Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is a new technology that allows users to control who sees their personal information and how it’s used.
Instead of having a single identity provider manage all of your data, SSI gives you control over who has access to your private information. With SSI, you’re in charge of who sees what about you—and can even decide who can use it for what purposes.
The idea behind SSI is that users should be able to take control over their own data. This means that when you’re using a third party service, like Facebook or Instagram, you don’t have to hand over all of your personal information—there’s nothing stopping you from deleting your account if you don’t want someone else looking at it!
In other words, Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is a new way of thinking about how we identify ourselves.
- It’s not about what you know, but who you are.
- It’s not about what you do, but who you are.
- It’s not about what you have, but who you are.
But what makes identity so important in Self-Sovereign identity?
Without identity, trust cannot be established and security cannot be guaranteed, privacy cannot exist and freedom will be limited.
This can all be seen in the way people use our IDs today: they’re used as passwords to access apps; they’re stored on devices (and possibly shared); they’re linked with other accounts or services—like social media accounts—and sometimes even used as payment methods.
So what is identity management & and how is it interlinked to SSI?
Identity management is the process of managing user identities, their authentication and authorization. It’s a complex problem because it involves many systems and people. But identity management has been around for a long time—it was first used by banks in the 19th century—and it’s critical to security, business operations and even personal privacy.
In this article later we’ll explore more on what identity management is, how it works and why you should care about it!
On the other hand, Self-sovereign identity will empower people and businesses to truly own their data.
In a world where everything you do online uses your personal information, you need to be in control of who has access to it and how it’s used.
This is why self-sovereign identity is important: it allows users to take back ownership over their own data by giving them full control over who can see what they share online.
So is Self-sovereign identity going to pave a way for the new change?
SSI has become a critical component of personal identity management (PIM), which is the process of managing all aspects of an individual’s life on the web, including identity, authentication, authorization and privacy. PIM is a tool used by companies and governments to protect consumer data from being misused or stolen.
The benefits of SSI are obvious: it allows users to regain control over their personal information and it prevents them from being tracked by third parties. SSI also makes it possible for businesses to build more trustworthy relationships with their customers because they know who those customers are before they start interacting with them.
Self-sovereign identity has been around for awhile but it’s only recently become mainstream thanks to technology like blockchain technology (which makes possible self-sovereign ID).
So we can say that Yes. It’s coming, and it’s going to be the biggest change to hit the internet yet.
What will be the end result of this new change?
The end result of self-sovereign identity is a world where individuals, businesses and governments can securely share personal data without having to rely on third parties. This will allow us to interact with each other in new ways that are more personal and secure than ever before.
For example:
- Individuals who use SSI will be able to save time by submitting their own documents instead of going through an impersonal bureaucracy like the government or bank.
- Businesses will have access to a more accurate picture of their customers, allowing them to know what products people want at any given time—and then sell those products!
So how does this new change or SSI work?
The identity owner is in control of the data, and can use it to prove who they are.
The identity owner has full control over who has access to their data by setting permissions for each piece of information about themselves (e.g., name, address).
For example: if you want someone else to have access to your email address but not your home phone number or credit card number, then simply select “Only those with permission” when asked for those permissions during setup time on our website.
Thus, we can rightly say that a self-sovereign identity model is centered around the user.
Digital identity offers an alternative to current identity models because of the problems they present. Without the need for physical documents, we can easily prove our identities using digital identities. In addition, they can help us prove things about ourselves, such as our age or our qualifications. Nonetheless, much of what has been developed within digital identity has ported existing paper-based system problems into the digital age.
With self-sovereign identities (SSI), it is possible to create a more user-centric, trustworthy, and privacy-preserving digital identity paradigm.
The basic idea behind SSI is to center control of information around the user. Privacy is safeguarded by removing the need to store personal information on a centralized database and giving individuals control over what information they share.
In order for this to work, at least three people need to take part;
- In this scenario, the holder is an individual, although it may also be an organization/company. In other words, the holder is the entity attesting to the information (e.g. you).
- Organizations, such as companies, certifier bodies, or governmental organizations, have been given a level of trust to provide information (for example, a public body that issued passports).
- Verifiers are individuals, corporations, governments, and so on to whom the holder must prove the legitimacy and trustworthiness of information (e.g. a bank you want to open an account with).
Sounds complex! Let Us Break The Summary Of What Is Said Down For You.
Self-sovereign identity is a term used to describe the idea that individuals have complete control over their own data. This means that we can decide what information should be shared with whom, when and where.
Self-sovereign identity is important because it will allow people to better control their lives and relationships; for example, by allowing you to make decisions about sharing your personal data with your friends or family members without having to ask them first – this could mean being able to send an email telling someone they’ve been added as a contact in Facebook without having been invited by them first!
In addition, self-sovereign identity will change how we interact with society as whole: imagine if there was no need anymore for passwords or codes when buying something from Amazon?
But is it all so easy, aren’t there any roadblocks to SSI Adoption?
The first thing to consider is that SSI adoption is not a simple solution. There are many roadblocks that can make it difficult, if not impossible, for organizations to move forward with SSI adoption:
- Privacy and security concerns: While privacy and security concerns are less common than they were in the past, they still exist and must be addressed by any organization looking to use self-sovereign identity in their business processes. In addition, there needs to be a clear understanding of what data will be collected by each party involved—and how this data will be used—before any agreement can be reached on the implementation process itself (e.g., which parties have control over which data).
- Legacy systems: If an organization has existing systems that rely on centralized authorities or third-party providers for authentication/authorization services such as SAML 2 or OpenID Connect 1 protocols then replacing them with these newer technologies may prove challenging due to compatibility issues caused by these legacy implementations being left unmodified over time…
To conclude, we can say that self-sovereign identity is a paradigm shift in identity ownership, management, and verification.
At the end of the day, self-sovereign identity is going to be a game changer for how we manage our identities. It’s going to empower people and businesses to truly own their data, which will lead to better customer experience as well as better security. If you have any questions or concerns about this new paradigm shift in identity ownership, management, and verification then we’re here for you!