Looking forward on Identity

@harry and I had a really good conversation about Identity, and I wanted to get it down so others could see the current state of identity thinking. In this note, I’m trying to represent Harry’s views along with my own, but I’m not speaking for him here.

First, we know DSNP’s take on identity isn’t fully baked. The vision I describe here isn’t reflected in the spec. It is our eventual goal, not our current implementation. The reason for this mismatch is that we needed to put something down so we could start iterating.

Second, there are a lot of identity solutions out there. It’s impossible to pick a winner. And we don’t really want to synthesize all of that into yet another identity solution.

Third, we don’t want our pool of identity to be a walled garden. If people have established identity in various places, that’s often valuable context for who they are. Having them re-establish identity in our universe has a cost in terms of sign-up logistics and lost information.

What all this adds up to is a desire for DSNP to avoid settling on one way to represent or transact identity. Instead, we need to enumerate the set of characteristics and behaviors we need from an identity system, then interoperate with anything that shows up and can behave that way. Perhaps we can specify an identity API. Perhaps we can specify an identity solution on top of that API, but maybe we can just point to existing specs outside DSNP for that.

This is work we will not do immediately, but it is work we probably need to do eventually. We ultimately want to support self-sovereign identity in any reasonable form users choose. We probably also want to let users show up with less ideal forms of identity if that’s what they want instead.

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Hi @james,
Coinciding with the Polkadot selection announced @ Davos recently, the WEF annual report (2022) has a piece on 'Blockchain and Identity":
Strategic Intelligence (weforum.org)

Useful background, I think. Kind Regards, Patrick

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Jack Dorsey’s plans for decentralised identity:
WTF is web5? :woman_technologist: - by The Quest Media :sunny: (substack.com)

“While Web3 aims to “blockchain” and “tokenize” all things, Web5 uses just one blockchain - #Bitcoin - for one specific use case: identity.” ? Kind Regards, Patrick

Fake identity becomes more and more problematic for social platforms; “tackling material from fake accounts” - a designated priority offence…
“…foreign interference” a designated priority offence under the Online Safety Bill, … “Disinformation is often seeded by multiple fake personas, with the aim of getting real users, unwittingly, then to ‘share’ it…: Online Safety Bill amendment targets state-backed disinformation | The Independent Kind Regards, Patrick.

This is a topic close to my heart and to my work. Designing for identity in the digital context really does smash into the human condition quite unlike anything else, and yet, approached diligently, I believe it could be a key to unlock many of the qualities we all hope for in the next phase of the internet/web.

By corollary of course that means if we don’t unearth ‘the right ways’ forward, then we will be unwitting vectors in carrying over and amplifying the poor state of affairs we’ve inherited from web 2.

I love the emphasis @james you describe in your conversation with @harry on accommodating a plurality of approaches. But there are approaches that propagate the inadequate preconceptions of computer science, and then there are generative approaches aligned with the conceptualizations of identity found amongst disciplines that have been working on this somewhat longer in the contexts of human dignity, freedom, and flourishing.

May I share the concluding essay to my work under the auspices of the AKASHA Foundation, and co-published last week with the wonderful Kernel community. And should you wish to jump on a call to swap notes at any time, that would be my pleasure. Best wishes.

Human identity — the number one challenge in computer science.

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Hey James - I completely agree with the thoughts outlined here. The third point is extremely important for user experience as users will not want to re-establish their identity or else they will churn. Has the team looked at identity solutions within the Polkadot ecosystem like https://www.kilt.io/ or https://litentry.com/?

As we all know, the challenges with “verified”, bona fide identities are much wider than Twitter. “In the short term, she suggests, it would be wise not to subscribe to Twitter Blue, the paid-for blue tick service, until more is known about what this process entails.” : Is Elon Musk’s Twitter safe, and should you stop using it? (computerweekly.com)

More transparency about the process – business process – is fundamental to trusted or not, Twitter identities. This transparency may reveal any PII (Personal Identifiable Information) data processing that falls short of data protection requirements (GDPR ++). It is useful for new platforms built on the DSNP to consider Twitter’s current difficulties with “verified” and what, if any, PII is processed by Twitter which will attract the attention of Data Protection Authorities. Just thoughts on the current dilemma. Kind Regards, Patrick.

This is encouraging and hopefully ending anonymity will not mean ending privacy. “Congress is already considering new laws on addressing anonymity and digital identity,” Romero said.:

crypto: Crypto must end anonymity for illicit finance, says US regulator - The Economic Times (indiatimes.com)

It is well-known that ransomware has utilised the cloak of anonymity with great effect to launder their ill-gotten crypto payments.
Kind Regards,
Patrick

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“Once users scan their eyes they will receive a World ID”. “… irises will have their privacy protected” in a world database of human biometrics controlled by who?:
New cryptocurrency offers users tokens for scanning their eyeballs | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian

The importance of decentralised ID is really about an ethical alternative to some centralised dystopia. My guess is that this processing of biometrics will get detailed attention from data protection regulators. Thought it worth sharing as OpenAI have not launched this in the USA, yet. Kind Regards, Patrick