Sovereign identity is one of the most revolutionary concepts that have been born recently. This new way of seeing identity will radically transform the way we handle and administer our data in an increasingly interconnected world.
UNot of the concepts that more popularity has begun to take within blockchain technology is that of sovereign identity.
Sovereign identity is nothing more than a form of digital identity in which the user has full control of their data. In addition to allowing you to manage who can access them and on what terms. The revolutionary nature of this concept has captured the attention of communities, organizations, individuals and even companies. All of them concerned about privacy and access to their data in the interconnected world we are in.
Amidst this revolutionary concept, the blockchain stands out for what it could be, the best foundation for this technology. A case especially related to the cryptographic properties, decentralization and security of blockchain technology.
In this sense, there have been many efforts to build a functional and standardized sovereign identity system. But this path has been very helpful. Not only to define well what is and what is not, the sovereign identity, but also to design and explore new technology in order to build it.
How does Sovereign Identity work?
In a sovereign identity system, the user who owns the identity has full and sovereign control of his identity at all times. This identity data is stored in a cryptographic format protected by asymmetric cryptography. In this way, the user can share data with third parties safely and without exposing himself to unwanted data leaks.
In addition to this, the user has control of each information transaction. In this point, each data exchange is in the terms established by the user. That is, the user is the one who decides what information to share, how much and with whom. This level of control is the main difference with federated or centralized digital identity systems.
In addition to this point, information sharing occurs on a fully decentralized system. In this system, each participant is able to approve or not by means of consensus if the identity data provided is true or false. There is no central authority, and there is no one who can dictate rules or censor actions. With this system, the aim is to guarantee that the data provided is not manipulated in one way or another.
Technology use cases
The use cases for sovereign identity technology are many and varied. Here we will describe some of them in a simple way:
Identification in web services
One of the main use of sovereign identity technology is integration with identification services in web services. With a sovereign identity system, it is possible to open accounts and log in simply pointing to the identity we have. This would be enough for the web services to give us access to their platform.
Verification of educational credentials
Sovereign identity is perfect for this use case. This therefore allows linking the identity user with a cryptographically secure educational certificate. This application is used for example by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This system is called Digital Certificates Project, and uses the Bitcoin blockchain. It stores the student's information and their certificate as irrefutable proof that the student has received said certificate. This system is complemented by a series of systems that make it possible to review and verify by means of identification that said person has the certificate issued by the institution.
Secure identification in electronic voting systems
One of the main flaws in today's voting systems is that they rely heavily on paper and centralized identification systems. These two situations lend themselves to the manipulation of the data of the voters and their votes. Therefore, one way to avoid this situation is a sovereign identity system. With this, each citizen is unequivocally identified within the system. There are no duplications, the possibility of false identities is shortened and this has a direct impact on the transparency of the elections. In addition to this, with secure cryptographic systems, it is impossible to relate the voter to their choice of vote. This prevents him from being coerced or persecuted for his political thinking.
The reasons for creating a sovereign identity system
The main reasons for designing a sovereign identity system against a centralized system are the following:
Security
Most of the digital identity systems that exist today are centralized. Its operation is based on large centralized databases that contain millions (or billions) of identity records. Due to their size and the information stored, these databases are high-value targets for hackers.
If we add to this, that the identity data they contain are relatively easy to steal and use, the concern increases. Hackers are very keen on these targets because the reward for a successful attack increases exponentially with the number of identities kept in that database. That is, the more identities a database has, the more vulnerable it is and the more valuable it is to attack. In addition to this, a single database backed up at a single point means a single point of failure. If the servers of that service are attacked, it means that millions of people may be affected by not being able to access it.
If we add to this the fact that this trusted third party "protects" Our digital identities have an internal security breach, it is very safe for our data to be leaked by unscrupulous hands. This scenario will sound very far from reality, but it is not. The reality is that more happens than many people think.
For example, Facebook handles identity data and other private data of its users. But its centralized structure has been the victim of several security flaws that hackers have used to steal information. An example of a security flaw in email protection allowed hackers to access user information without consent.
Avoid control by monopolies
If there was only one for-profit organization with a database that had the identity data of every person on the planet, it would have a monopoly. It could charge high prices for access to that data, and the "network effect" would effectively lock users out of the network. This, in turn, would create significant barriers to entry for new market entrants. In the absence of competitive pressure, monopoly pricing and reduced innovation would be likely. At this point, decentralized sovereign identity systems are the best way to combat this.
This thanks to the sovereign identity systems allow:
- Full control over the data by the user.
- Create decentralized, uncensorable and secure infrastructures to use their identities.
- Increase user privacy.
- Diversify and promote the innovation of identity services.
Access restrictions
In digital identity systems, the stored data is a person's representation. However, despite the fact that this data is theirs, said person faces restrictions to access digital data. That is, there is no complete control of the data, because a third party decides what the person can do with their own data.
To better exemplify this situation, let's look at the following example:
María and her false data control in a centralized system
María Bermúdez has a digital identity protected by the company Identidades Digitales. But Maria wants to delete her identity data in the database and for this she performs the deletion process. The point here is that the company "gives proof" that it has the identity record of María. But at the same time, she has kept a backup of said identity for security and monitoring reasons. In short, the company has not completely erased Maria's identity and data. While she must be satisfied with the certificate that she has received from the company about the "deletion" of her data.
At this point we can see that María does not have full access to her data and how to manage it. This is a situation that is often seen very often in the digital world, where our identities, real or not, are controlled by third parties. In addition to this, this lack of control provides the possibility for third parties to promote censorship. In this way, it is easy to prevent certain individuals from using their identities to access goods or services.
Sovereign identity over blockchain
It is interesting to see that the above three problems closely resemble the problems that blockchain and Bitcoin seek to solve in the economic world. But that should not surprise us, as it is an area that has been managed under the same vision as money. Identities or private data, all that is worth money. The companies that are dedicated to managing them know this better than anyone, our data is their merchandise.
So it is not surprising that we find such similar control principles. And the solution for this is clearly obvious: create decentralized systems to avoid it. The blockchain at this point is a system perfectly capable of carrying out this task. And in fact, much of the work that development communities are doing goes in that direction. At this point, it is important to highlight some sovereign identity projects that are currently under development.
NameID
This was one of the first sovereign identity systems to start using blockchain. The project NameID was designed by the developers of Namecoin. This is a blockchain that seeks to create a decentralized domain name system. Or what is the same, a decentralized and uncensorable blockchain-based web identification system. Thanks to the knowledge and expertise taken in building your system DNS Decentralized, Namecoin decided to start this new project.
Its name (NameID) derives from Namecoin + OpenID. OpenID, is a federated identification system that can be used on the internet to authenticate digital identities. This creates a cryptographic security layer that allows the use of OpenID safely. In this way, anyone who had a Namecoin identity could use it within the OpenID service. All this in a safe and transparent way.
Sovrin
Network Sovrin seeks to develop a new standard for sovereign identity. Their goal is to design a sovereign identity as easy to use as a driver's license or identity document.
Sovrin's high stakes have captured the attention of many communities. This thanks to the use of cryptographic technology such as Zero Knowledge Tests (ZKP) to create a safe environment.