🚀DIF monthly #14

December, 2020

Welcome to the 2020 December issue of DIF Monthly, the monthly newsletter of Decentralized Identity Foundation! Read below for the latest updates on the work of the decentralized identity community every month.

Foundation News

DIF F2F Virtual - January 2021
DIF is inviting the entire decentralized identity community to join our second open online virtual meeting. We will discuss the current state of the decentralized identity stack, the status of individual elements, and how the path towards interoperability should look.
Sign up here

🛠️ Working Group Updates

☂️ InterOp WG (cross-community)

Recommendations, education materials, and test suits for interoperability across all adjacent communities working on decentralized identities.

Chairs: Pamela Dingle, Kaliya Young, Juan Caballero
Page : <interop>

The What and Why of the DIF general-purpose Document-Loader by Orie Steele.
W3C-CCG Edu Creds Task Force & Tooling/Sandbox Intro by Kim H. Duffy.
Kaliya Young’s book presentation and the Domains of Identity book.
Gold-Button Interop (MyData panel next month by A. Gropper).
BBS+ Presentation by Tobias (Mattr).
ESSIF-LAB and Odyssey Momentum (TNO, Gimly, and Dutch Blockchain Coalition)

Identifiers & Discovery

How people, organizations, and devices can be identified and located without centralized systems.

Chairs: Markus Sabadello & Sam Smith
Page: <ID WG>

Discussion of DID deactivation and resolution metadata and representation expectations thereof.
MIME types of documents on GitHub.
Update on issues with WebID.
Review of DID-Core TPAC Meetings.
Updates on current work items: did:peer, KERI, Universal Resolver, .well-known DID configuration, DID parameters, Secret Recovery Mechanisms.
Upcoming mini-conference on KERI, December 8-9th.

🛡️ Claims & Credentials

Verifying claims and assertions of identities.

Chairs: Martin Riedel, Wayne Chang & Gabe Cohen Reynolds
Page: <C C WG>

Bloom Presentation: The Wallet Credential Interactions Spec Proposal by Jace Hensley.
Next steps: Credential Schemas.
Workitem Status: Presentation Exchange and Credentials Manifest calls.
Affinidi presentation in C&C Recording.

DID Auth

DID-based authentication specs, standards, and libraries.

Chairs: Kyle den Hartog & Oliver Terbu
Page: <DIDAuth>

DID SIOP profile is an official OIDC core work item.
Blog article about DIF-OIDF Collaboration.

Sidetree

The development and maintenance of the formal Sidetree specification,

Chairs: Troy Ronda & Daniel Buchner
Page: <sidetree>

SIP1 Status update. Issue.
Canonical and equivalent identifiers status.
Spec / Reference implementation inconsistencies.

DID Comm

Specifications, protocols, and formats developed for authentication data structures.

Chairs: Sam Curren, Oliver Terbu & Tobias Looker
Page: <DIDComm>

First Complete Draft - reads correctly from the beginning to end Nov 30th.
Major github issues being closed, mostly editorial work expected for December.
Side-projects that may become work items: Bluetooth Transport project (Animo, NL), ReBase project (Spruce, USA), github bootstrap (Mattr, NZ).
MIME Types (PR 124, Strategy Sheet).
“Didcomm usecase” added to DID Core use cases document. GitHub
Several issues: Forward secrecy, post-quantum, Structured Headers, etc.

Secure Data Storage

Create one or more specifications to establish a foundational layer for secure data storage.

Chairs: Kaliya Young, Tobias Looker & Dmitri Zagidulin
Page: <SDS>

The specification has been renamed Confidential Data Store.
Ongoing work to refine EDV and Hub Use Cases.
GNAP Presentation by Justin Richer.
Special Topic Discussion: Integrating Hubs & Vaults.

🦄 Member Updates

DIF members are encouraged to share tech-related news in this section. For more info, get in touch with operations.

Condatis

Get Started with Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)
Online Event | Multiple Dates

The digital identity space is rapidly advancing. Stay ahead of the game and join us to find out how the next generation of digital identity looks like. This monthly webinar series is an opportunity to hear from UK experts in distributed identity and learn the mechanics of decentralized identity systems. Over the next few months, our experts in self-sovereign identity (SSI) will introduce self-sovereign patterns and protocols and will guide you on how to get SSI going in your business.

Funding

eSSIF LAB (EU) - Infrastructure-Oriented call

Infrastructure-Oriented open Call, with grants of up to 155 000 € (9 months projects).
The call is open to European innovators and focuses on the development and interop testing of open-source SSI components.
Some examples of SSI components: Wallets, server proxies, revocation, cryptographic enforcer policies, integration, interoperability, compatibility just to name a few.
Please note the next deadline: ** Monday 4 January 2021, 13:00 CET** (Brussels local time). However, the open call will still admit applications after that until the end of June 2021.
Apply here

NGI Open Calls (EU)

Funding is allocated to projects using short research cycles targeting the most promising ideas. Each of the selected projects pursues their own objectives, while the NGI RIAs provide the program logic and vision, technical support, coaching and mentoring, to ensure that projects contribute towards a significant advancement of research and innovation in the NGI initiative.
The focus is on advanced concepts and technologies that link to relevant use cases and that can have an impact on the market and society overall. Applications and services that innovate without a research component are not covered by this model.
Varying amount of funding
Learn more here.

🖋️ DIF Media

DIF & OIDF - Collaborating on next-generation standards
by Decentralized Identity Foundation | Medium

DIF is proud to announce that it has entered into a liaison agreement with the OpenID Foundation (OIDF). This provides a mechanism for both parties to work together on areas of mutual interest, allowing working groups to align and coordinate through dual-members. The first major collaboration, which has already been underway for months, is a revision of the Self-Issued OpenID Connect (SIOP) chapter of the OpenID Connect (OIDC) specification. This revision takes place in the AB/Connect working group of OIDC, which focuses on the ongoing extension of the core OIDC specification.

Events

DIF F2F Virtual - January 2020
Community-wide event about decentralized identity technology

DIF is bringing back its successful F2F virtual format to coordinate the community on its next round of projects and progress reports! Please register here to receive updates and final dates about the F2F.
You can learn more about the previous event here.

MyData Global Online - December 10-12, 2020

MyData Global’s mission is to empower individuals to self-determination regarding their personal data. Our work is primarily financed by membership fees and revenue from the conference.

Jobs

Members of the Decentralized Identity Foundation are looking for:

Backend Engineers,
Frontend Engineers,
Head of Mobile Development
… and many more!

Check out the available positions here.

Metrics

Medium:
1.3k followers | 2.999 minutes read
Twitter:
3.936 followers | 6.45k tweet impressions | 704 profile visits
identity.foundation:
13.483 unique visitors

In the last 30 days.

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