ION networksupport
Sphereon supports Microsoft’s ION Decentralized Indentifier (DID) network.
On Thursday March 25th, 2021, Microsoft announced the release of V1 of ION, an open, public, permissionless Layer 2 Decentralized Identifier network that runs atop of the Bitcoin blockchain via the DIF Sidetree protocol.
Sphereon is running a local ION node to provide the fastest lookup of ION DIDs, the highest level of security when interacting with ION DIDs, and ensures you can always resolve ION DIDs without depending on intermediaries.
About DIDs
DIDs, Decentralized Identifiers, are forming the basis for identity management in the future.
DIDs are a new type of identifier that enables a verifiable, decentralized digital identity. A DID identifies any subject that the owner of the DID decides that it identifies, like a person, organization, thing, data model, abstract entity, etc.
This is in contrast to typical federated identifiers: DIDs have been designed so that they may be decoupled from centralized registries, identity providers, and certificate authorities.
Why DIDs are important
One important reason DIDs are so important is that they play a central role in Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) applications. DIDs are used in Verifiable Credentials to prove who issued and authenticated the claim (data) that is stored in the Verifiable Credential.
Verifiable Credentials are crucial in establishing Trust in the digital world by enabling trusted data exchange between parties that do not know each other.
Now Microsoft has put its weight behind this technology!
About Verifiable Credentials
A Verifiable Credential is a tamper-evident data-object that contains a specific Claim and that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.
That Claim can be about anything about something or someone. Anything really.
- a certification of origin, like for coffee, steel or timber
- the value or providence of a diamond, piece of art or (antique) car
- your qualification or achievement, like a diploma, degree, certificate or competency
- personal information, like your birthday, home address, bank account
What makes a Claim verifiable is that it is digitally signed by an Issuer, like the government, school, employer, using its DID, and that this can be independently verified by you and by others.
These Issuers are sometimes also called Trusted Parties or as Oracles, but can be anyone, or actually anything.
Trust is derived from the fact that the Verifiable Credential is signed by one or multiple parties that you (or the third party) trusts. The more Trusted Parties confirm and sign it, the higher the level of trust.