Identity Working Group
Purpose
The Identity Working Group aims at facilitating the exchange of ideas, best practices and domain-specific knowledge between the digital identity and blockchain communities, including researchers, governments and international institutions.
The Working Group supports and fosters the creation of an identity ecosystem for interoperable, trusted blockchain services. This will be achieved by providing compliance and foundational layers for the governance and interoperability of identity systems that can be used in blockchain applications.
Objectives
The Working Group has selected five objectives around which it will carry out its annual work:
• Creating a positioning on how trust is defined in decentralized identity and how trust in SSI services can be evaluated/assessed in the different parts of the world
• Fostering dialogue with the EU policymakers and decision-makers around the topic of eIDAS and the upcoming EU Digital ID
• Organise and run workshops focused on interoperability with stakeholders from projects such as DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Program, EBSI-ESSIF, ESSIF-Lab, Canadian SSI projects, ToIP, etc.
• Collaborate with the INATBA standardisation committee with a focus on 'ISO TC 307', 'ITUT' and 'CEN-CENELEC' to coordinate on projects and documents.
Outputs
The Working Group engages in a number of activities aimed at achieving the aforementioned objectives. Among others, the WG focuses on: furthering the reach of the SSI paper, building bilateral engagement with DGs Connect and Just, organise roundtable with the Privacy Working Group on impact of privacy regulations on decentralised identity, organise a technical-oriented event for SSI-based projects.
Work to Date
The Identity Working Group published a position paper on decentralised identity with a focus on self-sovereign identity and hosted a follow-up event debating the paper's stances. Members of the Working Group participated in bilateral discussions on the reviewed version of the eIDAS and responded to the European Commission's public consultation on the eIDAS regulatory framework.
Why is it essential?
Identity plays an essential role for trusted blockchain applications. It is needed to create a collaborative context with a high level of transparency to encourage honest and good players to provide business value-added functions and supports governance and interoperability.
