"Where is my ID?"

“Can I have your ID please?”

When asked for an ID, we think of a Driver’s license, Passport, National ID card, or some physical card. That has been the case for decades. When we check into a hotel, we provide our physical ID card for verification. When applying for a loan or insurance, we provide a copy of our ID cards. When applying online for a University program or Employment, we provide a soft copy of an ID. The ecosystem has evolved to identify a person with many IDs. It allows them to provide proof of the same which can be verified with the issuer of the ID.

“Any Problem?”

But the major problem is, one doesn’t have any control over the IDs provided to a 3rd party. We have heard stories about IDs being abused for fraudulently procuring SIM cards and even residing under a false Identity. We have heard stories about ID theft and the entire bank account of citizens being wiped out in a matter of seconds. Yet, we had no option other than to trust that it will not be abused when we comply with a request to provide ID.

“OK. Do we have an option now?”

Well, we do have an option with Self Sovereign Identity (SSI). It gives individuals supreme control over their identity. It’s more than just a movement… it’s now a reality. SSI means the Citizens get complete autonomy in managing their credentials and can control who has access to them. It is an ecosystem play where the issuer of credentials and the verifier of credentials work in consent with the citizen who owns the credentials. The Citizen gets to store the pre-verified and digitized credentials, issued by any Issuer, in his mobile wallet after digitally signing and encrypting it. Yes… it’s useless to anyone hacking the phone or anyone who wants to take a photo of it! Any of these pre-verified credentials (or only a small section of a credential that is needed) can then be digitally transferred, with the Citizen’s consent, to any verifier without actually needing to verify it again with the Issuer!!

“But how does a Verifier know that the credentials that he receives from the Citizen were actually given by the Issuer and trust that the Credentials are not altered?”

Difficult to envisage that and see how it can ever be implemented? Well, like we said in our intro article, it’s already been done with Blockchain. The answer is Blockchain-based Decentralized ID for Credential management. That’s the topic for the next article.

Yes! Vlinder has the solution and we can demo it for you.

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