In 2021 the European Commission announced the European digital identity wallet. This article explains the basic concepts, highlights the significance of this development and provides an overview of the status quo.

NFTs are a powerful technology for digital ownership and value transfer, but verifiable credentials are better for digital identity

Up until recently, the majority of digital identity systems have been federated, where a small group of “identity providers” supply individuals with a digital identity that can be used to access other websites and services within the federation. Now we’re seeing the shift to decentralized identity solutions and open ecosystems based on verifiable credentials, where anyone can participate, issue, and verify.

Also to be remembered with eIDAS, it’s not only about electronic identification, but heavily on digital signing. A good analysis including ‘failures’, derogations and national deviations is available here.

An option to overcome the privacy and security problems of Trusted Third Parties and make the data more usable for its holders is Self-Sovereign Identity.

Tech-driven changes are coming fast and furiously to airports, including advancements in biometrics that verify identity and shorten security procedures for those passengers who opt into the programs.

Here we will overview a few of the topics covered at IIW33 in Oct 2021, and review of the strong and weak signals discernible in the collective discussion.

A DIF & ToIP joint statement of support for the Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 specification becoming a W3C Standard.

With added security feature in DIDs enabled by Humanode, even if the keys are compromised, not all is lost. It is not clear from the blog post though how those additional security features work and what measures are taken to secure biometric identification...

Anyone with a Microsoft account can now remove their password from the account entirely to enable better security.
"For the past couple of years we've been saying that the future is passwordless, and today I am excited to announce the next step in that vision," Microsoft wrote - learn more here.

Apple's plan to digitize your wallet is slowly taking shape. What started with boarding passes and venue tickets later became credit cards, subway tickets, and student IDs. Next on Apple's list to digitize are driver's licenses and state IDs, which it plans to support in its iOS 15 update expected out later this year.

The non-profit Kantara Initiative association has released a report addressing concerns about digital identity and privacy concerning mobile drivers’ licenses.

Mobile passes, QR codes and other digital credentials are increasingly required to access all manner of venues, activities and experiences in the physical world. Yet, despite our increasing exposure through digital identification, we have few laws or even norms to adequately govern these systems.

Amazon’s naked payments system is now being used at 50 locations in the US, and the company is looking to get more customers signed up by offering a $10 credit incentive.

The company first unveiled the Amazon One last autumn. It’s essentially a payment terminal with a built-in biometric palm scanner. A customer who links a payment account to their palm biometrics can make a purchase simply by waving their hand over the device.

The iPhone’s incoming mobile ID feature will use selfie biometrics for identity verification, suggests code uncovered by 9to5Mac. The news indicates that Apple will be even more directly in competition with other major pioneers of mobile ID solutions.

The mobile ID feature was first announced by Apple during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June of this year, when the company revealed that it planned to let iPhone users add virtual versions of their driver’s licenses to the Apple Wallet app after the iOS 15 operating system is launched. The company also indicated that it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration to get the virtual ID approved for use as an official identity document at airports.

Apple has begun testing passkeys, a new authentication technology it says are as easy to use as passwords but vastly more secure.

The European Digital Identity will be available to EU citizens, residents, and businesses who want to identify themselves or provide confirmation of certain personal information. It can be used for both online and offline public and private services across the EU. Every EU citizen and resident in the Union will be able to use a personal digital wallet.

Your online profile is less a reflection of you than a caricature. It is shaped by technology companies and advertisers who make key decisions based on their interpretation of seemingly benign data points.

With eIDAS, the EU has laid the foundations and a predictable legal framework for people, companies (in particular SMEs) and public administrations to safely access services and carry out transactions online and across border. Despite undisputed achievements, the potential of electronic identification and authentication under eIDAS remains underexploited.

Work under the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) hood continues on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Key Event Receipt Infrastructure to expand the reach of DIDs

The way people are tracked online has been a cat-and-mouse game between the biggest browsers and the ad industry for years. Every time the industry found a way to claw its way back from the inventory blackouts caused by Google and Apple blocking cookies, it was hit by another curveball.

The OIX Interoperability Guide provides ‘how to’ guidance for anyone interested in assessing how different identity ecosystems interact. It sets out a clear, adaptable approach to assessing interoperability of identity proofing and authentication carried out in different regional or national trust frameworks.

These foundational principles of SSI (available in 15 languages) are intended for use by any digital identity ecosystem. Any organization is welcomed to incorporate these principles into its digital identity ecosystem governance framework provided they are included in their entirety. The principles of SSI shall be limited only by official laws and regulations that apply in a relevant jurisdiction.

Following a series of 2020 research initiatives, GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) has invited stakeholders from across the digital economy to engage in a cross industry development program to create an ecosystem and credential governance framework, together with a technical supporting infrastructure, for a verifiable LEI (vLEI - verifiable Legal Entity Identifier), a digitally verifiable credential containing the LEI.

Say welcome to the EUeID - a GDPR-compliant verifiable credential of citizenship anywhere in the EU.

MOSIP, an open-source platform developed in India, will be central to many of those efforts

The optional nine-digit social security number (SSN) is at the core of every American’s administrative identity — and it is also a major attack vector for most kinds of financial fraud.

If your phone is going to replace your wallet, then someone needs to solve the identity problem.

This is the best explainer for SSI that I have seen to date.

Thailand wants to completely do away with physical identity cards, and instead replace them with a new digital ID system that will give people more control over what data they share. An interview with Dr Karndee Leopairote, Supervisory Board member of Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency.

Immunity Passports have become a much hyped tool to cope with this pandemic and the economic crisis. Essentially, with immunity passports those who are 'immune' to the virus would have some kind of certified document - whether physical or digital.

A great post from Phil Windley on the importance of Self Sovereign/ Decentralised Identity in forming better digital relationships than we have at present.

Active identifiers bring verifiability and passive identifiers bring immutability to a decentralised network.

eSSIF-Lab is an EU-funded project and aims at advancing the broad uptake of Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI) as a next generation, open and trusted digital identity solution for faster and safer electronic transactions via the Internet and in real life.

We have been at it for 15 years working to cultivate the space for the community who cares about how people can control their own digital identities come together and move the ball forward on all of our work.

This article highlights and describes five aspects, which are crucial for the adoption of self-sovereign identity (SSI).

The recent economic climate has forced the Sovrin Foundation to make some changes to our operations.

The design principles around peer DIDs and zero-knowledge proof verifiable credentials.

Latest MyData webinar about Identity (presented by Phil Windley and Andres Kütt) in the Digital Era is now up at mydata.org/webinars and in MyData Global’s Youtube channel.

I testified yesterday at the UN on 'Humanitarian aid in the digital age'. I was anxious at coming with MyData principles (framed usually for more advanced economies) and trying to apply them to the humanitarian context. Nevertheless the discussion was extremely encouraging, and there was definitely response and even demand for the idea of a bridge on those issues.