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🚀DIF Monthly #26

Our February round of updates from DIF in 2022: Stay on top of developments at our Working Groups, news from our members, events and much more.

Newsletter
· 9 min read
🚀DIF Monthly #26

Table of contents

  1. Foundation News; 2. Group Updates; 3. Member Updates; 4. Funding; 5. DIF Media; 6. Members; 7. events; 8. Jobs; 9. Metrics; 10. Join DIF

🚀 Foundation News

DIFCon: now there are two!

  • DIFCon F2F Virtual
    Feb 24th 2022 7:00 PST / 16:00 CET until 15:00 PST/ 00:00 CET.

    • Our Virtual Event is happening in 3 days!
    • We are delighted to have a diverse program of content: upates from all the groups at DIF, to panels, workshops and demos from the wider community.
    • Check out the highlights now: Program is HERE
      • Note: Zoom links are not live until 24th Feb, and agenda may be subject to (minor) changes
    • Event is free and open to all, not just DIF members
    • Signups are still open at our Eventbrite page here: feel free to share and invite your team and wider network, including those curious about or just starting their decentralized identity journey!
    • Use hashtag #DIFCon

  • DIFCon APAC F2F Virtual
    3rd March 2022

    • A second event with a focus on APAC/ASEAN timezones and markets

    • A continuation of the digital identity conversations from DIFCon on the 24th Feb as well as host to some region-specific sessions, panels and workshops.

    • Eventbrite registration page here: please also invite and share ! #DIFCon

    • This virtual event is also free and open to all, not just DIF members

    • Call for Workshops/Demos - We are excited to hear your ideas for demos, workshops, panels and presentations for the DIFCon program: Google form to submit sessions for DIFCon APAC is here. Submissions close 28th Feb 2022

    • Join our DIF Discord!

Staffing changes at DIF

  • Balázs' time at DIF coming to an end: both the team here at DIF and all of our members would like to thank Balázs for his tireless work in building up and supporting a vibrant community over the past few years.

    • We wish him all the best in his future endeavors at multi-chain KYC verification platform kycDAO. We also expect him to still come back and visit!
    • Balázs: Thank you. Seriously, the DIF community was my home for the past 2,5 years. Getting involved with such an exciting and ever-growing group was a life-changing experience. I had the chance to help hundreds of companies take their first steps on their decentralized identity journey. With the help of our membership, the foundation grew from ~70 members to 300+ members spanning the globe. From the original 4 working groups, we have formed 10 WGs, including multiple joint groups with some of the most established players in the industry.
      My role as the head of operations offered extensive exposure to concepts and ideas that were challenging the status quo of digital identity management. With the help of members, we explored different work items and models that sometimes never reached the market.
      I look forward to leveraging my understanding of decentralized identity and open source IPR protected work. I will still be available on DIF slack and around the community!

  • DIF would like to welcome Paul Grehan to DIF as Program Manager: A warm welcome from the entire community; we are excited to work together and see how was can engage, delight and surpass in 2022 and beyond!

    • Paul: Firstly, I would like to acknowledge all the hard work and effort that Balázs has put into this community to date, amazing! I feel privileged to be a part of such a strong and committed cohort of like-minded people and organizations, driven by a need to develop such a crucial element missing in today's digital environment - decentralized identity.
      To say it's an exciting time in this field would be the understatement of the decade and I am thrilled (and a bit nervous!) to help the foundation support and grow the community to deliver on its incredible potential. There is a long list of individuals that help make this community a success, my promise is to ensure we, at DIF, continue to enable you all to do so.
      Please feel free to contact me via any of our platforms (incl. Slack & Discord) or directly - I would love to hear your story and how DIF plays a role in that.

🛠️ Group Updates

☂️ InterOp WG (cross-community)

💡 Identifiers & Discovery

  • Discussion of whether DIDs can be considered 'personal data'
  • Community browser extension and abstract wallet architecture (continued topic from last week)
    • Discussion mobile wallet app vs. extension
    • Extension comes with default, but other modules can replace certain parts, e.g. present a better dashboard
    • Community defines the (sets of) basic functions, then we define an extensibility model, e.g. what modules can you plug in
  • DIFCON - Dedicated DID Registration Work Item session in addition to WG presentation

🛡️ Claims & Credentials

https://i.imgur.com/Pmplyre.png

  • Workitem Status: JWS Test Suite notes
    • work has been done for a while. still meeting to discuss up and down stream issues.
    • currently discussing VC Working group charter issues.
      • how the non-normative examples can help implementation
      • the next 1-3 meeting will be about vc working group charters discussions
  • Workitem Status: WACI-PEX
    • currently taking a small break while some dependencies sort out
    • some BBS+ implementations have surfaced issues in the core specs
    • Finished presentation & have made progress on issuance stack
  • Workitem Status: PE (2.0) + Schema Directory
  • Workitem Status: Credential Manifest + Wallet Rendering
    • Closed PRs and issues
  • Approval: Verifier Universal Interface (VUI) tracking
    • Follow-up on Signoff process
    • SF lab regular meeting are being wound down
    • more official announcment to come at DIFCon on 24th Feb
    • Work item PR to be set up against the C&C repo
  • Prep for WG presentation (20min) at DIFCon

📻 DID Comm

📦 Secure Data Storage

🌱 Wallet Security WG

  • Bernard is stepping down as co-chair, the group would like to thank him for his hard work and valuable contributions
  • discussion on interest for implementing the device binding feature
    • achieving interoperability tests with multiple implementations
    • Wallets:
      • BCGov: Aries/AnonCreds with iOS/Android/SE
      • eSatus: Aries/AnonCreds with iOS/Android
      • ID-Wallet: Aries/AnonCreds with iOS/Android
    • Issuer/Verifier:
      • acapy, .NET
    • Further discussions with Lissi Team
  • Aries -> create a new Aries RFC to specify the DIDComm protocol for device binding
    • two separate protocols for device binding/wallet authentication or same protocol?
  • start a workshop with technical experts for first proposal focusing Aries/Anoncreds
    Wallet implementers survey:

🔧 KERI

🌱 Applied Crypto WG

Work Item status

✈️ Hospitality & Travel

🏦 Finance & Banking

🌏 APAC/ASEAN Open Call

🌍 Africa Open Call

🦄 Member Updates

Condatis

  • Condatis' blog takes a look at the identity model called Bring Your Own Identity, and how decentralization brings privacy and data ownership to individuals.
  • In Wallets turned Digital, Condatis' Solutions Architect, Richard Astley, talks about the importance of identity, the links between physical and digital wallets, verifiable credentials, and more.

Centre.io

ValidatedID

  • Is it possible to issue Verifiable Credentials compliant with the existing European regulation while eIDAS v2 is not approved? ValidatedID have integrated a new eIDAS Bridge in their VIDchain Services to do just that, based their development in the EC’s ISA2 program. More details here

💰 Funding

🌐 Identity Community

  • Ancon Protocol v1.0.0 has been released with support for did-web, did-key and did-ethr, use cases are NFTs, secure off-chain data and content provenance / authenticity

  • The Indiverse discusses what place decentralized tech like DIDs and VCs have in a future where Metaverse looms large on the horizon.

  • SocialKYC is a decentralized identity attestation service for regaining control over your digital identity using KILT Protocol. SocialKYC is a decentralized cornerstone for Web3.

  • Blockchain Monday, 14.02.2022, Hanseatic Blockchain Institute, Hamburg, Germany. Markus Sabadello and Tim Heidfeld join the video podcast to discuss: Key differentiators and evolution of web1-web2-web3, The next 5 big things in web3, NFT Identity and Properties, Layer Identity, DIDs and more.

  • The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA, released their SSI Landscape report: Digital Identity: Leveraging the SSI Concept to Build Trust

  • This paper explores the potential of self-sovereign identity (SSI) technologies for secure electronic identification under the eIDAS Regulation, and assesses existing eID solutions, as well as the standards, communities, and pilot projects that are presently developing these solutions.

🖋️ DIF Media

🎈 Events & Promotions

  • KuppingerCole European Identity and Cloud Conference 2022
    May 10th – 13th 2022, Hybrid Event

    • Call for Speakers - 20 minutes to present your thoughts and findings in front of the identity community. After the event, your presentation will be published on the KuppingerCole website
      • Speaker applications close 28th Feb 2022, apply here.

  • Internet Identity Workshop
    April 26 - 28, 2022

    • IIW34 returns to their in-person format for this industry-defining bi-annual unfocerence at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California. Read our recap of IIW33 from OCtober 2021 here to get a sense of the groundbreaking and mind-bending conversations that happen at these events! Get your ticket here.

  • CALL FOR PAPERS: Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY) - an open access, peer reviewed journal on distributed ledger technology research and innovations in healthcare, information systems, clinical computing, network technology and biomedical sciences. Read more and submit here

💼 Jobs

Members of the Decentralized Identity Foundation are looking for:

🔢 Metrics

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In the last 30 days.

🆔 Join DIF!

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