Identosphere 213: Digital Credentials API Date • OpenAI on Personhood Credentials • 10 ways VCs transform Government • BlueSky
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Coming Up
New Listings
Join the DIDComm Interop-a-thon 12-12 (apply by 12/1) DIF
Testing DIDComm V2 features, focusing on sending and receiving messages between apps
Previously Listed Events
Can an Existing Digital Identity Wallet Leverage a Hardware Security Module to Meet New EU Standards? 11/28-29 anonyome.com
[Paris] TRUSTECH 2024 12/3-5
[Texas] Shared Signals Interop Event at Gartner's IAM Summit 12/9-11
[Boston] Internet2 Technology Exchange 2024 12/9-13
The 2024 Future of Government Awards, hosted by Public Digital, UNDP, and AWS Institute, are now open for nominations Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (Nominations by 1/20)
[Berlin] European Cloud and Identity Conference Call for Proposals Open to 01/31
[Cape Town] DID:Unconf Africa 2/18-20 ← New DATES registration Open
[Zurich] Digital Identity Unconference Europe - Ecosystems 3/4-5
You might like these so-called free services, but we don't think they're worth your email, search history, and family photos 2024-11-22 Mirko Mollik
Government
[tweet] New Zealand has left the door open to both W3C credentials and ISO mobile drivers license in their Digital Identity Trust Framework 2024-11-20 ottomorac
Oh by the way, did you also know that the state of California DMV app is doing dual issuance with both ISO mdl and W3C credentials in their wallet? (page 8)
Safe, secure digital identity services on the way 2024-11-06 New Zealand Govt
Easier to securely share information online without the need for in-person or insecure scanned copies of important documents
Protects against identity theft
Greater control over personal information
Comes into effect on November 8, 2024
Council Elections, DISTF Milestone, and End-of-Year Highlights 2024-11-21 Digital Identity New Zealand; November Newsletter
Addressing Bias in Biometrics:
Recent media coverage prompted investigation into creating a dataset for testing bias and accuracy
Modest funding required to support this critical work
[Verifiable Credentials] UltraPass, Philippine DOTr to pilot digital identity verification at airports Airport-technology
The Philippine Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said: “By keeping in step with best international practices, and with the cooperation of private concessionaires of airports, we can elevate Philippine aviation to global standards. Major airports abroad have long adopted this technology.”
Application
Top 10 Ways Verifiable Credentials Can Transform Government 2024-11-18 ; Elissa Maercklein, Wayne Chang; SpruceID
10 Real-World Applications in Government:
Mobile Driver’s License (mDL): High-assurance digital credentials provide faster, more secure verification with added convenience.
Outdoor Licenses and Permits: Digital permits reduce illegal activities and enforce conservation efforts.
Incarcerated Individuals and Criminal Justice: VDCs facilitate access to essential services for those reentering society.
Marriage and Birth Certificates: Protect individuals' identities and prevent fraudulent claims.
Standards
[thread] There's an interesting debate @w3c on the topic of a "Digital Credentials API" being added as native browser-level support. 2024-11-20 ankurb
On the face of it, you might think I'd support adding such an API. But I *do* think a lot of the objections here are valid
Team report on Federated Identity Working Group Charter Formal Objection - Adding Digital Credentials API 2024-10 W3C-CCG
Below you will find the key topics of the concerns we have in adding a digital credentials API to the web platform (some of which likely will be technical addressable). However, some of these topics haven’t yet been discussed, or else have been discussed but have not led to proposals that will address the issues. These are issues that we believe need to be addressed, and it would be better to continue to iterate on them within the Web Incubation Community Group rather than moving the work to the FedCM Working Group.
Development
A Definition of Special Soundness Better Suited for Anonymous Credentials 2024-11-18 Pomcor
Motivation for Modifying Special Soundness Definition
Corner case r = 0 yields the signing key instead of a signature
Only matters when using special soundness to argue for proof of knowledge or cryptographic security
Proposed definition: when two accepting transcripts have same response first component and different commitments, it's unusual and should not occur in significant cases.
Wallets
Digital Wallets Are A Big Deal 2024-11-23 David G.W. Birch
it told me that an app is a broad category of software designed for various tasks whereas a wallet is a specialised type of app specifically focused on storing payment methods and (and I rather like this perspective) facilitating electronic transactions
The digital wallet wars will not be over wallets 2024-11-23 Steve Wilson
The mobile digital wallet has become a fixture in digital identity. It is even being touted as surpassing the web browser as the primary user interface and user experience of the future internet. It’s early days; naturally there are various ways to organise and present a user’s collection(s) of digital credentials, in native wallets and mobile apps. There will be a contest of ideas around preferred UX. But the suggestion of a wallet war misses the most critical success factor for utility and interoperability, and it’s not at the wallet level!
Research
[tweet] Zoë Hitzig and Steven Adler from @OpenAI presented on "Personhood Credentials: A Privacy-Preserving Credential to Demonstrate Who's Real Online, Amid Artificial Intelligence" at W3C CCG 2024-11-19 tang_talks
watch the recording of the presentation here (start at 9 min 15 sec mark)
The paper does not state that personhood credentials (PHCs) would use verifiable credentials (VCs) as defined by the W3C or other standards, but it does explore overlapping concepts. Specifically, it references anonymous credentials and proof-of-personhood systems, which share similarities with VCs in terms of cryptographic techniques and privacy-preserving design. The authors acknowledge related initiatives like W3C’s Verifiable Credentials framework and other decentralized identity systems, but they position PHCs as a distinct tool focused on proving "personhood" rather than broader identity attributeCompany Stories
Organization News
Algorand Foundation Joins Decentralized Identity Foundation to Advance Digital Identity Standards 2024-11-21 blog.identity.foundation
This follows the development of did:algo, a decentralized identifier (DID) built on Algorand's blockchain
did:algo is based on W3C's DID Spec from the World Wide Web Consortium
Being used in Kare Wallet, enabling disaster survivors to quickly confirm digital identities and access aid resources efficiently
DIF 2024 Hackathon: Winners Announced! 2024-11-20 Decentralized Identity Foundation
The DIF 2024 Hackathon showcased incredible talent and innovation. Participants tackled real-world challenges across Verifiable AI, Proof of Personhood, Education & Workforce, Privacy-Promoting Credentials using Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Decentralized Storage, and Frictionless Travel.
Company News
[New Zealand] Anonyome Wins Prestigious SuperNova Award for Digital Wallet that Will Transform Agriculture
The Trust Alliance New Zealand (TANZ) Digital Farm Wallet took out the award in the “Digital Safety, Governance, Privacy, and Cybersecurity” category of the long-running awards program which recognizes disruptive and transformative solutions for end users.
Hopae Secures $6.5 Million for Digital Identification and Verification, Making Processes Safer and Easier All Over the World 2024-11-20 PRWeb
"Traditional methods of identification no longer make sense. Aside from being cumbersome, they simply do not meet modern privacy and security needs," said Ace Shim, co-founder and CEO of Hopae. "Although eIDAS 2.0 represents a driving force for the adoption of Hopae's technology, it is clear that this is a necessity for everyone from enterprises that seek to conduct international business to the shops that want to sell goods like alcohol online. Hopae is at the forefront of a paradigm shift, and we are excited to bring DCX to the U.S."
AI meet ID
'Of course, it's all about the data' 2024-11-18 Iain Henderson
Stand at AI-OS with Sam Johnston:
Discussed critical need for open source personal AI
Many AI propositions were great ideas
Spidey-sense for data quality issues was high due to past experience
Large organizations struggle with poor data quality in CRM systems
10 components of data quality factored in, qualitative and quantitative analysis
[Youtube] Sovereign future of ai agents & self sovereign identity . How this technologies empowers each other Volodymyr Pavlyshyn
AI enables better self-sovereign identity systems, while SSI creates a secure foundation for AI agents.
These technologies together can transform data ownership, security, and trust in digital ecosystems.
Digital ID
How some of the world's most brilliant computer scientists got password policies so wrong 2024-11-11 ; Stuart Schechter
The story of why password rules were recommended and enforced without scientific evidence since their invention in 1979 is a story of brilliant people, at the very top of their field, whose well-intentioned recommendations led to decades of ignorance.
Mobile ID Adoption
New app for Marylanders enables businesses to check mDLs, digital ID 2024-11-20 Biometric Update
BGSU Becomes First U.S. University to Use Mobile IDs for Age Verification at Athletic Events 2024-11-22 IDTechWire
Colorado Expands Digital ID Options with Samsung Wallet Integration 2024-11-22 idtechwire.com
BlueSky
Maybe Bluesky has “won” 2024-11-15 Gavin Anderegg; anderegg.ca
Users can host their own PDSs for control over data
Relays: gather data from PDSs and make it available to atproto ecosystem
App View: displays content gathered by Relays, shows posts from people you follow
DIDs:PLC (open standard for identifying things in a distributed way) under Bluesky’s control
DMs not part of atproto spec and handled outside of Bluesky’s servers
How decentralized is Bluesky really? 2024-11-22 Dustycloud Brainstorms
Under these definitions, Bluesky and ATProto are not meaningfully decentralized, and are not federated either. However, this is not to say that Bluesky is not achieving something useful; while Bluesky is not building what is presently a decentralized Twitter, it is building an excellent replacement for Twitter, and Bluesky's main deliverable goal is something else instead: a Twitter replacement, with the possibility of "credible exit".
[GitHub] Call for Developer Projects · bluesky-social atproto · Discussion #3049
Apps: Reviews • Comments • Media Feeds • Q&A • Long-Form • Creative Coding • Scrobbling • Guides • Tagging • Gaming • Civics • Classifieds • Portfolios
Infrastructure: Observatories • SDKs • Datastores • PLC Tools • PDS • Relays • Adapters
Identity: Backups • Key Management • Exports
Microblogging: Feeds • Moderation • Bots • Clients