Thanks to Stephan Wolf, CEO of GLEIF, who co-authored this article, and to Karla McKenna, Managing Director at GLEIF Americas, who contributed significantly, and to dozens of other smart people who contributed their time and insights. Organizational Identity (OI) Defined: The ability of a person or thing to prove their authority to represent an…

My business partner at Digital Trust Ventures, Dr. Samuel Smith, happens to be the smartest human I’ve met, and through my line of work I’ve been fortunate to meet some smart ones. In an email exchange during the last 72 hours, Sam opined about the McKinsey Technology Trends Report for…

Last week I published “Web3, Web5, & SSI” which argued “why the SSI community should escape Web3 and follow Jack Dorsey and Block into a Web5 big tent, with a common singular goal: the autonomous control of authentic data and relationships”. In this short post I’m proposing a definition for…

Why the SSI community should escape Web3 and follow Jack Dorsey and Block into a Web5 big tent, with a common singular goal: the autonomous control of authentic data and relationships. TL;DR As a ten-year veteran of the SSI space, my initial reaction to Jack Dorsey’s (Block’s) announcement of Web5 —…

Last summer I published a 3-part series about the similarities between verifiable credentials (VCs) and physical shipping containers: Part 1: Verifiable Credentials Aren’t Credentials. They’re Containers. Part 2: Like Shipping Containers, Verifiable Credentials Will Economically Transform the World Part 3: How Verifiable Credentials Bridge Trust Domains The similarities have only become more apparent, and important, now that VCs are rapidly growing in global adoption. So it’s time for an update, including some history behind the VC name and why “verifiable” is also problematic.

SSI and verifiable credentials (VCs) have spawned hundreds of startups and significant initiatives within Microsoft, IBM, Workday, Samsung, Deutsche Telekom, the entire EU, the U.S. …

On June 3, 2021 a significant thing happened for SSI (self-sovereign identity): The European Union announced a plan for an EU-wide digital wallet that would support drivers licenses, tax filings, opening bank accounts, prescriptions, academic achievements, seamless travel experiences and proving one’s age to enter a nightclub, among many other possibilities.* It’s easily the biggest thing to ever happen to SSI, and arguably the biggest to ever happen to identity generally, digital or otherwise.

Part 2 of 2: ID Is Only the Beginning. Achievements, Skills, & Competencies For many working with SSI and VCs, exchanging achievements is the top-of-mind use case. By achievements, I mean any kind: diplomas, degrees, certificates, skills, skill shapes, competencies, badges, milestones, grades, awards, commendations, micro-credentials, incremental achievements, and others. Students will eventually share…

Part 1 of 2: Strong, flexible, digital student ID that’s not bound to your campus, network, or vendor. Full Disclosure: The benefits discussed here apply to self-sovereign student ID generally and are not specific to any vendor or product, and do not result in vendor lock-in; any standards-compliant SSI tools…