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Verifiable Credentials

and

Decentralized Identifiers

IIW XXVI

April 3rd-5th 2018

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What do we mean by Credential?

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W3C Verifiable Credentials

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The mission of the W3C Verifiable Claims Working Group:

​

Express credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and automatically verifiable.

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Anatomy of a Verifiable Credential

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Verifiable Credential

Issuer Digital Signature

Claims

Claims

Claims

Credential Identifier

Credential Metadata

Credential Metadata

Credential Metadata

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Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem

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Issuer

(Website)

Government, Employer, etc.

Verifier

(Website)

Company, Bank, etc.

Holder

(Digital Wallet /

Personal Data Store)

Citizen, Employee, etc.

Issue Credentials

Present

Profiles

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Verifiable Credentials Status

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WG Launch

(May 2017)

FPWD, WDs

(Aug 2017-today)

Implementations

(Nov 2017-today)

Complete Test Suite

(Jul 2018)

CR

(Oct 2018)

PR

(Jan 2019)

Roadmap

Spec/Issue Regular Contributors: 15

Weekly WG Participants: 12-18 / 50

Known Corporate Implementation Commitments: 10

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Questions about Verifiable Credentials?

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Anatomy of a Verifiable Credential

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  • <IDENTIFIER>
    • license: I1234562
    • hair: BLK
    • name: ALEXANDER JOSEPH
    • address: 2570 24th STREET …
    • date of birth: 08/31/1977
    • issued by: California DMV
    • digital signature: MIIB7ZueKqp...

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Which identifiers do we use today?

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jdoe@bigcorp.com

https://flitter.com/jdoe

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Why is this a problem?

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The Web’s Identifier Problem

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To date, every identifier you use online does not belong to you; it belongs to someone else.

This results in problems related to cost, data portability, data privacy, and data security.

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Web Identifiers Today

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Domain Name System

(Identifiers are leased to individuals)

Issuer

(Website)

Government, Employer, etc.

Verifier

(Website)

Company, Bank, etc.

Holder

(Digital Wallet /

Personal Data Store)

Citizen, Employee, etc.

Issue Credentials

Present

Profiles

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What is missing?

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Many portable identifiers for any person, organization, or thing that does not depend on a centralized authority, are protected by cryptography, and enable privacy and data portability.

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Decentralized Identifiers

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A new type of globally resolvable, cryptographically-verifiable identifier, registered directly on a distributed ledger (aka Blockchain)

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What does a DID look like?

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did:example:123456789abcdefghijk

Scheme

DID Method

DID Method Specific String

did:v1:nym:DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD

Example:

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DIDs Resolve to DID Documents

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{� "@context": "https://w3id.org/veres-one/v1",� "id": "did:v1:nym:DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD",� "authentication": [{� "type": "Ed25519SignatureAuthentication2018",� "publicKey": [{� "id": "did:v1:test:nym:DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD#authn-key-1",� "type": "Ed25519VerificationKey2018",� "owner": "did:v1:nym:DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD",� "publicKeyBase58": "DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD"� }]� }],� "service": [{� "type": "ExampleMessagingService",� "serviceEndpoint": ”https://example.com/services/messages”� }],� … more DID-specific information here …

}

1. Authentication Mechanisms

3. Service Discovery

2. Public Key Material

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Decentralized Identifiers

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Decentralized Identifiers

(Identifiers are owned by individuals)

Blockchains / DHTs

(Decentralized Ledger)

Veres One, Sovrin, Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.

Issuer

(Website)

Government, Employer, etc.

Verifier

(Website)

Company, Bank, etc.

Holder

(Digital Wallet /

Personal Data Store)

Citizen, Employee, etc.

Issue Credentials

Present

Profiles

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Decentralized Identifiers Status

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Technology Incubation

(May 2014 - today)

Specification and Implementations

(October 2016 - today)

W3C DID WG

(Dec 2018-2020)

Roadmap

Spec/Issue Regular Contributors: 12

Weekly Community Group Participants: 15-28 / 161

Known Corporate Implementation Commitments: 13

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Implementers

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Method

DID prefix

Bitcoin Reference

did:btcr:

Ethereum uPort

did:uport:

IPFS

did:ipfs:

IPDB

did:ipdb:

Sovrin

did:sov:

Veres One

did:v1:

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VERES ONE

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Questions about Decentralized Identifiers?

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Manu Sporny | CEO | Digital Bazaar

​

​

  • Co-Inventor of Verifiable Credentials & Decentralized Identifiers
  • Co-Inventor of JSON-LD
  • Co-Founder of Veres One
  • 10+ Years in Web Standards
  • Customers in Finance, Government, Education, and Healthcare

Email: msporny@digitalbazaar.com

Twitter: @manusporny

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/

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