Drummond Reed, Chief Trust Officer at Evernym and Sovrin Foundation Trustee, and Manu Sporny, CEO – Founder and Owner of Digital Bazaar feature in this DID backgrounder. This webinar slide deck covers one of the most exciting developments in SSI open standards: the push for W3C to form a new Working Group for DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers).
Manu Sporny and Drummond Reed, are co-editors of the current DID specification at the W3C Credentials Community Group. In an free-ranging interview, they cover how DIDs have become the fundamental building block of SSI—the origin story, development of the first spec, community adoption, the move to the W3C CCG, and now the process of forming a full Working Group.
Decentralized Identifiers DIDs and W3C with Manu Sporny and Drummond Reed
1. Decentralized Identifiers
A W3C Working Group Proposal
1
SSIMeetup.org15 Oct. 2018
Drummond Reed
Evernym Chief Trust Officer and
Sovrin Foundation Trustee
@drummondreed
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Manu Sporny
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar
@manusporny
2. 1. Empower global SSI communities
2. Open to everyone interested in SSI
3. All content is shared with CC BY SA
SSIMeetup.org
Alex Preukschat @SSIMeetup @AlexPreukschat
Coordinating Node SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
SSIMeetup objectives
07 May 2018
3. Let’s start at the beginning.
Where did DIDs come from?
SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/
7. So what exactly is a DID?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/
8. What is a Decentralized Identifier?
A new type of URL that is:
● globally unique,
● highly available, and
● cryptographically verifiable.
8
SSIMeetup.org
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censes/by-sa/4.0/
9. What does a DID look like?
SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/
10. What does a DID look like?
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did:example:123456789abcdefghijk
Scheme
DID Method
DID Method Specific String
did:v1:nym:BcNkgGmGEpCGSJSMPB4BvWvwVM6YeTR52BSWcZTbzU23
Example:
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/b
y-sa/4.0/
11. What does a DID point to?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/
12. 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",
"controller": "did:v1:nym:DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD",
"publicKeyBase58": "DwkYwcoyUXHNkpj3whn4DgXB4fcg9gj95vKxYN2apkZD"
}]
}],
"service": [{
"type": "ExampleMessagingService2018",
"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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y-sa/4.0/
15. What role do DIDs play in
verifiable credentials?
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sa/4.0/
16. We use DIDs in Verifiable Credentials
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21did:x:123
did:x:789Professor
knows
Pat
Sam
name ageOver
namejobTitle
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y-sa/4.0/
17. Why is this better than the URLs or
other addresses we use today?
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sa/4.0/
18. 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
Credentials
SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/b
y-sa/4.0/
19. 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
Credentials
SSIMeetup.org
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y-sa/4.0/
20. Where is the DID spec now?
SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/
21.
22. How do the different groups work at
W3C? When do you create a
Community Group? A Working Group?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/
31. What is the process to create a new
W3C Working Group?
SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/
32. Next Steps
32
W3C TPAC
(Oct 2018)
DID WG Charter Vote
(Jan 2019)
W3C DID WG
(Feb 2019)
W3C Strong Auth and Identity Workshop
(Dec 10th-11th, 2018 - Redmond, WA)
SSIMeetup.org
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y-sa/4.0/
33. What is W3C TPAC?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/
34.
35. What else is going on that same week?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/
37. If developers, architects, etc. are
interesting in getting involved with this
work, what should they do?
SSIMeetup.org
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sa/4.0/