this with digital
wallets, digital credentials, and digital connections
@wallchain
@idOS_network