January, 2020

Welcome to the 2020 January 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

  • DIDcomm WG is here.
    DIF is launching the long-awaited DID Communication Working Group that is based on work previously done at the Hyperledger Aries community. DIDcomm defines a secure messaging method for participants in a DID-based network and will support a broad set of DID methods. Read the announcement here
  • DIF APAC meeting - DIF is committed to enabling all types of organizations around the world to learn and make use of this technology.
    Therefore, DIF is establishing an open, non-technical, regional decentralized identity call in the Asia-Pacific region. The first meeting is on the 23rd of January at 3 PM (GMT+8), sign-up for the call through this form
    Read the announcement here
  • The DIF Glossary Project seeking your feedback to identify the diversity of uses of key terms (starting with agents, wallets, and credentials) in the decentralized identity ecosystem. These specific terms and questions came out of an initial survey of the broader DIF community last month. The group will explore more terms in the future. The survey is available here

🛠️ 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> | <vc-json-schemas>

Progress developing the VC JSON Schema Spec. Link & Link.

Resolved some signatures and JSON-LD compatibility issues.

Example of a hypothetical trade certificate (Certified Steel Mill Test Report), that uses both JSON Schema and JSON-LD.

In the near future:

Provide an encrypted data vault demo.

Additional comments:

There is now also a demo of CHAPI checked into the interop project repo. Link.

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. Opinions are welcomed.

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>

Discussed alignment between Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) and Sidetree-based DIDs.

Added drivers for did:ont and did:kilt methods to Universal Resolver.

In the near future:

Continue to work on KERI and Sidetree alignment.

Continue to work on Universal Resolver CI/CD.

Storage & Compute

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

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

Continued to engage the W3C CCG, Encrypted Data Vault developers, and other groups to create an identity datastore spec that the entire community can use as a standard base of development for things like Identity Hubs. The goal of all involved is to begin spec work in January.

In the near future:

Launch the combined, cross-organizational effort to develop a shared identity datastore spec and begin development within Q1 2020.

🛡️ Claims & Credentials

Verifying claims and assertions of identities.

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

Discussed the VC JSON Schema Specification introduced to W3C CCG. Link.

Discussed Credential Manifest for specifying inputs to credential outputs.

Discourse on Workday credentials and anonymous credentials moved to later this month.

Upcoming agenda TBD after confirming post-holiday scheduling.

In the near future:

Consolidate workstreams and begin rigid project management to ensure steady progress.

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>

Finishing up SIOP DID specification issues, providing an early version of a reference implementation.

In the near future:

Release the first version of SIOP DID spec.

Define new work items for the DID Auth WG.

Additional comments:

The DID Auth WG is asking for suggestions on new work items. Current options are: MFA using DIDs, VC exchange using OIDC, CHAPI. Feel free to participate in the discussion on #wg-auth Slack.

Events

KNOW Identity Conference - Las 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.

XXX (#30) - Internet Identity Workshop - Mountain View

April 28-30, 2020

  • The Internet Identity Workshop has been finding, probing and solving identity issues twice every year since 2005. We meet in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Every IIW moves topics, code, and projects downfield. Name an identity topic and it’s likely that more substantial discussion and work has been done at IIW than any other conference! Link

🖋️ DIF / Media

Introducing: DIDcomm WG
DIF and Hyperledger Aries community have come together and agreed to work on a common work item aimed at developing secure communication based on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) — hence the name DIDComm, which is short for DID Communication. Read more.

DIF APAC/ASEA meetings are here!
Decentralized identity technology is gaining momentum across the globe from local municipalities to national governments, with startups and even global corporations implementing the technology. Read more.

Metrics

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1k followers | 1,271 minutes read | 36 daily unique visitors
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3242 followers | 6,9k tweet impressions | 142 profile visits
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7,076 unique visitors

In the last 30 days.

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