DIF Newsletter #39

April 2024

DIF Website | DIF Mailing Lists | Meeting Recording Archive

Decentralized Identity Foundation News; 2. Working Group Updates; 3. Open Groups; 4. Announcements at DIF; 5. Community Events; 6. DIF Members; 7. Get involved! Join DIF

🚀 Decentralized Identity Foundation News

The community welcomes Ankur Banerjee to the Helm of DIF TSC

Ankur Banerjee.jpg

DIF is excited to announce that Ankur Banerjee has been elected as the new co-chair of the DIF Technical Steering Committee (TSC). Ankur plays an increasingly critical role at DIF, and last year he was elected to the DIF Steering Committee. He joins current co-chair Andor Kesselman, and together they are bound to drive DIF's mission forward with renewed vigor and vision.

“We are extremely fortunate to have Ankur join us in a TSC leadership role," said Kim Hamilton Duffy, DIF’s Executive Director. "As decentralized identity technology continues to mature, it finds broader adoption across diverse markets and use cases, making the need for interoperability and compliance with emerging regulations more critical than ever. Ankur’s deep expertise across both consumer and enterprise spheres aligns perfectly with our strategic goals. His leadership will be crucial in navigating these evolving landscapes and ensuring that DIF remains at the forefront of technological innovation and standards development.”

"I am deeply honored to take on the role of co-chair of the DIF Technical Steering Committee. Decentralized identity technology is at an inflection point for adoption, where the basic building blocks of the standards are built and settled. I look forward to supporting DIF member organizations in accelerating their industry-wide efforts to make it easier for developers to build usable, privacy-preserving experiences that give users control of their data,” said Ankur Banerjee.

We encourage all our readers and members to extend their warmest welcome to Ankur. More here.

DIF Labs
DIF will soon roll out the "Labs" Working Group. This WG is focused on bringing decentralized identity into real-world applications and uses. We're having a preliminary meeting for people interested in joining this effort. We're collecting meeting time preferences here and we'll follow up with more details.

Internet Identity Workshop 38 - report out

DIF was delighted to sponsor the opening circle at the 38th Internet Identity Workshop. DIF sessions highlighted ongoing work items, community activities, and exciting upcoming groups and announcements. More details will follow in the coming weeks.

Andor Kesselman and Kim Hamilton Duffy presented DIF's upcoming "Labs" Working Group, part of DIF's 2024 developer offerings
Andor, Sam Curren, and Alex Tweeddale led a lively Trust Registry Face Off

Sam Curren presented OpenIDidComm, which bridges OpenId and DIDComm. You'll be hearing much more about this soon!
Otto Mora and Kim described a new Credential Schemas work item in the Claims and Credentials Working Group, focused on credentials supporting KYC, age, and proof of humanity use cases
Brian Richter and Jan Christoph Ebersbach presented Linked VP, which defines how to share, discover and retrieve Verifiable Credentials publicly via a service entry in a DID Document.
Limari Navarrete led a session on DIF Hackathons, and was joined by Ken Watanabe of Waseda University, who presented his team's winning submission from the DIF hackathon for an Anonymous Door Unlocking System using VCs, BBS+, DWNs, and ZKP.

Daniel Buchner and Liran Cohen presented Decentralized Web Nodes and gave a preview to some upcoming highlights. More to come!
Gabe Cohen presented did:dht, a DID method based on BitTorrent
Limari and Steven McCown presented an Introduction to SSI with a great discussion on the fundamentals

DIF unveils Decentralized Web Nodes at W3C

Andor Kesselman, Daniel Buchner and Kim Hamilton Duffy presented Decentralized Web Nodes, a DIF work item at the W3C Credentials Community Group Call on 23 April. Andor presented the specification, Daniel gave a demo, and Kim gave a preview of DIF's upcoming Labs Working Group.

Resources

Slides are available here (includes embedded links.)
Companion Guide is available here (includes technology comparison.)
DWN Spec is available here.

The transcript for the call is available here.
Audio is available here.
Video is available here.

DIF adds Refunite as new liaison partner

Refunite is a non-profit helping refugee families reconnect in a way that protects their privacy, and therefore safety.

Refunite successfully reunites 65,000 family members annually (c.f. Red Cross at ~20/year). It has achieved these results through its adaptive, resilient, scalable approach that builds on local trust frameworks, underlining the potential of decentralized systems to address some of the most pressing challenges in humanitarian contexts. Designed for the safety and confidence of its user base, it has 1 million registered users.

DIF Interoperability Group
The Interoperability Group plans to recharter in the DIF Labs Working Group. See DIF Labs announcement above, and Open Groups section below.

Linux Foundation Survey
DIF is partnering with Linux Foundation for their "State of Open Standards" survey. This year focuses on innovation and IP. Anyone is welcome to participate, click here.

DIDComm survey
Do you use DIDComm? We want to hear about it! Let us know how you're using DIDComm here.

🛠️ Working Group Updates

Claims & Credentials Working Group

Presentation Exchange: Version 2.1 has passed working group approval, soon to undergo Steering Committee vote, see here.

The Claims and Credentials Working Group will relaunch a credentials schema work item. Contact community@identity.foundation if interested

If you are interested in participating in any of DIF's Working Groups, please click here.

📖 Open Groups at DIF

☂️ DIF Interoperability Group

The DIF Interoperability group plans to recharter in the DIF Labs WG in order to focus on the following deliverables.

Ecosystem Mapping: To create an Ecosystem Mapping Report, providing a thorough analysis of the current landscape, including stakeholders, technologies, and standards.
Gap Analysis: To identify and document gaps in interoperability, technology, and stakeholder engagement that are hindering the ecosystem's effectiveness.
Best Practices and Guidelines: To compile and disseminate best practices and guidelines that promote interoperability within the ecosystem.
Strategic Recommendations: To offer actionable recommendations for stakeholders to address identified gaps and enhance interoperability.

Please contact Elena (elena@credivera.com) if you are interested in participating.

📢 Announcements at DIF

ID4Africa 2024 AGM

DIF is leading the penultimate segment in Advanced Digital Credentials Management, a plenary session at the ID4Africa 2024 AGM in Cape Town on 23 May.

We'll be taking delegates on a journey 'from policy to reality' as Steering Committee member Catherine Nabbala and Communications Director Damian Glover join Anand Acharya of the Bhutan NDI scheme to describe how verifiable credentials are helping digitize travel and wider society in Thailand and Bhutan.

If you're planning to attend the AGM, we hope to see you there. We'll be at Stand A07 throughout the conference, come and say hello!

European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC) 2024

DIF is also playing a prominent role at EIC in Berlin from 4 to 7 June. DIF staff, Steering Committee members and other member orgs are participating in a series of keynotes, presentations and panel discussions - check out the agenda here.

DIF members are eligible for a 25% reduction on their ticket to attend EIC (on top of any other discounts). Simply enter code eic24dif25members during the last step of booking: click here to buy your ticket.

🗓️ ️Community Events

Coffee Break with Dentity

Coffee breaks reminder: reminder that these are every Thursday
Next up: Jeffrey Schwartz, Founder and CEO, Dentity
Follow https://twitter.com/DecentralizedID to get updates

🗓️ ️DIF Members

Guest blog: Cole Davis

cole davis.jpg

The Founder and CEO of DIF member Switchchord shares some enlightening insider insights into the music business, and why decentralized identity holds the key to bringing the music supply chain into the twenty-first century. Check out the guest blog here.

New Member Orientations

If you are new to DIF join us for our upcoming new member orientations. Please subscribe to DIF’s eventbrite for upcoming notifications on orientations and events which can be found here.