Identosphere 237 July CatchUp: What are we really doing? • More SPICEyness • Local Flavors, Global Reach • Ecosystems Support Community Group + Survey
Hi Identosphere Subscribers,
As promised, here's our July catchup! As I continue rebuilding the newsletter rhythm, it's clear the identity ecosystem kept its relentless pace. From new standards updates to fresh regulatory developments, and thoughtful reflective provocations here's an overview that shaped the decentralized digital identity landscape last month.
I am asking for your help as I reboot and get the newsletter going again: Please take this poll and share what you love and what you would like to see more of.
Identosphere 234 July 5- July 12
[MATTR] Thoughts on solving modern identity challenges (comments on the No Phone Home movement)
Recently, the "nophonehome" movement sparked an important conversation about digital identity systems, privacy, and control. These conversations are timely and essential.
Ethereum Co-Founder Buterin Proposes Decentralized Digital Identity Model
(Mike Jones) More SPICEyness
In April, I wrote about several useful developments in the IETF Secure Patterns for Internet CrEdentials (SPICE) working group. I’ve recently contributed to progressing several specifications in preparation for the SPICE working group meeting at IETF 123 in Madrid. Here’s a tour…
Why Machine Identities Are the Next Big Compliance Challenge
New regulations require organizations to track machine actions and automate governance to meet the same accountability standards applied to human users.
MCP vs A2A: A Guide to AI Agent Communication Protocols
Identosphere 235 July 13-20
What are we really doing?
(Christopher Allen) Musings of a Trust Architect: When Technical Standards Meet Geopolitical Reality:
Kyle Den Hartog is on a roll:
One) From Printing Press to Digital Identity: A Pattern of Moral Crisis
Two) How SSI Becomes a Centralized Tool For Gatekeeping
Three) Decentralizing Age Verification with SSI: Separating Content Moderation from Guardianship
(Heather Flanagan) Local Flavors, Global Reach: Why Digital Identity Needs Cultural Context
This isn’t just about user attitudes. Cultural values shape system design too. Western identity architectures often assume:
* Ownership and individualism – the user holds and controls their identity;
* Transparency and audit – data trails should be visible and attributable;
* Consent as the primary safeguard – once informed, the user is responsible
Identity is local. Interop is global.
Why Now Is the Best Time to Build Sovereign Digital Nations
Physical nations are built with concrete, and digital nations are built with code. SDNs are not DAOs or a digital community.
[Video] PEPR '25 - Verifying Humanness: Personhood Credentials for the Digital Identity Crisis
Identosphere 236 July 21-27
(Fast Company) The evolution of digital identity: Beyond device fingerprinting
The Trust Fabric: Decentralized Interoperability and Economic Coordination for the Agentic Web
OIDF launches Ecosystems Support Community Group
The OpenID Foundation’s new Ecosystems Support Community Group is open to all who wish to join the conversation and contribute to the discussion.
What we will do:
* Capture existing and emerging ecosystem configurations and develop an Ecosystems Tracker.
* Evaluate key differences between ecosystem configurations and specifications.
* Assess how to combine different specifications.
* Capture and communicate ecosystems’ requirements to other WGs, OIDF’s conformance test team and OIDF, in general.
Internet Safety Labs) [video] PEPR '25 - Safetypedia: Crowdsourcing Privacy Inspections
Internet Safety Labs has a goal to have current safety labels for all [more than 5M] mobile apps by 2029. To accomplish this, we've been experimenting with two paths: automation and crowdsourcing.
The future is NOT Self-Hosted, but Self-Sovereign
The future won’t be self-hosted. But it can be self-sovereign—if we build the right protocols.
In case you missed it Identosphere 233: Catchup Overview of News February - June.
I am asking for your help as I reboot and get the newsletter going again: Please take this poll and share what you love and what you would like to see more of.
Thanks for Reading
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