The Self-Sovereign Identity Company

Decentralized Identifiers:
The linchpin of SSI
@evernym | info@evernym.com | September 2019
A little about us

Drummond Reed Brent Zundel

Chief Trust Officer, Senior Crypto Engineer,
Evernym Evernym

Co-Author, Co-Chair,
DID Spec W3C DID Working Group

@drummondreed @brent_zundel
On the agenda
What are decentralized identifiers?

What does a DID look like?

How are DIDs being used today?

Why do we need standardization?

What has been the journey of standardization?

What is the significance of the W3C’s new Working Group?

Conclusion

Q&A
What is a DID anyway?
The linchpin of self-sovereign identity

IP addresses: the fundamental building blocks of

the Internet

DIDs: the fundamental building blocks of the

trust layer of the Internet
Decentralized Identifiers
(DIDs)
A new type of globally unique identifier
(URI) that does not require a centralized
registration authority because control of
the identifier can be proved using
cryptography.
DIDs have four core
properties:
1. A persistent identifier
You can keep it as long as you need it
2. A resolvable identifier
You can look it up to discover metadata
3. A cryptographically-verifiable identifier
You can prove control using cryptography
4. A decentralized identifier
No centralized registration authority is required
Comparison of DIDs
with URLs and email addresses
Property URL Email DID
Persistent (non-reassignable) ✘ ✘ ✔

Resolvable ✔ ✘ ✔

Cryptographically-verifiable ✘ ✘ ✔

Decentralized ✘ ✘ ✔

Human-friendly ✔ ✔ ✘
What does a DID look like?
URNs (Uniform Resource Names, RFC 8141)

DIDs
How are DIDs being used
today?
Some statistics
There are currently 32 DID methods registered in the
informal W3C Credentials Community Group DID
Method Registry

○ https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-method-registry/
○ Three for Bitcoin
○ Six for Ethereum

The Sovrin Foundation currently has 71 stewards

around the world hosting a public permissioned
distributed ledger for DIDs

The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario

have issued over 1.4 million verifiable business license
credentials based on DIDs
Why do we need
standardization?
Having a universal DID
standard enables:
● Interoperability: Use interoperable
standards so DID infrastructure can make
use of existing tools and software libraries
designed for interoperability.
● Portability: Be system and
network-independent and enable entities to
use their digital identifiers with any system
that supports DIDs and DID Methods.
● Simplicity: Favor a reduced set of simple
features in order to make the technology
easier to understand, implement, and
deploy.
● Adoption: Standards define the way things
are done on the web.
Today, there are at least
four categories of DIDs:
1. Ledger-based: DIDs that are registered and
resolved using blockchains or distributed
ledgers
2. Peer-to-peer: DIDs that are shared directly
peer-to-peer and do not require a public
ledger
3. Layer 2: DIDs that leverage a blockchain or
DLT but are not registered on it directly
(e.g., Microsoft ION)
4. Alternative: Interesting new types of DIDs
that do not meet all four core properties
With a universal standard, all
DIDs will be interoperable.

Everyone will be able to use the type of DID that

they trust.
DIDs pave the way for global
adoption

Governments, enterprises, and developers can

all benefit from:
● years of international collaboration;
● well-tested online technical references;
● educational materials; and,
● the economies of scale created by wider
use of a single standard.
What has been the journey of
DID standardization?
A brief history of DIDs

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Spring IIW: First DHS: Awards 1st DHS: DHS: DHS:

blockchain identity blockchain Identity R&D DKMS contract DKMS Design & DKMS Design &
discussions contracts awarded; work begins Architecture V3 Architecture V4
published published
W3C VCTF: A IIW+RWOT: DID Spec W3C CCG: DID Spec
Decentralized Hash work fully underway contributed W3C CCG: Second draft W3C CCG:
Table for the Web of DID Spec Community Final
IIW+RWOT: First DID Draft of DID Spec
Fall IIW: Decision to Spec nearly complete W3C CCG: Work on DID
begin blockchain ID WG Charter begins W3C:
projects DHS: First DID Spec DID WG Charter
published & contract approved
complete
 What’s next for DIDs?
And what’s the significance of the new
W3C DID Working Group?
Approval of a new
W3C DID Working Group
On September 5, the W3C approved the charter for a
new DID Working Group, bringing us one step closer to
an Internet-wide standard.

● Chairs: Dan Burnett (ConsenSys), Brent Zundel

(Evernym)
● Editors: Manu Sporny (Digital Bazaar), Drummond Reed
(Evernym), Markus Sabadello (Danube Tech)
● 54 participants from 18 member orgs
○ AKASHA, BrightLink, Conexxus, Credly, Etri, GS1,
Microsoft, Scottish Government, SecureKey, Sovrin
Foundation, Surf Net, Transmute, Universities
Admissions Centre, Wiley
Working Group
Deliverables
● Recommendation-Track Specification
○ Decentralized Identifiers v1.0
● W3C Notes
○ Decentralized Identifier Use Cases v1.0
○ Decentralized Characteristics Rubric v1.0
● Other Deliverables
○ Test Suite and Implementation Report
The path to becoming a W3C standard (rec)

Nov 2019 May 2020

Nov 2020
(FPWD) (Feature freeze)
(CR1) .
March 2021
Jul 2021 Aug 2021
(CR2)

Source: https://www.w3.org/2019/Process-20190301/
Learn more and get the
latest updates
● The DIDWG Charter
● The W3C DIDWG Page
● The Draft Spec
● Join the DIDWG
● Join the W3C
Conclusion
 DIDs may be plumbing,
but they are essential plumbing.

Without them, SSI would not be possible.

Take the next step in
your SSI journey
Join 50+ organizations taking SSI for a test flight.
evernym.com/plans
Take the next step in
your SSI journey
Join 50+ organizations taking SSI for a test flight.
evernym.com/plans
Thank you
Questions? Please drop them in the chat!

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@drummondreed
@brent_zundel
info@evernym.com