Phil Windley

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

The web, and the internet for that matter, never had a consistent user experience for authentication. Information cards didn't make it, but the ideas underlying information cards live on in modern self-sovereign identity (SSI) systems. Tags: identity ux wallets ssi. Apps freed developers from the strictures of the web.

Authentication 98

Authentication System Internet Video 98

Phil Windley

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Summary: For Sovrin to become a global, public utility that helps everyone create and manage self-sovereign identities, it must be independent and self-sustaining. For Sovrin to achieve its goal of providing self-sovereign identity for all, the Foundation and the Network have to be independent and self-sustaining.

Network 50

Network Open Source Financial Government 50

Phil Windley

JANUARY 16, 2018

This paper shows how that happens and why it will impact every sector of the Internet in significant ways. Here's the abstract: Digital identity is one of the oldest and hardest problems on the Internet. Internet identity has become synonymous with authentication and that's too bad. I hope you'll spend some time reading it.

Internet 103

Internet Insurance Authentication Network 103

Phil Windley

JULY 14, 2018

Summary: I spent almost two weeks talking with people about self-sovereign identity in Switzerland and India. I'm more excouraged than ever that self-sovereign identity holds the key to real change in how we live our digital lives with security, privacy, and dignity. Self-sovereign identity is making noise.

Banking 40

Banking Insurance Meeting System 40

Phil Windley

JULY 16, 2019

Speaking of the Internet of Things, I wrote : Our autonomy and freedom as humans depends on how we build the Internet of Things. This is just as true about identity as it is about the Internet of Things. That's why we call it self-sovereign identity. Facebook and Twitter are not.

Internet 79

Internet System Government Policies 79

Phil Windley

DECEMBER 28, 2020

Summary: The self-sovereign internet, a secure overlay on the internet, provides the same capacity to produce change by numerous, unaffiliated and uncoordinated actors as the internet itself. The second part will explore the generativity of verifiable credential exchange, the essence of self-sovereign identity.

Internet 135

Internet Network Architecture Security 135

Phil Windley

JANUARY 18, 2022

Summary: I read a couple of interesting things the past few weeks that have me thinking about the world we're building, the impact that tech has on it, and how it self-governs (or not). And, the internet didn't do away with either. The internet is the result of a mix of institutional, market-driven, and network-enabled forces.

Network 59

Network Internet System Government 59

Phil Windley

OCTOBER 31, 2017

Andy Tobin has a great presentation that describes five problems of Internet identity. Our claim is that self-sovereign identity, and Sovrin in particular, solve these five problems: The Proximity Problem —The proximity problem is as old as the familiar cartoon with the caption "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

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Internet Architecture System Data 45

Phil Windley

APRIL 18, 2024

Relationships and Identity Authentic Digital Relationships Ephemeral Relationships Operationalizing Digital Relationships Relationships in the Self-Sovereign Internet of Things The Architecture of Identity Systems Are Transactional Relationships Enough? These are more than decentralized ; they are self-sovereign.

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Authentication System Examples Architecture 73

Phil Windley

JANUARY 26, 2021

This article describes the implementation self-sovereign identity through protocol-mediated credential exchange on the self-sovereign internet, examines its properties, and argues for it generative nature from those properties. The self-sovereign internet is labeled "Layer Two" in this figure.

Internet 72

Internet Authentication Architecture Examples 72

Phil Windley

APRIL 25, 2022

Summary: The Internet of Things is more like the CompuServe of Things. We need a new, self-sovereign model to protect us from proprietary solutions and unlock IoT's real potential. The alternative is what I call the self-sovereign IoT (SSIoT) model : Self-Sovereign IoT Model (click to enlarge).

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Open Source Cloud Internet Advertising 52

Phil Windley

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

Locke argued that "sovereign and independent" was man’s natural state and that we gave up freedom, our sovereignty, in exchange for something else, protection, sociality, and commerce, among others. Self-Certifying. Both algorithmic and self-certifying are SSI systems. Self-Certifying Architecture. Identity Architectures.

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Architecture System Authentication Security 138

Phil Windley

JULY 1, 2019

Summary: Identity professionals continue to have questions about self-sovereign identy (SSI). In Self-sovereign identity: 3 key questions (registration required), Susan Morrow asks some questions about the viability of self-sovereign identity (SSI). I actually found more than three. Here's some answers.

Banking 92

Banking Government System Internet 92

Phil Windley

JUNE 21, 2021

Summary: The self-sovereign internet underscores a tension between those who desire perfect oversight of society and those who desire perfect privacy. In Self-Sovereign Communication , Oskar Van Deventer, discusses the communications layer enabled by DIDs. Tags: identity ssi didcomm privacy cryptography.

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3D Internet Data System 52

Phil Windley

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

Summary: Self-sovereign identity is multi-source, but not all multi-source identity systems are self-sovereign. Self-sovereignty requires that people and organizations have control of their credentials and interact as peers. The world is full of credentials.

Internet 65

Internet System Licensing Architecture 65

Phil Windley

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Summary: DIDComm-capable agents provide a flexible infrastructure for numerous internet of things use cases. In The Self-Sovereign Internet of Things , I introduced the role that Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) can play in the internet of things (IoT). Selling the Truck.

Internet 52

Internet Insurance Course Open Source 52

Phil Windley

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Of course, the question is raised in an attempt to determine whether or not an identity system based on a permissioned ledger can make a legitimate claim that it's self-sovereign. Both of these will be remedied over time as Sovrin becomes more self-sufficient. Power and Self-Sovereignty. An Internet for Identity.

Architecture 70

Architecture System Network Open Source 70

Phil Windley

AUGUST 12, 2020

Summary: Self-sovereign identity, supported by a heterarchical identity metasystem, creates a firm foundation for rich digital relationships that allow people to digitally embodied so they can act online as autonomous agents. I argue that this is the kind of thing the internet is best at. The Self-Sovereign Alternative.

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Authentication Architecture System Examples 112

Phil Windley

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Self-sovereign identity excites me because, for the first time, we have a model for online identity that can flexibly support fluid multi-pseudonymity. Tags: identity relationships ssi pseudonymity. But even a relationship that starts pseudonymous and ephemeral can develop into something permanent and better defined over time.

Network 107

Network Government Authentication Examples 107

Phil Windley

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Summary: Decentralized identifiers are one of the foundational ideas for supporting self-sovereign identity. Decentralized identifiers are one of several foundational technologies for building a metasystem for self-sovereign identity. Permanence is vital for user control and self sovereignty.

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Authentication Examples System Security 102

Phil Windley

JANUARY 8, 2022

Open source software, the internet, and the World Wide Web broke the stranglehold of proprietary software with free software and open protocols, but within a few decades, Google, Amazon, and others had built huge new monopolies founded on big data. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) gives people the software and systems to do that.

Applications 52

Applications System Software Software 52

Phil Windley

JULY 26, 2018

In Decentralized Governance in Sovrin , I wrote: The Sovrin Network is a global public utility for identity that we all own, collectively, just like we all own the Internet. When I say Sovrin is "public," I mean that it is a public good that anyone can use so long as they adhere to the proper protocols, just like the Internet.

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Government Open Source Groups Network 40

Phil Windley

DECEMBER 10, 2018

This is sometimes referred to as self-sovereign identity (SSI). The Internet enabled a rich, decentralized ecosystem of message exchange that could never have been supported by the walled gardens of Compuserve and AOL. Self-sovereign, multi-source identity enables an Internet for Identity.

Banking 53

Banking Internet Examples Licensing 53

Phil Windley

JULY 26, 2021

Picos provide a cloud-native (internet-first) architecture that matches the application architecture to cloud model. And a bonus reason for using picos: Picos provide a better model for building the Internet of Things. Tags: picos iot programming decentralization fuse ssiot.

Programming 59

Programming Engineering Applications Architecture 59

Phil Windley

JANUARY 7, 2019

It's no coincidence that Internet Identity Workshop got started in 2005. Many people were talking about user-centric identity and developing ideas about how we might be able to create an identity layer for the Internet. The Internet was created without any way to identify the people who used it. User Control and Consent.

Banking 88

Banking Internet System Software 88

Phil Windley

DECEMBER 16, 2022

I wrote about the reasons for using agents as part of IoT devices in The Self-Sovereign Internet of Things. Tags: ssi identity wallets agents verifiable+credentials didcomm. How they operate and their sophistication depend in great measure on the nature of the device and its expected function.

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Operating Systems Authentication Security Storage 95

Phil Windley

FEBRUARY 3, 2018

Decentralized systems, on the other hand, must coordinate across multiple parties, all acting independently in their own self-interest. The Internet is an excellent example of this. The Sovrin network is a global public utility that we all own, collectively, just like we all own the Internet. Guardianship. Diffuse Trust.

Government 55

Government Open Source Network System 55

Phil Windley

JULY 16, 2020

The most problematic word in the term Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) isn't "sovereign" but "identity" because whenever you start discussing identity, the conversation is rife with unspoken assumptions. One of the fundamental problems of internet identity is proximity. Relationships. I want an ephemeral relationship.

Authentication 95

Authentication System Data Architecture 95

Phil Windley

FEBRUARY 4, 2018

Decentralized systems, on the other hand, must coordinate across multiple parties, all acting independently in their own self-interest. The Internet is an excellent example of this. The Sovrin network is a global public utility that we all own, collectively, just like we all own the Internet. Guardianship. Diffuse Trust.

Government 45

Government Open Source Network System 45

Phil Windley

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Sovrin comprises three layers, each of which promotes and strengthens decentralization and self-sovereign identity. An Internet for Identity (Aug 2016). Public access is a foundational element for self-sovereignty because it avoids gatekeepers that might censor some transactions. Decentralized, Self-Sovereign Identity.

Open Source 45

Open Source Network Architecture Government 45

Phil Windley

AUGUST 20, 2019

Summary: Sovrin is an identity metasystem that provides the Internet's missing identity layer. Digital identity is broken because the Internet was built without an identity layer. The idea was made famous by a New Yorker cartoon that says, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”. The Problems with Digital Identity.

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Internet Banking System Architecture 102

Phil Windley

MARCH 13, 2020

This makes it ideal for use in credential verification where the clients may not have internet access for a period of time, a key requirement for universal adoption of digital credentials. Decentralized identifiers, or DIDs, are a new kind of identifier that provides the means of managing relationships in a self-sovereign identity system.

Government 59

Government Network Open Source Policies 59

Phil Windley

JANUARY 7, 2020

A few weeks ago Andy Tobin posted an excellent piece on the Three Pillars of Self-Sovereign Identity : Secure connections. We often hear that the internet is a product of standards, and while that's true, it also only exists because people strung cable, wrote code, created rules, built organizations, and formed alliances.

Network 69

Network Open Source Government Groups 69