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The SSI Orbit Podcast – Self-Sovereign Identity, Decentralization and Digital Trust

The SSI Orbit Podcast – Self-Sovereign Identity, Decentralization and Digital Trust

By Mathieu Glaude

Conversations with tech entrepreneur Mathieu Glaude and his guests, exploring the ever-growing ecosystems around Self-Sovereign Identity, Decentralized Technologies and Digital Trust.
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#15 - Social KYC, an Alternate Form of Identity Verification for Web3, with Ingo Rübe

The SSI Orbit Podcast – Self-Sovereign Identity, Decentralization and Digital TrustJun 17, 2021

00:00
47:56
#69 - Content Authenticity: Combating Deepfakes, Misinformation and Fraud (with Eric Scouten)

#69 - Content Authenticity: Combating Deepfakes, Misinformation and Fraud (with Eric Scouten)

Have you ever questioned the authenticity of online content? In today's digital landscape, it's becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction. Join host Mathieu Glaude as he welcomes Eric Scouten from Adobe's Content Authenticity Initiative to discuss solutions for verifying the provenance and integrity of digital media.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

  • The challenges of combating misinformation and disinformation online
  • How the Content Authenticity Initiative aims to differentiate legitimate content
  • The role of technical standards like C2PA in establishing content provenance
  • Strategies for ensuring individual and organizational content authorshipDon't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into the world of content authenticity and learn how to separate truth from deception online. Tune in now!


00:00 - Intro to Content Authenticity Initiative, C2PA

09:43 - Content Supply Chains

14:57 - Type of Content Covered under Content Authenticity Initiative

22:00 - How does the C2PA work?

25:40 - User Experience for Content Publishers and Consumers

29:40 - Tracking Content Edits through Actions Assertions

31:30 - Machine, Organization and Human Signatures

39:00 - What does the broader Content Authenticity Ecosystem Look Like?

41:04 - Creator Assertions Working Group, Ongoing Deployments, Metadata Storage, Closing Thoughts

Mar 22, 202448:46
#68 - eIDAS 2.0: Predicting Its Impact on Various Ecosystems (with Dominik Beron)

#68 - eIDAS 2.0: Predicting Its Impact on Various Ecosystems (with Dominik Beron)

In this episode of the SSI Orbit Podcast, host Mathieu Glaude talks with Dominik Beron, Co-Founder and CEO of walt.id, about the game-changing eIDAS 2 regulation and its impact on decentralized identity across Europe. They explore organizations' growing interest in issuing credentials, the potential challenges facing traditional identity verification companies, and the mixed sentiments surrounding the regulation's timing.


01:29 Significance of EIDAS 2

10:28 Potential Disruption of Identity Verification Companies

13:13 Negative Sentiments towards EIDAS 2

21:19 Alignment in Digital Identity Offerings of Different Nation States 

25:36 Role of European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI)

30:33 Value of Digital Credentials on Blockchain Networks

40:00 The Genesis of Open Source Strategy

44:16 Benefits of Building an Open Source Company

48:53 Contributing to Open Source Projects

50:23 The Future of Wallets

55:13 Digital Signatures and Identity Wallets

Mar 08, 202401:00:32
#67 - Exploring Digital Credential Protocols: Aries, OpenID4VC, ISO, KERI (with Hakan Yildiz and Vladimir Simjanoski)

#67 - Exploring Digital Credential Protocols: Aries, OpenID4VC, ISO, KERI (with Hakan Yildiz and Vladimir Simjanoski)

In this episode, Mathieu Glaude hosts Hakan Yildiz from Accenture and Vladimir Simjanoski from Blokverse to explore the world of digital credential protocols like Aries, OpenID4VC, ISO, and KERI. The discussion provides a comprehensive analysis of these protocols, focusing on their interoperability, privacy, and the future of digital identity. The episode highlights critical issues like combating deepfakes and the Trust Over IP Foundation’s Credential Exchange Protocol task force. Join us for this insightful conversation. 0:22 - 18:48 - Comparing Digital Credential Exchange Protocols: Aries, OpenID, ISO and KERI 18:49 - 26:22 - Profiles, Interoperability, Test Suites 26:23 - 36:15 - Interoperability from the Perspectives of Issuers, Holders and Verifiers 36:17 - 44:10 - Protocol Requirements for Humans, Organisations, and Machines 44:11 - 53:08 - Surveillance and Correlation, Privacy Considerations 53:09 - 58:38 - Deciding Data Sharing: Balancing Autonomy, Regulations, and Governance for Holders 58:39 - 1:02:41 - Combating Deepfakes: Enhancing Content Authenticity with Digital Credentials and Signatures. 1:02:43 1:07:27 - Vision Behind the Trust over IP’s Credential Exchange Protocol Task Force

Feb 23, 202401:07:27
#66 - Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (with Markus Sabadello)

#66 - Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (with Markus Sabadello)

Markus Sabadello has been a pioneer and leader in the field of digital identity for many years and has contributed to cutting-edge technologies that have emerged in this space.

He is co-editor of the Decentralized Identifiers specification at W3C and co-chair of the Identifiers and Discovery Working Group at the Decentralized Identity Foundation.

Markus is founder of Danube Tech, a consulting and development company that works on DID-related infrastructure and products, including the Universal Resolver, Universal Registrar, and the Godiddy.com platform.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/decentralized-identifiers-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Markus and Mathieu in this episode include:

  1. [00:47] Comparison of DIDs to Other Verifiable Identifiers: Exploring how DIDs contrast with other types of verifiable identifiers and their benefits over traditional identifiers like email addresses and phone numbers.
  2. [11:50] How to trust a DID?: Identifying the technical and governance aspects necessary for trusting DIDs.
  3. [15:46] Building Trust Around DID Methods: Discussing the challenges and approaches to building trust in various DID methods, considering technical integrity and governance.
  4. [23:34] Multi-Factor Authentication for DIDs: Considering whether incorporating multi-factor authentication concepts into DIDs is a viable framing.
  5. [25:34] Governance and Human Trust Inputs in DID Documents:Debating the inclusion of governance or human trust inputs in DID documents and whether these should remain purely technical.
  6. [31:13] Placing Claims in DID Documents: Discussing the implications of including claims in DID documents, especially concerning privacy, correlation, and data privacy laws.
  7. [39:11] Opportunities for DIDs: Identifying opportunities for DIDs to become easier to use, deploy, and provide value, including DID method discovery.
  8. [44:04] Value of DIDs Across Different Protocols: Questioning whether a particular DID method retains the same value across different credential exchange protocols.
  9. [52:01] Why the Market Should Focus More on Identifiers: Reflecting on the emphasis on verifiable credentials over identifiers and trust models in the context of ongoing digital identity programs.
  10. [58:00] Working Groups and Activities for DIDs: Highlighting current working groups and activities related to DIDs where listeners can contribute and engage.

Where to find Markus?

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Feb 09, 202401:00:45
#65 - The Digital Travel Credential (DTC) (with Daniel Bachenheimer)

#65 - The Digital Travel Credential (DTC) (with Daniel Bachenheimer)

Daniel Bachenheimer is Accenture’s Digital Identity Innovations Technical Lead and has been designing and delivering solutions for various clients for over 30 years. For the past 20 years, Dan has focused on Border Management and Identity Management solutions and has been involved in large-scale Identity systems including US-VISIT and UIDAI, Trusted Traveler Programs, Multimodal Biometric systems integration, RFID implementations, along with Identity, Credential and Access Management solutions. Dan participates in biometrics standards (INCITS, ISO/IEC SC37), blockchain standards (ISO TC307), ID Cards and Wallets (INCITS, ISO/IEC 17, is an IEEE Certified Biometrics Professional, is a Biometrics Institute Director and Privacy Expert Group contributing member, is Co-Chair of INATBA’s Identity Working Group is the Vice Chair of IATA’s Identity Management Working Group, is an ID2020 Technical Advisory Committee contributing member, participates in ToIP, DIACC, WTTC, WEF, and Turing Institute Digital Identity working groups, and has contributed to World Economic Forum and World Bank reports related to Identity.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/the-digital-travel-credential-dtc-with-daniel-bachenheimer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Daniel and Mathieu in this podcast episode include:

  1. Governance of International Air Travel: Inquiry about the organization responsible for developing international standards and specifications for smooth airport experiences across different countries.
  2. ICAO's Role and Dynamics: Exploration of ICAO's governance and business interactions with countries like the United States and Canada. Discussion on the creation and alignment of passports through ICAO's collaboration with various countries.
  3. Machine Authentication and Passport Digitization: Examination of the trend towards machine authentication at airports and its impact on the digitization of physical passports.
  4. Biometrics in International Travel: Inquiry about the alignment of biometric standards and technologies across countries for travel purposes.
  5. Photo Accuracy in Travel Documents: Discussion on the accuracy of photos in travel documents and their comparison across different locations.
  6. Integrity of Various Travel Documents: Comparison of the integrity and standards of images in passports, visas, and driver's licenses for biometric assessments.
  7. Digital Travel Credential (DTC): Introduction to the concept of the digital travel credential and its relation to current travel processes. Exploration of the benefits of moving towards a digital travel credential. Discussion on the standards and application integration of digital travel credentials.
  8. Benefits of DTC for Travelers: Analysis of how DTCs could streamline travel processes and their comparison to existing programs like Clear and Nexus.
  9. Future of DTC Adoption: Inquiry into the current state of DTC pilot projects and predictions for future adoption trends.
  10. Integration of DTCs in Wallets and Applications: Consideration of the logical placement of DTCs in digital wallets and applications, and their potential impact on travel efficiency.

Where to find Daniel?

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Dec 15, 202301:09:26
#64 - Digital Trust in the Age of Generative AI [Part 2] (with Wenjing Chu & Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay)

#64 - Digital Trust in the Age of Generative AI [Part 2] (with Wenjing Chu & Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay)

Both guests co-chair the ‘AI and Metaverse Task Force’ at the Trust over IP Foundation. Wenjing Chu is a senior director of technology strategy at Futurewei. He is a founding Steering Committee member of the Trust over IP Foundation and a founding Board Member of the OpenWallet Foundation. Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay works on Standards, Community and Customer Experience at Dhiway. He is also a Trustee at the Sovrin Foundation and a co-author of the Principles of SSI published and maintained by the Sovrin Foundation.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/digital-trust-in-the-age-of-generative-ai-part-2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Wenjing, Sankarshan and Mathieu in this podcast episode include,

  1. OpenAI Drama - Discussion about the recent OpenAI drama, including Sam Altman's firing and rehiring, and Microsoft's involvement.
  2. AI Governance and AI Misconceptions - Why we should focus on AI governance rather than getting caught up in daily news and doom scenarios. Discussion about misconceptions in AI, specifically statistical and computational misconceptions. Exploring practical solutions for digital trust in AI.
  3. Provenance and Authentication in AI - The importance of provenance in AI applications, such as robotics or content creation. Challenges in authentication and the need for stronger solutions. The applicability of these solutions across various domains.
  4. Content Authenticity - Defining content authenticity and its governance. The distinction between machine-generated and human-verified content.
  5. Digital Trust and Content Authenticity - Discussing digital trust in the context of AI. Separating protocols from end-user platforms. The role of content authenticity in digital trust. Examples of current approaches to content authenticity on the internet.
  6. Truth and Trust Registries - Human pursuit of truth and the influence of context and consumption. The role of trust registries in providing inputs for trust decisions. The need for widespread inputs to aid in making trust decisions.

Where to find Wenjing?

Where to find Sankarshan?

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Dec 01, 202301:10:32
#63 - Secure Organizational Identity (with Lance Byrd)

#63 - Secure Organizational Identity (with Lance Byrd)

Lance Byrd is a secure organizational identity developer at GLEIF and co-founder of RootsID. He has been working on secure global scale data systems for over 20 years. He is helping to build the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) ecosystem to facilitate trusted interactions between legal entities around the globe. He is the co-chair of the Trust over IP (ToIP) did:webs task force which is an effort to secure did:web and bridge the DID-based ecosystem with the vLEI ecosystem. He participates in many open source and specification efforts with Trust over IP, KERI, Decentralized Identity Foundation, Hyperledger, and W3C. And, has given public talks on SSI, KERI, the vLEI ecosystem, identity wallets, DIDComm, and more.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/secure-organizational-identity-with-lance-byrd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Lance and Mathieu in this podcast episode include:

    1. Differences Between Personal and Organizational Identity: We explored the unique challenges and political concerns surrounding personal identity, contrasting them with the complexities yet seemingly smoother processes in organizational identity.
    2. Legal and Privacy Concerns in Identity Management: The discussion highlighted how legal structures and privacy concerns shape the management of both personal and organizational identities, with a special focus on GDPR and its implications.
    3. Governance and Trust in Organizational Identity: The conversation shifted to the role of governance and trust in shaping organizational identity, using examples like the EU Banking Authority to illustrate these concepts.
    4. Integrity of Signatures and Cybersecurity: We discussed the critical importance of signature integrity in preventing cybersecurity attacks, examining recent incidents like the MGM Okta attack.
    5. Security Mechanisms and Key Rotation: The podcast touched upon the importance of security mechanisms like key rotation in enhancing digital security, differentiating it from traditional password changes.
    6. The Interplay of Security Features and User Experience: We delved into how user experience and design play a crucial role in the adoption of security technologies, balancing ease of use with robust security measures.
    7. Differences in UX Between Consumer and Organizational Contexts: The discussion concluded with an examination of the varying approaches to user experience in consumer versus organizational settings, and the challenges in changing consumer behaviour regarding privacy and security.

Where to find Lance?

Follow Mathieu Glaude

Nov 17, 202301:15:04
#62 - The Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI): What it takes for a Nationwide Launch (with Kumar Gajmer and Pallavi Sharma)

#62 - The Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI): What it takes for a Nationwide Launch (with Kumar Gajmer and Pallavi Sharma)

Kumar Gajmer is the Product Manager and the Technical Lead for the Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI) Project. He started his career in IT in 2008 as a Software Engineer. After completion of his high school in Bhutan, he did his bachelor's in Information Technology from Anna University, India. Pallavi Sharma leads Marketing and Communications for the Bhutan National Digital Identity (NDI) Project. As part of the role, she drives media, public relations, and education campaigns to accelerate adoption of the Bhutan NDI digital wallet. She also works in close liaison with national and international stakeholders for enhanced product positioning and visibility.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/bhutan-national-digital-identity-ndi-what-it-takes-for-a-nationwide-launch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Kumar, Pallavi and Mathieu in this podcast episode include,

  1. Project Goals and Context - What were the overall goals of the Bhutan NDI project, and how do they relate to the specific context and needs of Bhutan?
  2. Financial Inclusion and Digital Identity - How does focusing on financial inclusion as a starting point influence the approach to digital identity in Bhutan?
  3. Decentralized Architecture Decision - What research and considerations led to the choice of a decentralized architecture for Bhutan's digital identity program?
  4. Legal Framework and Privacy - How is privacy integrated into Bhutan's legislation, and what legal adjustments were made to accommodate digital identity?
  5. Legislative Process Duration and Challenges - What was the timeline and were there any significant challenges in developing the National Digital Identity Act?
  6. Governance and Public-Private Partnership - What does the governance body for the NDI look like, and how does the public-private partnership model function?
  7. Business Strategy and Ecosystem Growth - How were use cases developed, and what strategies were employed to grow the ecosystem and foster public-private partnerships?
  8. Voluntary Participation - Is participation in the digital ID system optional for Bhutanese citizens?
  9. Use Case Categorization - How are use cases categorized and prioritized within the digital identity framework?
  10. Foundational Identity Credential - What does the foundational identity credential look like, and what government records form its basis?
  11. Private Sector Collaboration - What challenges were faced in educating and gaining buy-in from the private sector for the new digital identity infrastructure?
  12. Private Sector as Credential Issuers - Are there concerns from the private sector about the risks associated with becoming credential issuers?
  13. Technology and Wallet Infrastructure - Why was a decision made to develop a specific wallet for Bhutan's NDI instead of using existing wallet infrastructures like Apple or Google Wallet?
  14. International Standards and Compatibility - How were international standards considered in the development of Bhutan's digital identity infrastructure to accommodate foreigners?

Where to find Kumar?

Where to find Pallavi?

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Nov 03, 202301:05:10
#61 - How Digital Credentials are Transforming Learning Data (with Kate Giovacchini & Andrew A. Johnson)

#61 - How Digital Credentials are Transforming Learning Data (with Kate Giovacchini & Andrew A. Johnson)

Kate Giovacchini (Arizona State University) and Andrew Johnson (Fluree, PBC) are both working on The Trusted Learner Network (TLN) initiative, a new, secure, and decentralized approach to recording, curating, and sharing learner data on abilities and skills across the learner’s lifespan. Kate Giovacchini is a higher education technology leader who passionately believes in the power of education to change lives and change the world. She has nearly a decade of experience working at Arizona State University where she has spent her time working in the areas of online education technology, business intelligence, ERP delivery, and large initiative execution. Andrew Johnson is a lead software engineer at Fluree, PBC where he leads architecture and implementation for client projects. He's worked on software development solutions for projects that include university student information systems, patent publication records, consumer data ownership, and federal public housing policy.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/how-digital-credentials-are-transforming-learning-data⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Kate, Andrew and Mathieu in this podcast episode include,

  1. Impact of freely available online information on higher education - How has the trend of easily accessible online information, such as courses and certificates, influenced the strategies of universities and higher education institutions?
  2. Value of diplomas and other credentials in the modern age - With the rise of various credentials and certificates, is the traditional university diploma still as valuable? What other credentials might a learner want to accumulate?
  3. Modernizing systems of records and the role of issuers - How are systems of records being modernized to make credentials more mobile and trusted? Who are the potential issuers beyond traditional universities?
  4. Value of personal references and incentives for issuers - Is there value in making it easier for individuals, like professors, to provide references or credentials? How do incentives differ for various types of issuers?
  5. Importance of governance in the context of digital credentials - With the growing focus on governance over technology, how is the authenticity and trustworthiness of digital credentials being ensured?
  6. User experience (UX) and wallet infrastructure for digital credentials - How is the user experience being optimized for digital credential wallets? Where will learner credentials be stored, and how will they be accessed?
  7. Role of verifiers in the TLN digital credential ecosystem - How are verifiers being integrated into the network, and how does their role tie into the prioritization of use cases? How will the adoption of digital credentials be spurred among verifiers?

Where to find Kate?

Where to find Andrew?

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Oct 20, 202301:14:35
#60 - Trust Spanning Protocol: Seven Key Pillars (with Drummond Reed)

#60 - Trust Spanning Protocol: Seven Key Pillars (with Drummond Reed)

Drummond Reed has spent a quarter-century in Internet identity, security, privacy, and trust infrastructure. He is Director, Trust Services at Gen Digital, previous Avast after their acquisition of Evernym, where he was Chief Trust Office. He is co-author of the book, Self-Sovereign Identity (Manning Publications, 2021), and co-editor of the W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DID) 1.0 specification. At the Trust over IP Foundation, Drummond is a member of the Steering Committee and co-chair of the Governance Stack Working Group and the Concepts and Terminology Working Group.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/trust-spanning-protocol-seven-key-pillars⁠⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Drummond and Mathieu in this podcast episode include:

  1. Internet's Broken State: Is the internet considered broken due to issues with security, privacy, authenticity, and confidentiality (SPAC)? How does this relate to the work in the digital trust space, especially with Trust over IP?
  2. Trust over IP's Role: How does the Trust over IP technology architecture address the internet's shortcomings? Is the SPAC acronym a good framework for understanding the Trust over IP's approach?
  3. Design Principles of Trust Finding Protocol: During the design phase of the trust spanning protocol, were there any trade-offs or concessions made, especially in terms of security, privacy, authenticity, or confidentiality?
  4. Pillar 1: Verifiable Identifiers: Explaining the importance of verifiable identifiers as the first key pillar in the design of the trust spanning protocol.
  5. Interoperability and Identifiers: Will endpoints need to support the same types of identifiers for interoperability? How does one endpoint evaluate another's capability to support a particular identifier?
  6. Pillar 2: End-to-End Authenticity & Confidentiality: How does the trust spanning protocol ensure both authenticity and confidentiality in communications?
  7. Pillar 3: Direct Connections: How does the trust spanning protocol handle direct connections between endpoints using different types of channels?
  8. Pillar 4: Routing via Intermediaries: How does the protocol handle routing through intermediaries to ensure privacy and security? What might a practical implementation of this look like in the future?
  9. Pillar 5: Relationship Context Channels: How does the trust spanning protocol handle changes in the context of interactions between endpoints?
  10. Pillar 6: Text and Binary Encoding: How does the trust spanning protocol standardize the way endpoints communicate using text and binary encoding?
  11. Pillar 7: Trust Task Protocol Framework: What is the trust task protocol framework, and how does it relate to specific protocols for different types of trust tasks?
  12. Conclusion and Future: What's next for the trust spanning protocol? Are there any regulatory movements, like the Digital Markets Act, that might influence its development and adoption?

Where to find Drummond?

Follow Mathieu Glaude

Oct 06, 202301:17:37
#59 - The Future of Digital Customer Relationships (with Jamie Smith)

#59 - The Future of Digital Customer Relationships (with Jamie Smith)

Jamie Smith has over 15 year's experience designing and delivering digital technologies and disruptive business models around the world. He specialises in privacy, digital trust, Self-Sovereign Identity, Personal AI and helping organisations embrace new decentralised identity approaches and systems. He is currently Product Director at Gen Digital.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/the-future-of-digital-customer-relationships⁠⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Jamie and Mathieu in this podcast episode include:

  1. Exploring Customer Engagement Channels: What are the various channels organizations use today to engage with their customers, and what are their respective pros and cons?
  2. The Human Touch in Digital Interactions: In an era dominated by digital communications, is there still value in maintaining a human touch in interactions between organizations and individuals?
  3. Bureaucracy in Communication: How has bureaucracy infiltrated various communication mechanisms, and what does this mean for consumers seeking genuine interactions?
  4. The Role of Intermediaries: How do intermediaries like Google and Apple influence our interactions, and what role do they play in the ongoing transformation of digital identity?
  5. Quality Over Quantity: How can organizations shift their focus from quantity to quality in their interactions, ensuring more meaningful and impactful engagements?
  6. The Evolution of Identifiers: How have identifiers evolved in the digital age, and what role do they play in shaping the future of customer engagement?
  7. Empowering Consumers with Identifiers: How can giving control of identifiers to consumers enhance their interactions with organizations and deepen relationships?
  8. Organizational ID and Trust: How can organizational identifiers enhance trust and combat fraud in digital interactions?
  9. The Intersection of AI and Customer Engagement: (a) What are the exciting developments in the AI space, and how can they enhance customer experiences? (b) How can AI, when fed with the right signals, revolutionize recommendations and insights for organizations and individuals? (c) What is the potential of personal AI in transforming customer experiences, and how does it differ from organizational AI?
  10. A Message to the SSI Community: What key insights and messages does Jamie have for the SSI community as they navigate the future of digital identity?


Where to find Jamie?


Follow Mathieu Glaude

Sep 22, 202359:47
#58 - Developing Effective UX & Messaging Strategies for SSI Products (with Irene Hernández & Esther Saurí)

#58 - Developing Effective UX & Messaging Strategies for SSI Products (with Irene Hernández & Esther Saurí)

Irene Hernández is the founder and CEO of Gataca, and Esther Saurí is the Head of Marketing at Gataca. Gataca is a cybersecurity company leader in decentralized identity management technology in Europe. It has developed a decentralized identity solution that streamlines the issuance, verification, and management of identity credentials in a simple, compliant, and secure manner, positioning itself as the most mature full-stack platform and interoperable infrastructure provider.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/developing-effective-ux-and-messaging-strategies-for-ssi-products⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Irene, Esther and Mathieu in this podcast include:

  • [00:25] Defining Adoption: How do we define adoption in the context of Self-Sovereign Identity, and what lens should we use when examining its various aspects and dimensions?
  • [02:21] Measuring Adoption: When measuring adoption, should we start within specific geographical contexts or industries? What key performance indicators (KPIs) and signals should we consider?
  • [08:30] Transitioning to Open Standards: We discuss the evolution of SSI adoption and how private-sector entities can shift towards using open standards and technologies. The role of public sector involvement in fostering adoption is also examined.
  • [12:07] Communication Challenges: Communication plays a vital role in SSI adoption. We explore why it's challenging to communicate and market SSI compared to more straightforward technologies, like generative AI products. What are the unique hurdles in conveying the value of SSI?
  • [18:24] Simplifying Terminology: The conversation continues with a focus on the use of technical jargon and terminology that can bewilder potential adopters. How can we transition from technical discussions to emphasizing business solutions?
  • [23:17] Targeting Adopters: Is it more effective to target entities that serve as both issuers and verifiers or to focus on specific roles within the SSI ecosystem? What are the trade-offs?
  • [27:56] Building Brand Recognition: Given the open nature of the SSI ecosystem, how can organizations build strong brand recognition, and what role do trust marks and certifications play?
  • [31:47] Navigating Political Terminology: How do you address concerns surrounding the term "digital identity" being weaponized in political discourse when communicating about your SSI products?
  • [37:44] Learning from European Adoption: What lessons can be learned from early adoption of digital identity programs in Europe, and how does it compare to the North American market?
  • [47:29] UX Challenges: What are some of the key user experience (UX) challenges in the SSI space, and how can they be addressed to enhance usability and security?
  • [50:59] Interoperability Impact: How does user experience impact interoperability in the SSI ecosystem, and vice versa? What collaborative efforts are needed?
  • [53:22] Balancing Usability and Security: Balancing usability with security is a common challenge. How can the SSI community find the right equilibrium and enhance user adoption?


Where to find Irene?

Where to find Esther?


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Sep 08, 202358:35
#57 - eIDAS 2.0 & the EU Digital Identity Wallet [Part 2] (with Dr. André Kudra)

#57 - eIDAS 2.0 & the EU Digital Identity Wallet [Part 2] (with Dr. André Kudra)

Dr. André Kudra is the CIO of esatus AG, a consultancy and technology company specialized in InfoSec and with a strong footprint in Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). André is a tenacious advocate of decentralization, complexity reduction and Self-Sovereign Identity. He has been in information security since the start of the millennium. He is tech-savvy despite business degrees, and an author, collaborator, multiplier. Dr. André Kudra is a board member of TeleTrusT (IT Security Association Germany) for which he chairs the “Blockchain” and “Secure Platform” working groups. Global outreach includes being a Trustee of the Sovrin Foundation, a Steering Committee member of the Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation and co-founder of the MyData Literacy Thematic Group.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/eidas2-and-eu-digital-identity-wallet-part-2

The full list of topics discussed between André and I in this podcast include:

  • Success of eIDAS 1.0 and the Purpose of eIDAS 2.0 - whether eIDAS 1.0 was successful in enabling digital ID systems and what eIDAS 2.0 aims to correct.
  • eIDAS 2.0 and Interoperability - does eIDAS 2.0 aims to improve interoperability and technology adoption, and is the EU digital ID wallet architecture reference framework (ARF) an extension of this effort?
  • Future of Existing EU-based Digital ID Systems - what will happen to existing digital ID systems like those in Italy and Estonia, and whether they will transition to support eIDAS 2.0 or need to build a second system.
  • Importance of Identity Proofing Uniformity - the importance of uniformity in identity proofing processes across nation states and whether this has been a contentious topic under previous eIDAS legislation.
  • Prescriptive Governance and Technology Recommendations - if it's better for the ecosystem to have more prescriptive governance and whether the technology recommendations are too prescriptive or not enough.
  • Key Decisions in the ARF Document - the key decisions made in the RF document and what was left unclear.
  • Negative Sentiment Around Blockchains or DLTs - why there might be a negative sentiment around blockchains or DLTs in the digital identity space.
  • Separation of Aries from the Hyperledger Foundation - would it make sense for Aries to be separated from the Hyperledger Foundation given its potential as an open agent.
  • EU’s Four Large-Scale Pilots - updates on the different large-scale pilots and their impact on technical and governance specifications.
  • Learnings from Large-Scale Pilots -  learnings from the large-scale pilots, particularly from non-government bodies, and whether there's a shift in mentality among these entities around digital credentials.


Where to find André?


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Jul 28, 202301:08:17
#56 - DIDComm and OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (with Sam Curren & Darrell O'Donnell)

#56 - DIDComm and OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (with Sam Curren & Darrell O'Donnell)

Sam Curren is the Senior Systems Architect and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Indicio. Sam has been involved in the Identity Community for over 12 years, working and researching on personal data, distributed systems, supply chain digital birth certificates, and Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). Sam is a pioneer in decentralized identifier communication protocol (DIDComm) and open source technologies for verifiable credentials, such as Hyperledger Aries and Hyperledger Indy.

Darrell O'Donnell (Continuum Loop) is a technology company founder, executive, investor, and advisor. He helps large and small companies to operationally deploy emerging technologies. He is focused on solving problems of mission-critical systems and interoperability, especially where there are many players and no clear central authority. He advises numerous startups, senior government leaders, and investors.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/didcomm-and-openid-for-verifiable-credentials

The full list of topics discussed between Sam, Darrell and I in this podcast conversation include:

  • Session-Based vs Non-Session-Based Activities - discussed the differences between session-based activities (like logging into a website or video conferencing) and non-session-based activities (like sending an email or downloading a file).
  • Verifiable Credentials in Different Activities - discussed the adoption of verifiable credentials across session-based and non-session-based activities, and the potential restrictions and opportunities in both models.
  • Alternatives to Session-Based and Non-Session-Based Activities - explored potential alternatives to the common ways of looking at session-based and non-session-based activities.
  • Understanding DIDComm - delved deeper into what DIDComm is, its properties, and how it would fit within our everyday lives and on the web.
  • Momentum Behind Client-Server Architecture-Based Protocols - discussed the momentum behind client-server architecture-based protocols for exchanging verifiable credentials, specifically OpenID for verifiable credentials.
  • Benefits of OpenID for Verifiable Credentials - discussed the benefits of using OpenID for verifiable credentials, including injecting integrity into wallets and signed payloads.
  • Importance of Other Aspects Beyond Verifiable Credentials - explored why a digital identity program should care about aspects beyond verifiable credentials.
  • Impact of Government Recommendations on Digital Identity - discussed how government recommendations can have a significant impact on the direction of digital identity initiatives.
  • Coexistence of Different Protocols - explored the idea that different protocols, like DIDComm and OpenID, could coexist and complement each other.
  • Shifting Focus from Wallets and VCs to User Journeys - discussed the need to shift focus from wallets and verifiable credentials to user journeys and how having more integrity in the journey can help reduce fraud or cost.
  • Business Perspective on Choosing Protocols - discussed the need to look at choosing protocols from a business perspective, considering what would be most beneficial for the specific use case.


Where to find Sam?

Where to find Darrell?

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Jul 14, 202301:04:33
#55 - Exploring Commercial Data Ecosystems (with Antti Kettunen & Kai Kuikkaniemi)

#55 - Exploring Commercial Data Ecosystems (with Antti Kettunen & Kai Kuikkaniemi)

Antti Kettunen is the leading Digital Identity Consultant at Tietoevry, specializing in Decentralized Identity and Trust Ecosystems. He is an active contributor and Task Force lead in Trust over IP, technology working group member in the Finnish FindyNet cooperative, and contributing member in other domain expert groups.

Dr. Kai Kuikkaniemi is and enterprise architect, an advocate for open ecosystems and human-centric digitalization, and a Senior Advisor at MyData, having done lots of work around ‘data spaces’.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/exploring-commercial-data-ecosystems⁠⁠

The full list of topics discussed between Antti, Kai and I in this podcast conversation include:

    • How do concepts of digital trust apply or differ in organizations versus individuals?
    • How is trust achieved differently by organizations in organization-to-organization relationships versus organization-to-people relationships?
    • Are data spaces a new type of role within this digital ecosystem? Can risk or liabilities be shared within these areas?
    • Are there historical examples of organizations serving similar purposes for different ecosystems?
    • Why is liability more important in this digital space, when the issuing authority or the party attesting to the authenticity of a document don't necessarily take liability if something goes wrong?
    • How is liability managed in this open ecosystem space, particularly when interactions don't necessitate a legal relationship between parties?
    • How can risk be managed to ensure enough rewards and shared risk that organizations will want to switch over and engage in the new model?
    • Could consumers manage their possible vendors through a similar scenario by owning their own data, as suggested by Doc Searls's writings on vendor relationship management (VRM)? (Recommended book: https://www.amazon.com/Intention-Economy-When-Customers-Charge/dp/1422158527)
    • Can the introduction of these digital ecosystems allow for earlier development of relationships in the customer acquisition cycle?
    • How can these ecosystems enable trust-based marketing?
    • How can new data ecosystems for commercial use cases be incubated and developed based on government digital identity or credentialing programs?
    • What would be some recommendations for forming governance bodies for data ecosystems and the incentives for organizations to form and deploy services within these ecosystems?


Where to find Antti?

Where to find Kai?

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Jun 16, 202301:12:39
#54 - Digital Trust in the Age of Generative AI (with Wenjing Chu)

#54 - Digital Trust in the Age of Generative AI (with Wenjing Chu)

Wenjing is a senior director of technology strategy at Futurewei leading initiatives focused on trust in the future of computing. His long career encompasses early Internet Routing development, optical Internet backbones, security operating system, Wi-Fi and 5G mobile networks, cloud native services and responsible artificial intelligence.

He is a founding Steering Committee member of the Trust over IP Foundation. He contributed as the primary author of the Trust over IP Technology Architecture specification in which he articulated the layered approach to decompose the trust protocol stack and defined the core requirements of the trust spanning layer. Following that work, he is currently a co-Chair of the Trust Spanning Protocol task force  proposing the Inter-Trust Domain Protocol (ITDP) as the trust spanning protocol bridging different trust domains across the Internet. He is also a co-Chair of the AI and Metaverse task force currently drafting the white paper “Digital Trust in the Age of Generative AI”.

Wenjing is a founding Board Member of the newly launched OpenWallet Foundation with a mission to enable a trusted digital future with interoperability for a wide range of wallet use cases and also serves in its Technical Advisory Council (TAC). He is a strong advocate of  human-centric digital trust as a foundation to responsible deployment of advanced artificial intelligence technologies.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/podcasts/digital-trust-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/

Some of the topics discussed between Wenjing and I in this podcast conversation include:

  • Exponential Data Growth and AI Systems: Discussion centered around how the volume of data, particularly from AI systems like GPT-4, is exponentially increasing. As AI starts generating more content, this could create a feedback loop leading to astronomical levels of content.
  • Interaction with LLM as Protocol: The question arose whether the pre-trained Language Model (LLM) could be equated to a protocol and if individuals might interact directly with the LLM in the future.
  • Digital Identity and Trust in the Age of AI and Deepfakes: Concerns were discussed regarding the rise of AI and deepfakes, particularly their implications for digital identity and trust. The challenges of bi-directional authentication and the potential risk to content-based authentication methods were highlighted.
  • Future of Digital Trust Protocols and Authentication: The potential of AI to generate content was related to the future of digital trust protocols. The necessity of digital signatures for authentication was suggested as a possible direction for the future.
  • Reframing Identity: A broader understanding of identity was proposed, questioning whether a reframing of identity could influence our understanding of concepts like authentication.
  • Trust in AI Bots vs. Humans: Personal observations on the level of trust in AI bots vs. humans were shared, suggesting a quicker formation of trust with bots. The implications for future human-bot relationships were considered.
  • Potential Risks and Benefits of Technological Advancements: The discussion acknowledged both potential risks and substantial benefits of technological advancements. A greater level of trust in bots due to perceived lesser risk was noted, along with a significant move towards open source models in the digital trust space.
  • Open-source Model for LLMs and Other Systems: The pros and cons of adopting an open-source model for Large Language Models (LLMs) and other complex systems were questioned.

Where to find Wenjing?

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May 19, 202301:11:01
#53 - Thinking Beyond Client-Server Architectures (with Daniel Hardman)

#53 - Thinking Beyond Client-Server Architectures (with Daniel Hardman)

Daniel has been doing software engineering and architecture for about 30 years. He has formal education in linguistics, business, and cybersecurity. He  contributed to SSI standards such as W3C's DID core and VC specs, DIDComm 1 and 2, DIF's peer DID spec, and numerous RFCs from Hyperledger Aries. He also helped launch Sovrin and Trust Over IP. Daniel currently works as the CTO and CISO of Provenant, which is focused on authentic digital communication for organizations.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/thinking-beyond-client-server-architectures-with-daniel-hardman/

Some of the topics discussed between Daniel and Mathieu in this podcast conversation include:

    • The Centralization vs. Decentralization Continuum and the role of client-server architectures - weighing different forms of centralization and their impact on other architectural goals.
    • Protocol design and its relationship to consolidation - How do we determine trade-offs between centralization and decentralization in various components within a system?
    • Balancing architectural goals - is it more of an art or a science when making these decisions - do trade-offs happen at protocol or application layers?
    • Protocol design for digital identity, digital trust, and user categorization - Achieving self-sovereignty, control, and authenticity - Confidentiality and privacy.
    • How do protocol choices affect power dynamics and trust relationships and interactions between different parties?
    • How can we drive the right standards or protocols for more flexible interactions? Incentives for organizations to support standards that facilitate interactions between individuals - Balancing short-term sacrifices for long-term gains - The role of an ecosystem in driving change.
    • Can all human-driven protocols be codified, and is 'workflow' flexibility more important than achieving authenticity, confidentiality, and privacy? The challenge of replicating human interactions in digital protocols - The importance of flexible workflows - Balancing security and privacy with the ability to express nuance and adaptability.

Where to find Daniel?

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May 05, 202355:02
#52 - Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): DID Methods, DID Documents and DID Resolution (with Markus Sabadello)

#52 - Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs): DID Methods, DID Documents and DID Resolution (with Markus Sabadello)

Markus Sabadello has been a pioneer and leader in the field of digital identity for many years and has contributed to cutting-edge technologies that have emerged in this space. He is co-editor of the Decentralized Identifiers specification at W3C and co-chair of the Identifiers and Discovery Working Group at the Decentralized Identity Foundation. Markus is founder of Danube Tech, a consulting and development company that works on DID-related infrastructure and products, including the Universal Resolver, Universal Registrar, and the Godiddy.com platform.


About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to ⁠⁠https://northernblock.io/decentralized-identifiers-did-methods-did-documents-did-resolution

The full list of topics discussed between Markus and I in this podcast conversation include:

  • An overview of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) - how DIDs came about, their history and evolution.
  • The core properties of DIDs - what sets them apart from other types of identifiers.
  • DID Methods. As of this post, there are 160+ DID Methods listed in this registry. Are they all decentralized? Why are there so many? What are some popular ones that have been adopted?
  • What things to consider in your selection criteria for the right DID Method(s).
  • When would one use DIDs for abstraction purposes vs vanilla public-key cryptography?
  • DID Documents - what can be stored in them? How are they linked to a DID? What are some examples of things you can store in the authentication and service endpoints. How do you interact with them?
  • Using blockchain vs non-blockchain (e.g., DNS server) implementations for storing DID Documents. What are some key elements to take into consideration when looking at these different options?
  • Do DIDs disrupt or enhance existing certificate business models?
  • The power of DID Resolution - how has it evolved, how does it work? (see video below for a great explainer)

Where to find Markus?

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Apr 07, 202301:08:44
#51 - eIDAS 2.0 & the EU Digital Identity Wallet (with Viky Manaila)

#51 - eIDAS 2.0 & the EU Digital Identity Wallet (with Viky Manaila)

Viky Manaila is an international expert in the field of electronic signatures, digital identity and digital transformation processes, who has successfully promoted the electronic business globally. She was one of the experts assessing the impact of revision of the eIDAS Regulation in support of the European Commission, with the aim of establishing a legislative framework for a secure, widely usable and interoperable Digital Identity for the Digital Single Market – eIDAS 2.0.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/eidas2-and-eu-digital-identity-wallet

The full list of topics discussed between Viky and I in this podcast conversation include:

  • Understanding eIDAS 2.0: its history, lessons learned and implications.
  • How the current ecosystem of trust providers will change and adapt under new eIDAS 2.0 regulation.
  • The EUDI Wallet Architecture Reference Framework (ARF), and how its aligns with eIDAS.
  • Person Identification Data (PID) Providers, and the differences between Qualified Electronic Attestation of Attributes Providers and Non-Qualified Electronic Attestation of Attributes Providers.
  • Exploring the 4 Large Scale Pilots, their use cases and their use of PID.
  • Some of the various associations collaborating alongside eIDAS and the large scale pilots (e.g., ETSI, CSC, INATBA).
  • Trust lists, trusted issuers/verifiers and governance!
  • Current and upcoming challenges and opportunities.

Where to find Viky?

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Mar 24, 202301:04:54
#50 - OpenID4VC: OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (with Torsten Lodderstedt)

#50 - OpenID4VC: OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (with Torsten Lodderstedt)

Dr.-Ing. Torsten Lodderstedt is founder of Tuconic, a consulting firm specialising in digital identity and API-based software architectures, with more than 15 years experience in developing and running large scale consumer identity services. In his previous positions, he helped organisations in public, banking, railway communication, and telecommunication domains to implement highly-scalable and secure services. Torsten regularly contributes to identity standards, currently focusing on decentralized identity and global identity networks. He is co-author of OpenID for Verifiable Credentials and OAuth 2.1, and co-chairs the GAIN PoC community group.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/open-id-4-vc-openid-for-verifiable-credentials/

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Torsten are:

  • OpenID4VC’s background, and its relationship to oAuth2 and OpenID Connect.
  • How verifiable credential issuances and verifications are done using OpenID4CI and OIDC4VP (+ why Presentation Exchange was chosen as the verification protocol).
  • Decisions behind supporting different credentials formats, identifiers, cryptography suites and trust management mechanisms.
  • How OpenID4VC fits within the ToIP Hourglass Model (from the ToIP Technical Architecture Specification).
  • How OpenID4VC can be used in conjunction with other protocols such as DIDComm to bootstrap workflows.
  • Does OpenID4VC combined with trust frameworks help to solve the NASCAR problem we face today on the internet?
  • SIOP: the protocol to exchange cryptographically verifiable identifiers and authenticate using the key material controlled by the End-User.
  • Using OpenID4CI for ISO 18013-5 (mDL) to move away from wallet-specific credential issuance and towards an interoperable way of exchanging verifiable credentials between different decentralized identity systems.

Where to find Torsten?

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Mar 10, 202354:41
#49 - Relationships and Identity Systems (with Phil Windley)

#49 - Relationships and Identity Systems (with Phil Windley)

Phil Windley is a Senior Software Development Manager at AWS Identity. He was most recently an Enterprise Architect and Principal Engineer in the Office of Information Technology at Brigham Young University (BYU). He was the Founding Chair of the Sovrin Foundation serving from 2016 to 2020. He is also the co-founder and organizer of the Internet Identity Workshop, serves as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at BYU, writes the popular Technometria blog, and is the author of the books Learning Digital Identity (O'Reilly, Media 2023), The Live Web (Course Technology, 2011), and Digital Identity (O'Reilly Media, 2005).

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/relationships-and-identity-systems-with-phil-windley/

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Phil are:

  • The differences in our knowledge needs between the physical world (tacit) and the digital world (explicit) are what make digital identity management complicated.
  • Short-lived vs. long-lived relationships: a comparison.
  • If the real world has pseudonymous relationships, why can't this be true online? (looking at recent Twitter and Meta verified account initiatives)
  • Does the role of Identity Providers (IdPs) change as we move towards more user-controlled systems, rather than administrative identity systems?
  • How does the term "Relying Party" translate into SSI?
  • Breaking down trust and trustworthy, and differentiating between confidence and trust.
  • Examining the tradespace between Privacy, Authenticity, and Confidentiality.
  • How attribute-based access control (ABAC) will benefit from verifiable credentials.

Where to find Phil?

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Feb 24, 202356:27
#48 - Is History Repeating Itself or Are We Operating in a Context We’re Not Aware Of? (with Tim Bouma)

#48 - Is History Repeating Itself or Are We Operating in a Context We’re Not Aware Of? (with Tim Bouma)

Tim Bouma is the Director of Verification and Assessments at the Digital Governance Council, a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to developing standards for the Canadian Digital Ecosystem. Tim's current area of focus is developing conformity assessment schemes for standards related to digital trust identity.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/is-history-repeating-itself-or-are-we-operating-in-a-context-were-not-aware-of/

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Tim are:

  • Why is understanding your context and others' contexts important important to prioritize in life?
  • How Tim’s new mental model has helped him better understand context, identity, trust and more (model linked below in resource section).
  • The relationship between roots of trust and the centralization/decentralization of societal administration.
  • How we can look at life through two realms: the physical and imaginary realms. How have these two realms evolved throughout history.
  • The origin of personal names!
  • Understanding how registries of claims and balances work and are managed.
  • How the transfer/unlocking of new knowledge has been a catalyst for power dynamic shifts throughout history.
  • Why architectures are important in shaping culture, beliefs, values, intentions, etc.
  • Should we focus less on identity and more on context?
  • How the separation of cryptography-driven protocols from applications shifts knowledge, which in turn shifts power dynamics.

Where to find Tim?

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Feb 10, 202301:12:39
#47 - Mobile Driving Licence (mDL): Exploring ISO 18013-5&7 (with Andrew Hughes)

#47 - Mobile Driving Licence (mDL): Exploring ISO 18013-5&7 (with Andrew Hughes)

Andrew Hughes CISM CISSP is Director of Identity Standards at Ping Identity. He is a digital identity strategist contributing to international standards development. He works with international associations and standards bodies as a domain expert, developing standards and related conformity assessment materials. Andrew serves on the Board of Directors of Kantara Initiative, and as the Chair of the Kantara Leadership Council. As a national expert delegate for Standards Canada on digital identity, he contributes to development of international standards at ISO SC 27 for identity management and ISO SC 17 for mobile driving licenses and mobile eID. Andrew is currently investigating how the worlds of Government Issued Photo ID can co-exist with the emerging Verifiable Credentials models, in a mobile-first manner.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/mobile-driving-licence-mdl-exploring-iso-18013-5-7.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Andrew are:

  • Distinguishing the mobile driving licence (mDL) credential type from a verifiable credential (VC).
  • How the mDL standard is working towards being consumed by other credential transport protocols (e.g., DIDComm, OIDC4VC)
  • Can the same ISO standard for mDL be used to issue non-driving licence credentials? And should it?
  • Do issuers of driving licences consider mDL it as a driving licence credential, or an identity credential?
  • What does the ecosystem look like for mDL vs the one for physical driving licences? Who are some new participants that aren’t involved in physical DL production and governance?
  • Why implementation supersedes the standard work.
  • What are some interesting use cases around mDL that are gaining traction?
  • How ISO works and how the relevant mDL sub-committees are evolving the standard.
  • Are there concerns with the mobile hardware and OS providers gaining too much control over the mDL credentials?

Where to find Andrew?

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Jan 27, 202356:28
#46 - Selling Solutions, Not SSI Technology (with Riley Hughes)

#46 - Selling Solutions, Not SSI Technology (with Riley Hughes)

Riley Hughes is the Co-founder and CEO of Trinsic, a company which provides infrastructure for building user-centric identity products. Customers need solutions, not SSI technology. We will struggle in fostering adoption if we try to sell SSI technology to end customers. We should rather focus on selling them solutions to business problems. For example, Slack sells productivity/collaboration tools to enterprises, not Internet technology or communication protocols. The same approach should be taken but us identity folks!

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/selling-solutions-not-ssi-technology-with-riley-hughes.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Riley are:

  • Since we recorded the last episode (Episode 10), how have the value propositions and adoption of SSI changed?
  • What are the different ways that SSI adoption is happening, and what ways are easier than others to push adoption?
  • Do Enterprises see any incentive to issue digital credentials?
  • Why the term ‘Digital Wallet’ is a bad analogy for what they actually are, and why it’s not positioned well to be a solution to business problems?
  • Does Digital Identity still have an Identity problem? Why is terminology important to be used under the right contexts?

Where to find Riley?

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Jan 13, 202346:09
#45 - One Trust Spanning Protocol & Many Trust Tasks (with Drummond Reed)

#45 - One Trust Spanning Protocol & Many Trust Tasks (with Drummond Reed)

Drummond Reed has spent a quarter-century in Internet identity, security, privacy, and trust infrastructure. He is Director, Trust Services at Avast after their acquisition of Evernym, where he was Chief Trust Office. He is co-author of the book, Self-Sovereign Identity (Manning Publications, 2021), and co-editor of the W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DID) 1.0 specification. At the Trust over IP Foundation, Drummond is a member of the Steering Committee and co-chair of the Governance Stack Working Group and the Concepts and Terminology Working Group. At the Sovrin Foundation, he served as co-chair of the Sovrin Governance Framework Working Group for five years.

About Podcast Episode

Read more about the episode by heading to https://northernblock.io/one-trust-spanning-protocol-and-many-trust-tasks-drummond-reed.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Drummond are:

  • Does the new ToIP Technology Architecture Specification address the questions posed by Kim Cameron in his 2005 whitepaper?
  • If we agree that one identity system cannot rule them all, how then can an identity metasystem solve interoperability across identities, identity systems and contexts? (hint: a trust spanning protocol!)
  • What are the leading contenders for becoming the trust spanning protocol?
  • What are some examples of trust tasks, other than credential exchange, that are possible to unlock?
  • How does a trust spanning protocol x trust tasks lead to advancements in how we manage our relationships, and help us move away from phone numbers and emails as our most valuable identifiers?
  • Where can governments participate within the hourglass model framework to accelerate digital trust on the open internet?

Where to find Drummond?

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Dec 22, 202256:25
#44 - Seeding a Digital Trust Ecosystem (with Nancy Norris & Kyle Robinson)

#44 - Seeding a Digital Trust Ecosystem (with Nancy Norris & Kyle Robinson)

Energy and Mines Digital Trust (EMDT) was established by the Government of British Columbia (B.C.) to incentivize the formation of a digital trust ecosystem that will result in accuracies and efficiencies when sharing sustainability data, with downstream impacts of contributing towards a low-carbon economy.

Reporting environmental impact data can be a complicated and laborious process. Data is difficult to exchange internationally, and consumers cannot always access, or trust, reported data.

A digital trust ecosystem builds confidence between organizations, businesses, and individuals when interacting online. When information is shared using digital credentials, everyone can trust that the information is current and hasn't been tampered with, even without pre-existing business relationships. For natural resource companies, this means it is possible to easily share trustworthy data to prove their sustainability efforts.

In this podcast episode with Nancy Norris and Kyle Robinson, we discuss:

  • What’s happening in climate change legislation globally?
  • What are the sustainability reporting requirements that the mining industry faces today?
  • Where do digital trust and digital identity fit into sustainability reporting?
  • How do you start a digital trust ecosystem?
  • How do you select initial use cases to focus on?
  • What is the role of the government in growing a digital trust ecosystem based on policy?
  • How did EMDT build their digital trust governance frameworks?
  • Why did EMDT publish their governance frameworks to open source repositories?
  • The best ways to educate both technical and non-technical stakeholders about digital credentials and digital trust.
  • Can digital trust technologies alter/influence change in regulatory reporting processes?
  • Can governments who participate in digital trust ecosystems find new ways of creating value/new business models/enhancing standard service offerings?

About Guests

Nancy Norris, Senior Director of ESG & Digital Trust in the Ministry for Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation for the Government of British Columbia.

Kyle Robinson, Senior Strategic Advisor for the Energy & Mines Digital Trust project on behalf of the Government of British Columbia.

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Dec 16, 202259:19
#43 - Governance and Trust (with Scott Perry)

#43 - Governance and Trust (with Scott Perry)

Scott Perry is a Principal at Schellman where he heads up its crypto and digital trust services. Scott is a recognized global leader in digital identity, blockchain, and verifiable credential governance and accreditation. He has worked with the world's most respected SSL-certificate issuers, aerospace and defense companies, and government agencies such as the US Senate Sergeant at Arms and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He is a Steering Committee Member of the Trust Over IP Foundation and Co-chairs its Governance Stack Working Group. He has authored and contributed to most of its governance and assurance publications.

As a hands-on crypto and cybersecurity consultant and auditor, Scott provides deep and impactful advice that you would expect from a leader in the field.

About Podcast Episode

In this podcast episode with Scott, we discuss these topics:

  • In digital trust infrastructure, these “rules” are formally known as a governance framework (GF). A core thesis of ToIP architecture is that interoperability of GFs is just as important—if not more so—than interoperability of the technical protocols. Why?
  • Can you replicate, or codify existing physical world governance frameworks for digital use?
  • Where is governance created? On the edge (with the issuers, holders, verifiers), or within/across ecosystems?
  • Defining trust - is a technical or human concept?
  • How to quantify trust? Is it even possible?
  • Is accountability the key factor in building a rule system to promote trust?
  • Does unlocking certain governance frameworks correlate directly to the adoption of digital trust ecosystems?
  • How is assurance used as a measure to manage risk across various contexts?
  • Are governance frameworks composable, meaning can they be re-used across various use cases?
  • Can we leverage governance frameworks from closed ecosystems and re-use components in open ecosystems?
  • How does governance map to the new ToIP technology architecture model?
  • How do private and public sectors collaborate on defining governance for large scale digital ID programs?

Where to find Scott?

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Dec 09, 202201:00:16
#42 - AnonCreds: Anonymous Credentials (with Stephen Curran)

#42 - AnonCreds: Anonymous Credentials (with Stephen Curran)

Stephen Curran of Cloud Compass Computing, Inc. is a Software Development and DevOps veteran who dove full on into the identity on blockchain world in 2017. Working with the British Columbia Government, Stephen has helped define, build and launch the Verifiable Organizations Network (VON)—a production instance of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Indy, Aries and Ursa projects that makes public information about organizations (incorporations/legal entities) in BC available in the form of verifiable credentials. Stephen is a regular contributor in the Hyperledger Indy and Aries community, facilitating discussions and driving interoperability. Stephen has presented on Blockchain and the Hyperledger Indy and Aries projects many times and is a member of the Sovrin Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Technical Governance Board.

About Podcast Episode

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Stephen are:

  • Introduction to Various Credential Types - AnonCreds and different types of W3C credentials
  • Converting AnonCreds VC to W3C VC Standard format and adding other signature types (e.g. LD-Signature/NIST/ed25519/BBS+)
  • History of AnonCreds - blinding signature work in the 1970s, advancements and track record since then
  • Why are AnonCreds suited for Government Digital ID use cases?
  • Capabilities provided by AnonCreds - non-correlability, minimizing data shared, zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs), etc.
  • Comparing transferable vs non-transferrable credentials
  • Can the way that W3C credentials are formatted get in the way of interoperability in the future?
  • Are there use cases where AnonCreds aren’t the right implementation?
  • Are AnonCreds more computing intensive than W3C credentials?
  • Future for AnonCreds and for Hyperledger Indy
  • Why Revocation remains the weak point of AnonCreds and Indy
  • Is mDL better suited than AnonCreds for Driver's Licence use cases?


Where to find Stephen?

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Nov 04, 202254:23
#41 - Converging Towards a Common Trust Spanning Protocol (with Drummond Reed)

#41 - Converging Towards a Common Trust Spanning Protocol (with Drummond Reed)

Drummond Reed has spent a quarter-century in Internet identity, security, privacy, and trust infrastructure. He is Director, Trust Services at Avast after their acquisition of Evernym, where he was Chief Trust Office. He is co-author of the book, Self-Sovereign Identity (Manning Publications, 2021), and co-editor of the W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DID) 1.0 specification. At the Trust over IP Foundation, Drummond is a member of the Steering Committee and co-chair of the Governance Stack Working Group and the Concepts and Terminology Working Group. At the Sovrin Foundation, he served as co-chair of the Sovrin Governance Framework Working Group for five years.

About Podcast Episode

Digital Trust Infrastructure is quickly becoming essential from an economic, political and security standpoint.

Much of the infrastructure today is controlled and owned by device OS providers such as Apple and Google.

It’s important that digital trust infrastructure providers can compete with the device OS providers.

To produce a level playing field, we must have open standards and open access to the infrastructure. This applies to both to Governments and Private Sector digital trust providers.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Drummond are:

  • Wallets vs Agents – their differences, their relationship and how agents will use more and more contextual intelligence to help you make decisions according to your preferences.
  • Can non-OS digital trust infrastructure providers compete with the device OS providers? (e.g., Apple owns the OS for mobile/desktops/tablets/smart watches)
  • Comparing DIDComm to NFC – if NFC really facilitates security and trust for close distance, do the combinations of digital wallets, digital agents and protocols (like DIDComm) do the same for trust at distance?
  • Trust Spanning Protocol – establishing authentic connections where both parties can authenticate each other (using the same hourglass model as TCP/IP). What are the architectural requirements for this protocol? And how can various protocols (e.g., DIDComm, KERI) converge into a trust spanning protocol?
  • What does DIDComm do better/different than other data exchange protocols? (such as OAuth2 and OpenID Connect)
  • Can the Trust over IP stack be used outside of Identity use cases? (e.g., payments, data sharing, social media)
  • Comparing SSI to Email – similarities in protocol design, asynchronous or synchronous UX, simplicity and generality

Where to find Drummond?

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Oct 21, 202252:19
#40 - Are Trust Registries Vital to the Success of Decentralized Identity? (with Darrell O'Donnell)
Sep 30, 202250:51
#39 - Digital Notarization Can Kickstart Digital ID Ecosystems (with Dan Gisolfi)

#39 - Digital Notarization Can Kickstart Digital ID Ecosystems (with Dan Gisolfi)

Dan Gisolfi is currently leading the delivery of innovation capabilities across Discover Financial Services (DFS), such as Hack-aaS, Patent Program, Design Thinking Services, and an Innovation Accelerator. Prior to joining DFS, he led an innovation team focused on the incubation of IBM Security’s Zero Trust Architecture in collaboration with internal labs, academic institutions and NIST.


About Podcast Episode

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Dan are:

  • How does the chicken and egg problem relate to digital identity?
  • Is there a dependency on Government IDs to seed the marketplace?
  • Are unique identifier databases required to become a credential issuer?
  • What is transitive trust? And how does it differ from how trust gets established otherwise (e.g., through backend API calls)?
  • The missing role in the trust triangle: The Examiner.
  • Can Examiners become digital notaries?
  • Rethinking authentication and authorization - using attestations from multiple issuers helps to create more trust.
  • How Issuance can become a business model for many trusted service providers.
  • Some challenges with the mDL (ISO/IEC 18013) standard.
  • The benefits of using a Microcredentials approach.
  • Misconceptions about becoming credential issuers (e.g., assuming liability, data minimization).

Where to find Dan?

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Sep 08, 202253:46
#38 - NFT + SSI = What I Own + Who I Am (with Dominik Beron)

#38 - NFT + SSI = What I Own + Who I Am (with Dominik Beron)

Dominik Beron is the Founder & CEO of walt.id, a leading company in the field of decentralized identity. Mr. Beron is a serial entrepreneur with executive education from the Universities of Pennsylvania, Oxford and a law degree (JD equivalent) from the University of Vienna. He worked for law firms (M&A), served as a policy advisor to the Austrian Parliament and as consultant to the UN, the EU Commission and national governments. Dominik has received numerous awards such as “30 under 30” (by Forbes US) and was named a Global Shaper (World Economic Forum).


About Podcast Episode

The question of “What is Identity?” is a very complicated one.

In this conversation, Dominik distinguishes SSI as being Who I am, whereas NFTs as being What I own.

Identity is a complicated topic. If I own a Ferrari, it says something about my identity.

This conversation contrasts NFTs and SSI, while talking about how they both are complementary in representing one’s Identity.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Dominik are:

  • What drove the 2021 hype cycle for NFTs?
  • Has the hype around NFTs been good for digital identity?
  • Ownership-based Access Management – using NFTs for Access Management
  • What are Soulbound tokens, and what are some issues associated with them?
  • Why is building SSI products harder than building NFT products?
  • What does it mean to be an EBSI conformant wallet?
  • OIDC SIOP and the Open Policy Agent
  • Does SSI fit within a Zero Trust model?
  • Gaia-X – the EUs new cloud infrastructure
  • How should we treat data replication and backups?
  • What data do I really want to control?

Where to find Dominik?

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Aug 18, 202253:36
#37 - Digital ID: Trapped in Fake News? (with Imraan Bashir)

#37 - Digital ID: Trapped in Fake News? (with Imraan Bashir)

Imraan Bashir is a Partner & National Canadian Public Sector Cyber Leader at KPMG. Imraan is a seasoned executive with 20+ years of experience advising on cyber security and information technology matters to a wide variety of public and private sector clients. Imraan is well-versed in multiple areas of cyber security, including governance, strategy, incident management, cloud security, risk management, digital identity and more.  Prior to joining KPMG, Imraan spent time in the public sector, where he directed the policy, strategy, implementation and oversight of Government of Canada enterprise-wide cyber initiatives, including leadership of key programs such as cloud security and digital identity.

About Podcast Episode

This conversation is meant to generate some suggestions on how to avoid the big brother rhetoric when it comes to digital ID programs.

Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Imraan are:

  • The rise of Misinformation
  • How to “pre-bunking” certain ideas?
  • Misconceptions on Zero Trust
  • What is Canada doing better/worse in digital ID related to other national programs?
  • How can digital ID go wrong?
  • Biometrics and facial recognition
  • Centralization and selling of data to private sector
  • How can we as an industry do a better job at educating the general population about digital ID?

Where to find Imraan?

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Jul 21, 202201:02:44
#36 - GLEIF - Standardizing Legal Entity Verification (with Karla McKenna)

#36 - GLEIF - Standardizing Legal Entity Verification (with Karla McKenna)

Karla McKenna is an international standards specialist in the area of financial services. Ms. McKenna is the Head of Standards for the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) for which she is responsible for facilitating the development and implementation of GLEIF standards and leveraging international standards from organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to maximize data quality and the operational integrity of the Global LEI System. Ms. McKenna also is Managing Director, GLEIF Americas.

About Episode
Some of the key topics covered during this episode with Karla are:

  • What is the State of Legal Entity Verification today?
  • What is a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)?
  • What is a Verifiable LEI (vLEI)?
  • Should Governments be involved in the issuance of LEIs?
  • Who can issue LEIs? Can Issuers monetize the issuance of LEIs?
  • How are Relationships established between Legal Entities and Natural Persons?
  • How GLEIF is establishing itself as a Root of Trust for Digital Trust Ecosystems.
  • How to Chain Credentials and enable dependencies to be set between credentials within a value chain.
  • Can vLEIs work with the Aries/Indy stack?
  • What are some current Use Cases for vLEIs?
  • GLEIF’s Roadmap.

Read more about episode here: https://northernblock.io/gleif-standardizing-legal-entity-verification-with-karla-mckenna/

Where to find Karla?

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Jul 07, 202201:00:10
#35 - How to Prevent SSI from Becoming Yet Another Platform? (with Joachim Lohkamp)

#35 - How to Prevent SSI from Becoming Yet Another Platform? (with Joachim Lohkamp)

Joachim Lohkamp is the Founder & CEO of Jolocom, a Berlin-based company building decentralized digital identity and access right management solutions aimed to be universal, lightweight and based on open source protocols.

One of the desired outcomes of using standards-driven open source code projects is to avoid vendor lock-in. If your digital identity is a public good, then you shouldn’t be locked in to one specific company. If a company goes out of business, I may lose my identity data. If I find a better alternative, I'm unable to port my identity. Therefore, interoperability is a vital aspect of being able to provide sovereignty to individuals but also to governments.

Some of the key questions answered during this episode with Joachim are:

  1. What are the different lenses of Interoperability outside of simply technological ones?
  2. What is happening inside the EU's digital identity governance frameworks?
  3. How to go about preventing vendor/network lock-ins from the wallet perspective?
  4. Does ID proofing impact the ability to achieve permissionless SSI models?
  5. What is exciting about the intersection of SSI and web3, and are innovations in this area moving quicker than other areas?
  6. Despite the misuse of NFTs for identity-related use cases, are they still helping advance decentralized identity thinking?
  7. What learnings can SSI wallet providers gain from crypto wallet providers (e.g., security, key management, UX)?
  8. Will intelligent agent providers need to make their algorithms open sourced?
  9. Where do portable digital identities fit within the existent and ever changing digital identity landscape (e.g., e-sign, biometrics, IAM, etc.)?

And more!

Where to find Joachim?

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Apr 08, 202250:52
#34 - Fighting Financial Crime with Digital ID (with Eugenio DiMira)

#34 - Fighting Financial Crime with Digital ID (with Eugenio DiMira)

Eugenio (Gene) is an industry go-to person in the fight against proceeds of crime, corruption and terrorism (AML/ATF/ABC) within the investments, banking and insurance industries.

Laws against money laundering were created to use against organized crime during the period of Prohibition in the United States during the 1930s. Organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition and a large source of new funds that were obtained from illegal sales of alcohol. The successful prosecution of Al Capone on tax evasion brought in a new emphasis by the state and law enforcement agencies to track and confiscate money, but existing laws against tax evasion could not be used once gangsters started paying their taxes.

“Always follow the money” has been sound advice in law enforcement and political circles for decades. Nevertheless, tracking the flows of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organized crime and analyzing the magnitude and the extent to which these are laundered through the world’s financial systems remain daunting tasks.

Can Digital ID come to the rescue?

This episode covers the intersections of Digital ID, AML and Open Banking.

Some of the key questions answered are:

  1. What’s the global impact of money laundering today?
  2. How can Digital ID help prevent illicit financial flows?
  3. How can technology (e.g., device fingerprinting) make anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing efforts faster, cheaper and more efficient?
  4. What is the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) Digital ID guidance?
  5. How can you layer multiple sources of identity (outside of government sources) to enhance Identification Assurance?
  6. How can you prevent money laundering through stronger Legal Entity Identity verifications?
  7. Can open banking succeed without Digital Identity? Are open banking and digital identity the same thing?
  8. What are some of the key Open Banking standards bodies that are active today?
  9. Does Open Banking make money laundering easier or more difficult?

And more!

Where to find Eugenio?

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Mar 14, 202201:06:32
#33 - What should Public Infrastructure look like in the Modern Data Economy? (with Andy Best)

#33 - What should Public Infrastructure look like in the Modern Data Economy? (with Andy Best)

Andy Best is the CEO of the Civic Digital Network (CDN), a non-profit organization working to create national data infrastructure.

CDN’s mission is to give the public sector the tools to meet the challenges of the coming century. How do you enable responsible economic activity in the current digital era? What is the government's proper role to facilitate, regulate and legislate to create the maximum social and economic public and private good.

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • What are Intangible Assets, the Intangible Economy - and why leaders should care about them?
    How do you approach Policy around Public Data Institutions, without making them too restrictive which can have negative impacts on private sector innovation?
    Why Policy Makers must look at Intangible Assets (such as software and data) very differently than Tangible Assets (roads and bridges).
    How to ensure the Right Controls are put in place for Public Data Utility programs?
    Why taking a Use Case Lens in the deployment of Public Infrastructure programs is the only approach.
    How Municipalities who adopt the right public data programs can increase the prosperity of their citizens.
    Why Government should view Standards as part of their Regulatory Frameworks.

And more!

Note that although this conversation is mostly framed around Canadian context, the key fundamental frameworks discussed are applicable across various democratic systems.

Where to find Andy?

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Feb 19, 202201:02:34
#32 - Is the Trust Triangle a Good Enough Model for Ecosystem Design? (with Antti Kettunen)

#32 - Is the Trust Triangle a Good Enough Model for Ecosystem Design? (with Antti Kettunen)

Antti Kettunen is a digital identity and digital trust expert and advisor. He designs ecosystem solutions, actively participates in standards and industry groups (e.g. CEN, Trust over IP, Mobey), and helps customers deliver value in their digital identity projects. He also writes and speaks about digital identity and the ongoing paradigm shift in his blog Identifinity. Antti is also one of the co-founders and advocates of the FindyNet cooperative, a digital identity network for Finland.

About Episode

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • The current digital landscape in the Nordics, the maturity of e-Government and digital registries, and the trust that citizens of these countries have towards their governments.
  • How does the private sector in the Nordics look at self-sovereign identity? Where do they see the benefits? How do they look at the onramp from their existing federated authentication models?
  • Knowing where my organization fits inside my value chain and why knowing this will help me understand how to both benefit, contribute and thrive within an ecosystem-centric system.
  • How to decide whether or not to participate in the governance of an ecosystem?
  • The problems with API-centered architectures and the benefits gained from adopting data-centric architectures.
  • Why focusing too much on the Verifiable Credential Trust Triangle isn't sufficient as the only tool to help with the adoption of SSI ecosystems.
  • An update on the EU Wallet and some thoughts on how it can spur SSI adoption, while looking at the risks of it possibly impeding private sector adoption.

And more!

For those interested, this is the book that Antti refers to during the conversation: https://www.amazon.com/Wide-Lens-Successful-Innovators-Others/dp/1591846293

Where to find Antti?

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Feb 10, 202201:15:36
#31 - The Future of Work will happen through DAOs (with Stepan Gershuni)
Jan 23, 202201:01:14
#30 - The Ingredients for Commercial SSI (with Charles Walton)

#30 - The Ingredients for Commercial SSI (with Charles Walton)

- Governance Orchestrators -

The orchestrating required to bring together decentralized identity ecosystems is today's biggest gap for Commercial SSI. By this I mean the Trust over IP Level 4 governance authorities that are required to make something commercially real.

We have the approaches, the principles, the technologies and the standards down. There is also clear market demand for data ownership and privacy-preserving digital interactions. We've have also seen great enhancements on mobile devices for authentication methods such as biometrics and continuous authentication.

So the question is: how we make decentralized identity more of a reality in our day-to-day lives?

How can we create a place in which a bank, a gig economy company or a start-up can all simply plug-in and begin using verifiable credentials?

There is a glaring need for Commercial SSI Governance Authorities.

As we know, half of the battle in decentralized identity, especially in government regulated industries, is governance. We require governance entities to help in the formation of ecosystems, the setting of rules, the making of markets, the monetization strategies, the dispute strategies, etc.

More entities are required to manage the bits of a trust framework that are commercial decisions.

About Episode

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • Charlie's learnings from the Trust over IP Foundation and the Good Health Pass Collaborative
  • Thinking about the Governance of Decentralized Networks
  • The opportunity for Vertical Market Makers
  • Digital Smart Agents - the smart processing of wallets and storage
  • Commercial SSI Governance Authorities

About Guest

Charlie has been a thought leader in the digital identity space for many years now, having spent time across organizations such as:

  • SecureKey - helping secure key Canadian market customer and partner relationships, and key strategic partner engagements, and $21M Series C funding closed in December 2014.
  • Idemia - driving the Government Identity Services cross division activities in the field of digital identity services.
  • MasterCard - responsible for the strategy, definition, and rollout of a major new global business within MasterCard focused upon digital identity services – this the ID Service. Whilst at MasterCard he was a co-founder and on the steering board of both the Trust over IP Foundation and the Good Health Pass Collaborative.

Now with Avast, Charlie is responsible for developing their identity services strategy as the company expands its expertise and innovation in privacy and identity products.

You can find Charlie on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleswalton2020/.

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Dec 22, 202154:04
#29 - Musings on Wallets & Identity Metasystems (with Phil Windley)

#29 - Musings on Wallets & Identity Metasystems (with Phil Windley)

- Thinking in a decentralized architecture -

We have a tendency to apply existing solutions or frameworks towards new things.

In the early days of the web, many companies implemented fax on the Internet, rather than rethinking if faxes were still the best solution for certain types of information exchange.

Are we doing the same thing today with wallets?

Wallets are a tool which we employ to store physical identity cards, credit/debit cards, receipts and other things. But when we think about storing digital identities/credentials, of course employing a wallet sounds like an appropriate thing to do, considering it's what works as the physical world.

I wonder however if framing it as a digital wallet boxes our thinking.

A second tendency we have, specifically in the digital identity space (and I'm guilty of this at times..), is to look at things as layers or foundations.

I often hear phrases such as: "Government issued digital identities will form the foundation for [insert use case]."

Rather than looking at it as something foundational, we should try framing our thinking around a decentralized architecture.

Read more here: https://northernblock.io/musings-on-wallets-identity-metasystems-with-phil-windley/

About Episode

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • SSI Wallets - what can be learned from the Web Browser?
  • How will SSI Wallets be adopted? - Will we have very few or many wallets?
  • Distinguishing identity systems from Identity Metasystems.
  • How can governments best contribute to Identity Metasystems?
  • Phil’s thoughts on Open ID SIOP (self-issued IDs).

About Guest

Phil enjoys teaching, writing, and solving problems. He writes content on https://www.windley.com/, elegantly covering topics such as information technology, identity, decentralization, personal autonomy, computer science and more.

You can find Phil on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/windley; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/windley/.

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Dec 05, 202153:27
#28 - Turning the Web’s Data Layer into a Public Utility (with Lauren Feld)

#28 - Turning the Web’s Data Layer into a Public Utility (with Lauren Feld)

- Filling holes in the web3 stack -

This was a very fun and interesting conversation with Lauren Feld, Head of Growth at 3Box Labs, a company building the Ceramic Network.

The Ceramic Network in my opinion is one the most exciting projects in the web3 space. Ceramic is a decentralized, open source platform for creating, hosting, and sharing streams of data.

This is interesting to consider in a decentralized identity context. As we all know, we leave massive traces of ourselves in the digital world. The products that have enabled user generated content in the web2 world have dramatically increased the volume of data we leave behind. If this data is valuable, which social media companies can attest is true, then how could this data be returned to the rightful generator/owner of it,. How can it also be made portable across different applications?

On this podcast we often talk about Verifiable Credentials and recently a bit more about government issued digital IDs. I hope this conversation gives listeners some excitement about what’s now being made possible with some exciting bottom-up approaches and how turning the data layer of applications into a public utility is the logical evolution of the web.

About Episode

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • What excites Lauren about web3 applications?
  • What is the pulse on DAOs to incorporate Decentralized ID into them?
  • The importance of Mutability
  • An overview of Decentralized Data Storage Ecosystems, in particular IPFS, one of first protocols in the web3 space
  • What makes Data Composability important for open data layers?
  • How to go about building Distributed Data Models?
  • Key considerations when Selling to Developers rather than to enterprises
  • How to think about Verifiable Credentials in a context of your online data
  • Some Exciting Use Cases happening using Ceramic (you can find more use cases here: https://blog.ceramic.network/)
  • Can older business models use Ceramic to decentralize their data layer?

About Guest

Lauren Feld, Head of Growth 3Box Labs, building The Ceramic Network

You can find Lauren on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/laurenfeld629; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-feld-5b04249b/.

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Nov 19, 202154:27
#27 - Non-binary Thinking will Accelerate Digital Sovereignty (with Rouven Heck)

#27 - Non-binary Thinking will Accelerate Digital Sovereignty (with Rouven Heck)

About Episode - Progress is often slowed down because of binary thinking. This type of behaviour sometimes happens within the self-sovereign identity world: “Such protocol is good, such protocol is bad”; “Such community is good, such community is bad.”

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • Digital Sovereignty - operating in the digital world (or metaverse), with an emphasis on Government’s role in the digital world.
  • Why organizations such as Mozilla, Google, Apple recently objected to the W3C decentralized identifiers standards - does this go against the independence of people? Does it have to do with energy consumption of proof-of-work blockchains?
  • Deciphering Interoperability - there's a need to focus more of the conversations around portability. Rouven provides some easy to understand examples.
  • What’s happening in the DIF and what are some of the cross-community collaborations
  • Overviewing Top-down and Bottom-up approaches - the differences in governance,  the importance of reputation, opening up portable reputations from siloed spaces.
  • What to control and what not to? Where do I fit into a Decentralized ID ecosystem? Some examples of services offerings, including how financial institutions can create new value offerings.
  • Verified vs Verifiable - why these two words are fundamentally different and how they sometimes wrongly used.

About Guest

Rouven Heck is the Identity Lead @ ConsenSys Mesh and the Executive Director @ Decentralized Identity Foundation

Prior to joining ConsenSys, Rouven had a number of positions at Deutsche Bank working as a Blockchain Expert, COO, Program Manager, and Service manager.

You can find Rouven on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/rh7; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rouvenheck/.

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Oct 31, 202101:01:58
#26 - Battle of the Trust Frameworks (with Tim Bouma & Darrell O'Donnell)

#26 - Battle of the Trust Frameworks (with Tim Bouma & Darrell O'Donnell)

About Episode - Every week there seems to be mention of a new Trust Framework. People are now trying to monetize them. But to understand trust frameworks, let’s first understand what constitutes trust. We must define concepts such as levels of assurances and what defines technical vs human trust? Once this is better understood, the conversation about where a particular organization fits into a digital identity ecosystem is simpler. And note, in user-centric digital identity (or SSI), organizations no longer need to be at the centre of the universe.

During this conversation, we discuss:

  1. Levels of Assurance (LOA): an introduction to LOAs as they relate to Digital Identity and why they're an important part of the recipe in achieving digital trust. Tim and Darrell give us some practical examples of LOAs.
  2. The Concept of Trust: how do we define trust at a high-level and how do we differentiate between technical and human trust? How can we build trust with credential issuers but also with credential holders?
  3. The World of Trust Frameworks: what are trust frameworks and what are different types of frameworks being deployed in both the public and private sectors? How are organizations trying to monetize trust frameworks? What's going right, and what's going wrong with the way trust frameworks are being implemented?
  4. The Importance of Open Source for Trust Creation: why is open source important for achieving digital sovereignty? Is open source the only way to improve transparency, flexibility and accountability?

Mentions during episode:

About Guests

Tim Bouma is  Senior Policy Analyst for Identity Management at Treasury Board Secretariat of the Government of Canada. My mandate is to develop a government-wide identity management strategy that spans across the service delivery and security communities.

You can find Tim here on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/trbouma; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trbouma/

--

Darrell O'Donnell is a technology company founder, executive, investor, and advisor. He’s on a mission to help organizations build and deploy real-world decentralized (#SSI) solutions. He advises numerous startups, senior government leaders, and investors.

You can find Darrell here on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/darrello; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellodonnell/

--

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Oct 13, 202101:00:50
#25 - IDunion: Germany’s Bold SSI Strategy, with Hakan Yildiz

#25 - IDunion: Germany’s Bold SSI Strategy, with Hakan Yildiz

About Episode - What use cases should a National Digital Identity program prioritize in collaboration with the private sector? As use cases become verticals of their own, what are then some of the horizontal considerations that need to be applied to enable all of the use cases to function within their relative ecosystems? Hakan Yildiz can help us answer these questions being that he’s a Research Associate at TU Berlin and a Consortium Partner at IDunion.


During this conversation, we discuss:

  1. IDunion 101: a general overview, what are some of the early credentials being issued by government (people and legal entity VCs) and some of the existing ecosystem participants
  2. IDunion Use Cases (Verticals): what are some of the government use cases (eHealth, eGov and Education)? What are some of the private sector use cases (Financial, Hospitality, IAM)?
  3. IDunion Workstreams (Horizontals): governance, cybersecurity, wallet security, UX, interoperability and more.


About Guest

Hakan Yildiz is a Research Associate at TU Berlin and a Consortium Partner at IDunion. He’s a seasoned product manager with experience in every product life cycle for B2B and B2C products. Hakan is a SME in Blockchain, Distributed-Ledger Technology (DLT) and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).

You can find Hakan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/h-yildiz/


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Oct 04, 202152:31
#24 - Wallet-Mania (with Mike Vesey, Dev Bharel, Adrian Doerk, RJ Reiser and Michael Boyd)

#24 - Wallet-Mania (with Mike Vesey, Dev Bharel, Adrian Doerk, RJ Reiser and Michael Boyd)

About Episode - This episode features a live recording of an Indicio community event. Digital Wallets are taking off! OS operators such as Apple are starting to support open standards for digital credentials (here). Technology disruptors (like the companies represented in this episode) are taking wallet solutions to market (here). This objective of this discussion is not to take a deep dive from a technical perspective, but more from an adoption standpoint.

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • An introduction to SSI and the role of Digital Wallets
  • How does one go about building digital wallets? (UX and various other considerations)
  • What are some promising Use Cases for Digital Wallets
  • Live answering of questions from attendees

About Guests

  • Mike Vesey, President, IdRamp
  • Dev Bharel, Product Owner and Software Architect, Globalid
  • Adrian Doerk, Business Development Manager, Lissi
  • R.J. Reiser, Chief Business Development Officer, Liquid Avatar
  • Michael Boyd, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, Trinsic
Sep 24, 202159:56
#23 - Creating Social Inclusion Opportunities for African Youth with Lohan Spies

#23 - Creating Social Inclusion Opportunities for African Youth with Lohan Spies

About Episode - Yoma is a youth marketplace that is incubated by UNICEF in Africa.  It enables youth to Learn (through Yoma learning partners), Earn (through employers in the ecosystem) and Thrive by completing Impact challenges (e.g., plastic clean-up, reforestation) that benefit our environment and communities.  All of this is enabled through a SSI-enabled digital CV and personalized learning environment.

During this conversation, we discuss:

  • An overview of Foundational Government Identity in Africa
  • How Yoma creates Digital IDs, Digital Verifiable VCs and a Skills Backpack for Youth
  • Yoma's approach at both global and local Governance Frameworks
  • Building the Yoma Ecosystem, by onboarding both demand and supply side participants to the table
  • What the future holds for Specialized, Intelligent Agents
  • How technology can be used to further the Impact Economy

About Guest

Lohan Spies is the Founder & CEO of DIDx, a South African company focused on self-sovereign identity. Lohan is thought leader in decentralized identity and well tapped into the pulse on the African continent. DIDx is also a founding steward of the Sovrin Network.

Lohan also acts as the technical lead for the Yoma Foundation, a UNICEF organization that is using SSI to empower African youth to learn, earn and create impact.

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Sep 14, 202159:50
#22 - Why Are Governments Choosing Hyperledger? - with Timo Glastra

#22 - Why Are Governments Choosing Hyperledger? - with Timo Glastra

About Episode - During this podcast, we try to answer the question: ‘Why Are Governments Choosing Hyperledger?’. Timo Glastra is one of three founders of Animo Solutions. At just 23 years old he has built up an extensive expertise on the implementation of open standards in the field of self-sovereign identity. Timo is well positioned from an open standard and open technology standpoint to help us answer this question.

During this conversation, we discuss

  1. Open Data Standards (W3C's DID & VC Standards)
  2. Open Tech Standards (Hyperledger Aries, Indy, Ursa)
  3. Achieving W3C-Compliance on Aries and Indy
  4. Challenges and Advancements to Achieve Interoperability
  5. Aries Framework JavaScript: The Swiss-Army Knife for Modern SSI Development
  6. Open Source & eSSIF

About Guest

Timo is a dedicated software developer, and an ardent believer in open source work. With Animo, Timo is working on the interoperability of open-source self-sovereign identity infrastructure and aiming to give people full control over their own digital interactions.Advisor on Digital Identification, German Chancellery

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Sep 06, 202148:09
#21 - The Roles of Government & The Private Sector in a Digital ID Program with Sebastian Manhart

#21 - The Roles of Government & The Private Sector in a Digital ID Program with Sebastian Manhart

About Episode - Why not take the best practices from a real world National Digital ID ecosystem that is live and thriving? In today’s episode, we dive into what’s happening within the Digital ID landscape within Europe. Sebastian Manhart is very well positioned between policy and technology in the European Union. In this episode of SSI Orbit, he shares his experiences and future projections.

During this conversation, we discuss

  1. How it all started: Estonia’s 2014 Digital ID program
  2. What’s happening in SSI within Germany today - how Germany moved from being a tech laggard to an innovator within 1 year
  3. The recent Germany & Spain announcement
  4. How the Public and Private sector need to work together to achieve adoption of SSI
    1. Does overregulation kill technology progress? How are EU countries working around that?
  5. Regulations in EU that are important for Digital ID (eIDAS, EBSI, GDPR)
  6. The Digital Wallet Landscape and future projections

About Guest

Sebastian is an expert in the field of Digital Identity and has advised nonprofits, businesses, and governments on how to design, implement, and scale identity programmes.

  • Advisor on Digital Identification, German Chancellery
  • Technical Consultant on Identification for Development, World Bank
  • Advisor on Public Affairs, Univercells
  • Advisor on Digital Identity, Ethics, and Risk, ID2020

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Aug 13, 202154:07
#20 - DeFi vs TradFi, with Sandra Ro CEO of the GBBC

#20 - DeFi vs TradFi, with Sandra Ro CEO of the GBBC

About Episode - As we continue diving into use cases for self-sovereign identity, we spend some more time in the Web3 space. Sandra Ro has been working in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space since 2011. She also has an extensive background working in Traditional Finance (TradFi) in FX, Derivative trading and more. Since 2018, Sandra has held the position of CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), a Swiss non-profit focusing on education, advocacy & partnership across over 40 countries.


During this conversation, we discuss

  1. Sandra’s background and getting into bitcoin futures | how banks interacted with crypto then (2011) vs today (2021) vs tomorrow (3000)
  2. The excitement and movement around DAOs
  3. The beauty of Open Source in Web3
  4. Everything Digital Payments: CBDCs, Stablecoins, DeFi | also the intersection of these together and with Digital ID
  5. Big societal trends – the separation of money from state, and the separation of identity from state
  6. Why technology innovation lags and costs keep rising in sectors with lots of government regulation & intervention. Specifically in sectors such as healthcare, education, real estate
  7. An important component in the Web3 stack: Decentralized Storage
  8. What’s happening in the GBBC, and specifically in the GBBC Digital ID working group


About Guest

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Aug 04, 202158:26