🚀DIF monthly #4

December, 2019

Welcome to the 2019 December issue of DIF Monthly, the monthly newsletter of Decentralized Identity Foundation! We aspire to give you the latest updates on the work of the decentralized identity community every month.

Verifiable Holiday Credential

The holiday season is here along with a Verifiable Holiday Credential from the Transmute team for the entire community. [code]

Happy holidays!

☃️ Foundation News

DIDcomm
We are delighted to announce that DIF is establishing a new working group, DIDcomm WG, that will focus on the further development and delivery of a specification based on the work previously started within the Hyperledger Aries community. We are thankful for everyone who was part of this process and we look forward to continuing the work on DIDcomm soon. Stay tuned!
Wayne Chang (Head of Product, Alpine/Consensys) and Jonathan Reynolds (Principal Software Engineer, Workday) are joining the Claims & Credentials Working Group as co-chairs. Kim Duffy (Researcher, MIT Digital Credentials Initiative) has taken a break from chairing due to schedule conflicts - we all thank you for your valuable contributions, Kim!

Working Group Updates

☂️ InterOp Project

Demonstrating interoperability across various teams/project and technology stack.

Chairs: Orie Steele & Rouven Heck
GitHub Repos: <interop> | <credential-handler-polyfill> | <encrypted-data-vaults> | <edv-client>

Credential Exchange Protocols: CHAPI & DIDComm, and Encrypted Data Vaults / Hubs. Link & Link & Link.

We primarily focused on evaluating maturity of solutions and order of operations for demonstrating the next layer of interop, namely: how do I get an issued credential to a holder, and where does the holder store it.

In the near future:

Leverage CHAPI to provide a web stack demo of the interop demo use case.

Establish an IPR protected location for further coordination regarding Hubs/EDV/DIDComm.

Additional comments:

Mobile wallet support for CHAPI has been identified as a key risk. Since most mobile phones have browsers, there is a natural need to show how a website can provide a credential to a mobile phone using CHAPI / browser APIs. If something stronger from a mobile wallet interop can be demonstrated (SIOP credential exchange), then we may shift gears to support it.

Please note:

If you would like your DID Method / Agent or Hub implementation to be supported, please use GitHub issues and contribute to the InterOp discussion in related working groups. Criticism is very welcome, don't be afraid to have strong opinions.

You can join the mailing list by signing up here.

Identifiers & Discovery

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

Chairs: Jude Nelson & Markus Sabadello
GitHub Repos: <universal resolver> | <.well-known> | <sidetree> | <keri>

Added KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) as new activity of the WG. Link.

Progressed on Universal Resolver CI/CD with Kubernetes and Github actions.

Worked on sidetree optimizations.

Experimented with "transform-keys" DID matrix parameter to convert public keys to JWK format. Link.

In the near future:

Continue working on all of the above.

Get the Universal Resolver an always up-to-date dev instance operated by DIF.

Storage & Compute

Secure, encrypted, privacy-preserving storage and computation of data.

Chairs: Daniel Buchner & Sam Curren
GitHub Repos: <identity-hub>

Participated in the first joint call between the different personal datastore constituencies (Identity Hubs, EDV, etc.). The outcome was rough consensus on high-level scope, and the need for a new call to determine where the specification work will take place (W3C, DIF, or IETF).

In the near future:

Decide on a place for the low-level datastore specification to be developed.

Coordinate the S&C WG efforts with that spec group to ensure Identity Hub compatibility when we begin work on the Identity Hub protocol layer that will run atop it.

🛡️ Claims & Credentials

Verifying claims and assertions of identities.

Chairs: Martin Riedel, Wayne Chang & Jonathan Reynolds
GitHub Repos: <did-jwt-wc> | <papers> | <credential-manifest>

Established a new bi-weekly meeting time of Tuesday at 3 PM ET.
Scheduled for December 17th an overview of Workday's approach to credential data formats, employment-related identity attributes, and data portability.
Kicked off the Claims & Credentials Taxonomy Initiative

DID Auth

DID-based authentication specs, standards, and libraries.

Chairs: Kyle den Hartog & Oliver Terbu
GitHub Repos: <authentication-wg> | <DIDComm-js> | <did-siop> | <did-authn/siop>

Applied new DID spec template to spec.

Working on DID Auth SIOP encryption spec: Link. & Link

Working on reference RP implementation for DID Auth SIOP.

In the near future:

Finishing up the work on DID Auth SIOP spec

Writing a blog article on SIOP.

🦌 Member Updates

Nuggets

Emma Maslen joined Nuggets as Commercial Advisor. Having previously held senior positions at SAP Concur & BMC Software, Emma brings over a decade of deep expertise in B2B technology to the role. Her main focus is to lead our GTM strategy, helping optimise revenue models & creating new business channels. Link.
Nuggets was acknowledged as a leader in Self-Sovereign Identity by One World Identity. For more information on the Identity Landscape, check the Industry News below!

Remme

On a mission to build an ecosystem of IAM products for decentralized human and machine IDs, Remme has released REMChain Testnet 2.0 with the mainnet following shortly. Join the playground to get a grasp of what the company is working on and how you can build dApps on top of Remme PKI Protocol. Link.
Remme is calling for REMChain Block Producers! The reward amount is not fixed and fully depends on the amount of services delivered by the paid PKI apps. Announce your candidacy now, collect votes and start getting rewards after the mainnet goes live. Join the network!

Industry News

Women in Identity

Emma Lindley, co-founder of Women in Identity has successfully completed her climb of the tallest mountain in North Africa (Mt Toubkal, 4,167m). With all the support, she has now raised enough funds to send four female delegates (double the original goal!) to next year’s ID4Africa 2020 Summit. Gender equity in identity systems will be a core theme and it is vital that we support #ID4Africa2020 in having women represented more strongly at the event, to ensure there is a balanced debate that reflects all voices. Link.

One World Identity

Each year, OWI designs an Identity Landscape, providing a comprehensive and holistic view of leaders in the identity space. As the identity industry rapidly develops, OWI’s landscape provides an unparalleled overview of how digital identity applications are evolving and how the companies and markets are shaping next-generation digital identity. Link.

🥂 Events

Personal Data Store Superfriends - Second Call

December 6, 10:00 - 11:30 (ET)

An open call for all. Join our discussion about an industry collaboration on decentralized identity storage solutions. In this session, we are going to talk about the location the work should be carried out, the necessary IPR regime and general directions about the topic.
Click here for the Calendar Event!

KNOW Identity Conference - Last Vegas

April 5-8, 2020

The event brings together a community of executives, thought leaders, product leaders, and rising startups to reimagine how we enable identity in the digital economy. Attend KNOW Identity from April 5 - 8, 2020 to forge new relationships, learn the latest industry trends, and make identity work better for everyone. Use discount code DIF2020 for 10% off the current registration price! Link.

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