In order to increase the value of scientific datasets and improve research outcomes, it is important that only trustworthy data is used. This paper presents mechanisms by which scientists and the organisations they represent can certify the authenticity of characteristics and provenance of any datasets they publish so that secondary users can inspect and gain confidence in the qualities of data they source. By drawing on data models and protocols used to provide self-sovereign ownership of identity and personal data to individuals, we conclude that providing self-sovereignty to data assets offers a viable approach for institutions to certify qualities of their datasets in a cryptography secure manner, and enables secondary data users to efficiently perform verification of the authenticity of such certifications. By building upon emerging standards for decentralized identification and cryptographically verifiable credentials, we envisage an infrastructure of tools being developed to foster adoption of metadata certification schemes, and improving the quality of information provided in support of shared data assets.
Self sovereign identity is a form of decentralised credential management. During credential verification, data exchange only happens between the data owner and the verifier without passing through any third parties. While this approach offers a privacy-centric solution, it poses a challenge. How do verifiers trust that the credential is vouched by a trusted source? More specifically, how do verifiers know that the issuer has the reputation or is authorised to issue the credential? In this paper, we propose a trust registry design that handles the aspect of human trust in self sovereign identit…
Self-sovereign identity is the next evolution of identity management models. This survey takes a journey through the origin of identity, defining digital identity and progressive iterations of digital identity models leading up to self-sovereign identity. It then states the relevant research initiatives, platforms, projects, and regulatory frameworks, as well as the building blocks including decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, distributed ledger, and various privacy engineering protocols. Finally, the survey provides an overview of the key challenges and research opportunities a…
COD-ssi: Enforcing Mutual Privacy for Credential Oblivious Disclosure in Self Sovereign Identity
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)（阿卜杜拉国王科技大学）；Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI), National Research Council of Italy (CNR)（意大利国家研究委员会应用科学与智能系统研究所）；Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (IIT)（信息与电信研究所）；Department of Computer Science, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), University of Pisa（比萨大学计算机系，意大利国家研究委员会）
Most user authentication methods and identity proving systems rely on a centralized database. Such information storage presents a single point of compromise from a security perspective. If this system is compromised it poses a direct threat to users' digital identities. This paper proposes a decentralized authentication method, called the Horcrux protocol, in which there is no such single point of compromise. The protocol relies on decentralized identifiers (DIDs) under development by the W3C Verifiable Claims Community Group and the concept of self-sovereign identity. To accomplish this, we p…
Digital Identities are playing an essential role in our digital lives. Today, used Digital Identities are based on central architectures. Central Digital Identity providers control and know our data and, thereby, our Identity. Self Sovereign Identities (SSI) are based on a decentralized data storage and data exchange architecture, where the user is in sole control of his data and identity. Most of the issued credentials need the possibility of revocation. For a Central Digital Identity, revocation is easy. In decentral architectures, revocation is more challenging. Revocation can be done with …
This paper analyses the concept of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), an emerging approach for establishing digital identity, in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT). We contrast existing approaches for identity on the Internet, such as cloud-based accounts and digital certificates, with SSI standards such as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first thorough comparison of these approaches. The benefits and challenges of using DIDs and VCs to identify and authenticate IoT devices and their respective users are discusse…
Self-sovereign identity is a new identity management paradigm that allows entities to really have the ownership of their identity data and control their use without involving any intermediary. Blockchain is an enabling technology for building self-sovereign identity systems by providing a neutral and trustable storage and computing infrastructure and can be viewed as a component of the systems. Both blockchain and self-sovereign identity are emerging technologies which could present a steep learning curve for architects. We collect and propose 12 design patterns for blockchain-based self-sover…
Authentication with username and password is becoming an inconvenient process for the user. End users typically have little control over their personal privacy, and data breaches effecting millions of users have already happened several times. We have implemented a proof of concept decentralized OpenID Connect Provider by marrying it with Self-Sovereign Identity, which gives users the freedom to choose from a very large pool of identity providers instead of just a select few corporations, thus enabling the democratization of the highly centralized digital identity landscape. Furthermore, we pr…
Identity-Bound Academic Credentials on Blockchain: On-Chain Issuer Accreditation with ERC-3643 and OnchainID
Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa（里斯本大学高等技术学院）；Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID)（里斯本系统计算机工程研究所（INESC-ID））；Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa（里斯本理工学院高等工程学院）
Self-sovereign Identity (SSI) powered by distributed ledger technologies enables more flexible and faster digital identification workflows, while at the same time limiting the control and influence of central authorities. However, a global identity solution must be able to handle myriad credential types from millions of issuing organizations. As metadata about types of digital credentials is readable by everyone on the public permissioned ledger with Hyperledger Indy, anyone could find relevant and trusted credential types for their use cases by looking at the records on the blockchain. To thi…
As IoT becomes omnipresent vast amounts of data are generated, which can be used for building innovative applications. However,interoperability issues and security concerns, prevent harvesting the full potentials of these data. In this paper we consider the use case of data generated by smart buildings. Buildings are becoming ever "smarter" by integrating IoT devices that improve comfort through sensing and automation. However, these devices and their data are usually siloed in specific applications or manufacturers, even though they can be valuable for various interested stakeholders who prov…
Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is considered to be a "killer application" of blockchain. However, there is a lack of systematic architecture designs for blockchain-based SSI systems to support methodical development. An aspect of such gap is demonstrated in current solutions, which are considered coarse grained and may increase data security risks. In this paper, we first identify the lifecycles of three major SSI objects (i.e., key, identifier, and credential) and present fine-grained design patterns critical for application development. These patterns are associated with particular state tran…
Since its first introduction in late 90s, the use of marketplaces has continued to grow, today virtually everything from physical assets to services can be purchased on digital marketplaces, real estate is not an exception. Some marketplaces allow acclaimed asset owners to advertise their products, to which the services gets commission/percentage from proceeds of sale/lease. Despite the success recorded in the use of the marketplaces, they are not without limitations which include identity and property fraud, impersonation and the use of centralised technology with trusted parties that are pro…
Nowadays, there is a plethora of services that are provided and paid for online, like video streaming subscriptions, car or parking sharing, purchasing tickets for events, etc. Online services usually issue tokens directly related to the identities of their users after signing up into their platform, and the users need to authenticate using the same credentials each time they are willing to use the service. Likewise, when using in-person services like going to a concert, after paying for this service the user usually gets a ticket which proves that he/she has the right to use that service. In …
Federated identity management enables users to access multiple systems using a single login credential. However, to achieve this a complex privacy compromising authentication has to occur between the user, relying party (RP) (e.g., a business), and a credential service provider (CSP) that performs the authentication. In this work, we use a smart contract on a blockchain to enable an architecture where authentication no longer involves the CSP. Authentication is performed solely through user to RP communications (eliminating fees and enhancing privacy). No third party needs to be contacted, not…
Interoperation for data sharing between permissioned blockchain networks relies on networks' abilities to independently authenticate requests and validate proofs accompanying the data; these typically contain digital signatures. This requires counterparty networks to know the identities and certification chains of each other's members, establishing a common trust basis rooted in identity. But permissioned networks are ad hoc consortia of existing organizations, whose network affiliations may not be well-known or well-established even though their individual identities are. In this paper, we de…
Trustworthy Blockchain-based Federated Learning for Electronic Health Records: Securing Participant Identity with Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials
Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN)（里约格兰德北教育科学和技术联邦学院）
Password-authenticated identities, where users establish username-password pairs with individual servers and use them later on for authentication, is the most widespread user authentication method over the Internet. Although they are simple, user-friendly, and broadly adopted, they offer insecure authentication and position server operators as trusted parties, giving them full control over users' identities. To mitigate these limitations, many identity systems have embraced public-key cryptography and the concept of decentralization. All these systems, however, require users to create and mana…
