Regain data´s control: Self-Sovereign Identity

The term Self-Sovereign Identity refers to a type of digital identity where the user owns their data and has full control over it. In this way, the user decides what data they share with which third parties and on what terms. 

Under the realm of sovereign identity, the user can be a natural or legal person, or an object.

Sovereign identity is, according to the expert in the field, Christopher Allen, the fourth phase in the evolution of digital identity, as explained in The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity.  He is credited with coining the term Self-Sovereing Identity and many of the ongoing projects are guided by the 10 principles Allen formulates in his text.

In summary, and according to Allen, the phases of evolution are:

• Phase one: centralized identity (administrative control by a single authority or hierarchy)
• Phase two: federated identity (administrative control by multiple federated authorities). An example of this is Microsoft’s First Passport.
• Phase three: user-centric identity (individual or administrative control across multiple authorities without requiring federation) Example of this is the OpenID protocol or Facebook ID.
• Phase four: self-sovereign identity (individual control over any number of authorities).

There are currently multiple initiatives around sovereign digital identity, all of them making use of Blockchain technology. The sovereign digital identity protocol developed by Alastria is a benchmark in Spain and Europe.

Another initiative of great interest and that is showing a lot of traction is GlobaliD, led by our FTF expert, Greg Kidd. In this video, Greg explains what sovereign digital identity consists of: