Self Sovereign Identity
Take control of your digital identity and personal data
What is Self Sovereign Identity?
Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a model for managing digital identities where individuals or organizations have sole ownership of their identity and personal data, without relying on third-party providers.
With SSI, you control your own identity credentials, deciding what information to share, with whom, and for what purpose. This puts you at the center of the digital identity ecosystem rather than relying on centralized authorities.
SSI represents a paradigm shift from traditional identity systems where your data is stored and controlled by governments, corporations, or other third parties.
Key Components of Self Sovereign Identity
DIDs are a new type of identifier that enables verifiable, decentralized digital identity. Unlike traditional usernames or email addresses, DIDs are created and controlled by the identity owner without relying on any central authority.
Verifiable credentials are digital attestations about a subject that are cryptographically secure, privacy-respecting, and machine-verifiable. They can represent things like academic degrees, driver's licenses, or membership certificates.
Distributed ledgers provide the infrastructure for SSI by creating a secure, tamper-proof record of public keys, schema definitions, and credential definitions without requiring a central authority to maintain this information.
Zero-knowledge proofs enable you to prove specific facts about your credentials without revealing the actual data. For example, proving you're over 21 without revealing your exact birth date, enhancing privacy in identity verification.
Trust frameworks establish the rules and standards for how different entities in an SSI ecosystem interact. They define how credentials are issued, verified, and trusted across different contexts and domains.
Digital wallets are applications that allow users to store, manage, and present their digital credentials. They serve as the user interface for SSI, enabling individuals to control their identity information and interact with verifiers.
Real-World Applications
Digital Identity Verification
SSI enables secure and privacy-preserving identity verification for online services. Instead of creating accounts with usernames and passwords for each service, users can present verifiable credentials from trusted sources.
This reduces the risk of data breaches and identity theft while simplifying the user experience across digital services.
Healthcare
In healthcare, SSI allows patients to control their medical records and share specific information with healthcare providers as needed. Patients can maintain a comprehensive health record while selectively disclosing only relevant information.
This improves continuity of care across different providers while maintaining patient privacy and data security.
Education
Educational institutions can issue verifiable digital credentials for degrees, certificates, and other achievements. Students own these credentials and can present them to employers or other institutions without requiring verification from the original issuer.
This streamlines credential verification while reducing fraud and administrative overhead.
Financial Services
SSI can simplify Know Your Customer (KYC) processes in financial services. Once verified by one institution, customers can reuse their verified identity credentials across different financial services without repeating the verification process.
This reduces onboarding friction while maintaining regulatory compliance and security standards.
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