Identosphere 226: March SSI News • Educational Credentials News • New Utah Laws• Creator Assertions Working Group Begins
Infominer moved on to new opportunities and this is a catchup post covering Decentralized and Self-Sovereign Identity for the Month of March 2025.
New database sheds light on decentralized identity projects across the world
The Web of Trust Map reveals that much of the world’s governments have jumped on the decentralized ID trend, hoping to allow their citizens more control over their personal data. Nearly 60 percent of the 117 countries developing digital IDs are also working on some form of decentralized digital ID, the data showed.
[Podcast] (Meeco) Ten Years Later: Katryna Dow Reflects on Data Privacy & Decentralized Identity
Ten years ago, on March 31, 2015, I hosted Katryna Dow, CEO and Founder of Meeco, on my former podcast Collaborative IQ to discuss an emerging concern: personal data privacy.
New Laws that could be good Dept
State Endorced Digital Iidentity Details for Identity Nerds
This post is a more technical follow-up to the post announcing the passing of SB 260 in Utah, establishing the principles for state-endorsed digital identity (SEDI). While SEDI does not mandate any particular technology, its mandated principles close the door for technologies that do not comply, and open the door for technologies that do. This article explores what SEDI makes technically possible, in compliance with SB 260 principles.
Utah Blazes New Trail for SSI: State Endorced Digital Identity
In real life, does a state issue identity or endorse it? When a baby is born, who gives the baby its identifier, its name? The parents do. The state waits for parents to pick a name, puts the name into a certificate, endorses the certificate, then gives it to the parents. Parents determine identity, the state endorses it.
Educational Credentials News
Open Badges 3.0 Basics: Watch, Learn, and Earn on Participate
The Digital Credentials Consortium Learning Hub and offer a short course, “Introduction to Open Badges 3.0”. The course consists of six short (approx 2 min), informal videos. Once you watch all six videos, click on the bell in the right top corner to see your “DCC Introduction to OBV3 badge”.
The Learner Credential Wallet Experience
We’ve noticed that while many are interested in the opportunities LERs as digital credentials may offer, many haven’t yet experienced what it is like to claim and accept an Open Badge 3.0 credential with a digital wallet like the LearnerCredential Wallet (LCW).
We created the LCW Experience to make it as easy as possible to try this out. It uses the open source DCC Issuing System and Learner Credential Wallet to demonstrate the experience of requesting and storing an Open Badges 3.0. You can learn more about how it works here.
[Report] (Ireland) New Learning and Teaching Models with a Focus on Micro and Digital Credentialing Report
This report examines how micro and digital credentialing can transform Irish higher education by addressing definitional ambiguities and proposing technical standards like Open Badges v3 for interoperability. It advocates for Irish Technical Universities to recognize a broader range of student experiences beyond traditional academics, while exploring emerging technologies that enable flexible and secure learning pathways. The report analyzes global examples, particularly European Digital Credentials for Learning initiatives, to provide strategic guidance for Irish higher education leaders in implementing digital credentialing systems that support lifelong learning and workforce preparation.
Looking ahead to IIW
Kaliya’s post going into IIW: Key themes going into IIW XL (40)
How do we solve the identity of AI Agents?
Proof of Personhood and First Person Credentials
Trust registries for entities playing different roles within an ecosystem
Standards News
Third Version of FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP 2.2) Now a Standard
The FIDO Alliance has completed the CTAP 2.2 Specification. The closely-related third version of the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification is also nearing final status; this WebAuthn Level 3 working draft is currently going through the review steps to become a W3C Recommendation.
COSE Algorithms for Two-Party Signing
This specification defines COSE algorithm identifiers used when the signing operation is performed cooperatively between two parties. When performing two-party signing, the first party typically hashes the data to be signed and the second party signs the hashed data computed by the first party. This can be useful when communication with the party holding the signing private key occurs over a limited-bandwidth channel, such as NFC or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), in which it is infeasible to send the complete set of data to be signed. The resulting signatures are identical in structure to those computed by a single party, and can be verified using the same verification procedure without additional steps to preprocess the signed data.
Welcoming Creator Assertions Working Group to DIF
CAWG builds upon the work of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) by defining additional assertions that allow content creators to express individual and organizational intent about their content. CAWG defines an identity assertion that allows content creators to bind their online identity to the content that the content that they produce.
A future for Self Sovereign Identity? Reflection
[PodCast] (Internet Safety Labs) "Unsafe at Any Click" - Episode 6
In this episode, privacy advocate Zach Edwards returns, joined by ISL’s technology director Irene Knapp, to discuss the real-time bidding data broker supply network. Join us as we get geeky looking at two data brokers in the news–Gravy Analytics and Eskimi–and how adtech entities “listen” to the real-time bidstream protocol, to collect and sell personal information, including location data.
Business Models for the EU Digital ID Wallet and Decentralized ID [Video + Takeaways]
During the session, Joran presented a deep dive into how EU Digital Identity wallets fit into broader identity ecosystems. He explained the importance of aligning government mandates, private-sector incentives, and end-user benefits—an essential triangle that can make or break adoption.
Company News
(Velocity) Verifiable Credentials – Bringing Trust and Truth to Talent Acquisition
(Velocity) As we drive the adoption of globally mobile digital credentials, it’s critical to distinguish between Trust and Quality – two distinct but equally important challenges.
IOTA Identity Alpha Release
IOTA Identity is a decentralized identity framework that brings self-sovereign identity, verifiable credentials, and privacy-first digital interactions to the upcoming IOTA Mainnet. Now in Alpha Release, it migrates from the previous Stardust VM to the more powerful MoveVM, offering enhanced on-chain programmability while allowing privacy through off-chain verifiable credentials.
Switzerland News
SIF/FIND Pathway 2035 – Digital Trust Infrastructure as a Cornerstone for Switzerland’s Financial Future
On 21 January 2025, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ), in collaboration with the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications (FOITT), published an important statement on the future of digital identity and trust infrastructure.
Research
Are We There Yet? A Study of Decentralized Identity Applications
This paper provides a comprehensive survey of Decentralized Identities (DI) and Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI) by examining both academic and grey literature, as well as real-world commercial and governmental implementations—filling a gap left by previous reviews that focused primarily on academic sources. The research shifts focus from technological constraints to practical deployment challenges, identifying the underlying barriers that are preventing widespread adoption of decentralized identity management systems in real-world applications.
Integrating the Self-sovereign Identity in the TCP/IP Stack While Preserving Interoperability with Existing Identity Models
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a decentralized identity model that gives users full control over their identity data through Verifiable Data Registries, Decentralized Identifiers, and Verifiable Credentials, but current implementations at the application layer limit its benefits. The authors explore integrating SSI directly into lower TCP/IP layers (TLS and IKEv2/IPSec) to eliminate certificate management overhead in IoT systems and enhance SSI's advantages, while also working on post-quantum cryptography migration.
AI and Identity
Andy Dale is Back! The Tao of XCI considers
Recognition, Identity, and AI: Building Trust in Digital Agents
Trustworthy AI isn’t about making machines socially aware; it’s about ensuring that humans can trust the chain of custody behind AI-generated insights. When AI states that "Brad recommends this action," it should be able to prove that the recommendation came from the right "Brad"—the person you trust, not an imposter or manipulated data source.
The real question is: How do we create systems where AI is not just technically accurate but verifiably trustworthy? In an era where decisions increasingly rely on AI advice, embedding identity systems at the core isn’t just beneficial—it’s fundamental.
SingularityNET x Privado ID: Making AI Trustworthy with Decentralized Identity
( Indicio) Agentic AI and the European Union: Decentralized identity can alleviate concerns while accelerating usability
Verifiable Credential technology has a critical role to play in making AI systems work for companies and consumers — simplify compliance with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act and provide the safety and security that everyone wants.
Is it a Movement?
The web was always about redistribution of power. Let’s bring that back. It’s time to rekindle the movement.
It’s very hard to get excited about technology that redistributes wealth and power in favor of people who already have it….
For many of us, the social movement, rather than the underlying technology, was always the point. We need that movement more than ever before.