Digital identity is now a fundamental requirement to function in a world that has shifted to remote-first. To empower individuals and to protect their self-sufficiency, the concept of self-sovereign identity (SSI) was developed. It grants the individual agency over their interactions and data by putting the data-subject back into the driver-seat.
Self-sovereign identity and its use-cases
There are plenty of potential use-cases. Our identity isn’t something we can easily explain or which can easily be summarized by single data sets. It highly depends on the context in which it operates and is different depending on the person with whom we interact. One category of use-cases is the proof of certification or qualification of an individual. This proof is required for applications for jobs, grants or the participation in special events. Depending on the requirements, an individual can collect all necessary certificates and present them directly to the relying party. Another big category of use-cases is to enable access to information, buildings or resources. When e.g. information is labeled as “internal only”, the authorized people should be able to access it. Organizations can issue credentials to the right target audience and only approve access for those individuals, which have a valid credential.
Wallets and Networks
Two elemental components of an SSI-ecosystem are the wallets for end-users and the networks for organisations on which issued credentials are anchored to. In this article, we will explain how these relate to each other, what their specific goals are and how they interact with each other by providing the example of the Lissi wallet and the Indicio Network.
About the Lissi Wallet
In order to store and possess the credential, an individual requires an application with a graphical user interface to receive, store and present these credentials to third parties. A wallet is a key management application, which hides all the complicated technical aspects from the user and provides the required guidance to securely interact with trusted contacts. The Lissi wallet offers an intuitive interface and provides the necessary information and flexibility to navigate through an increasingly complex digital environment. Furthermore, it automatically recognizes the network, which an organisation used to verify the authenticity of the credential. Hence, while organizations can choose a suitable network, the user is informed about the network, but doesn’t need to do anything to receive the credential or interact with the organisation. Lissi is your smart agent, which takes unnecessary workload from you, provides you with the information to make informed decisions while always offering a choice.
While the Lissi team is also involved in the formation of the IDunion network with its main focus in Europe, we recognize that organisations around the world have different needs. The networks, which are necessary to verify the authenticity of issued credentials, need to be adjusted to different regulatory requirements and the specific demands of their target audience. The network is a distributed and publicly readable database, which contains the public identifier of a legal entity. Therefore, we are committed to not only provide individuals with the choice of their favourite wallet, but also organisations with the choice of their network. We are delighted to announce that the latest version of the Lissi wallet also supports the Indicio Network.
About the Indico Network
Indicio.tech created the Indicio Network to meet the needs of companies and organizations that want a reliable and robust network to build, test, demo, and launch their identity solutions — all the while supported by a team of engineers with extensive experience in decentralized identity, its architecture, and its use cases.
Indicio believes that this “concierge” approach to running a network will accelerate the development, adoption, and use of verifiable digital credentials. This means:
- Professional staffing: Indicio’s engineers are among the most experienced in the decentralized identity field and are ready to answer questions, support network operations, and help to get products ready for launch.
- Stability for demonstrations: Indicio supports developers at every step of the way from building to testing and public demonstrations.
- Cross-network test readiness: Indicio sees the future as one of interoperable credentials and networks. Its network is the perfect platform for testing interoperability by issuing and verifying on multiple networks.
- Easy Node Operator onboarding: For those interested in joining a network as a node operator, Indicio has simplified the process, offers training for all levels, and a suite of network tools and resources.
With the Covid pandemic driving urgent need for decentralized identity solutions, Indicio is committed to delivering superlative infrastructure and technical support, and to making decentralized identity as easy to use as possible, whether as a node operator, a developer, an issuer or a verifier.
About Indicio
Indicio.tech is a professional services firm specializing in decentralized identity architecture, engineering, and consultancy. Indicio provides expert guidance to a global community of clients on the use of verifiable credentials to build digital identity solutions. The decentralized networks and tools created by Indicio make verifiable credentials easy to adopt, simple to deploy, and reliable to use. As a Public Benefit Corporation, Indicio is committed to advancing decentralized identity as a public good that enables people to control their identities online and share their data by consent. Indicio believes in privacy and security by design, interoperability, and supports the open source goals of the decentralized identity community.
This article was co-written by the Lissi and Indicio team.
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