Our Digital Self
As humanity is spending more and more time online, the concept of a digital identity is even more meaningful (GWI, DataReportal, 2022). A digital identity is, in simple terms, an electronic system that proves a specific person is who he or she claims to be and distinguishes entities from each other. A straightforward variant of this is the so-called user/password paradigm, often referred to as basic authentication. Here the user needs to create a combination of a username and a password. In practice, this leads to security inconsistencies, like reused passwords for different platforms or very simple passwords that are easy to guess. However, there are additional applications like password managers, which enable the use of more secure passwords and storing them in a secure enclave.
A further approach for such identity systems is the so-called social Single-Sign-On [SSO] solution. Technically there are relaying on protocols like SAML2, OAuth2/OpenID, etc., and allow the user to login with an identity he or she was already created beforehand in another centralized platform. Examples of such solutions in a consumer-focused domain are the social SSO variants like Sign-In with Google or Sign-In with Facebook, which use the identities from a Google or Facebook account for the verification to an external service. The user experience is much better, allowing a user to register and log in into all supported services with a simple button click while also maintaining the security that is implemented in the identification standard. The downside of this variant for an identity system is indeed the central trusted authority, which is holding the user ́s identity.
A Trilemma Once Again
The American computer security specialist Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn created the concept of the Zooko’s triangle in early 2001. In similarity to the blockchain trilemma, Wilcox- O’Hearn pointed out that it is improbable to create an identity system that is human-readable, secure, and decentralized at the same time (Wilcox-O’Hearn, 2001).
Self-Sovereign Identity claims to solve Zooko’s triangle. Ethereum has two types of accounts, one is the so-called externally owned account [EOA], and the other one is a contract account. While the contract accounts are controlled by their smart contract code, and EOA is controlled by a private key. Ethereum is using an Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm [ECDSA] variant to create the public key from the private key. The actual Ethereum address is then generated as a Keccak-256 hash from that public key55 (Wood, 2014). The underlying mechanism Ethereum is using is fulfilling the secure and decentralized perspectives from Zooko’s triangle, while the third perspective is still missing. That is where the Ethereum Name Service [ENS] comes into play.
The ENS project was started in 2017 at the Ethereum Foundation and was organized into a separate organization in 2018. The development is driven by the Singaporean non-profit True Names LTD, and the project itself is claimed to be a public good. ENS is the missing piece to make Ethereum accounts human-readable and therefore solve Zooko’s triangle. In simple means, ENS is a set of smart contracts that resolve a human-readable name to an Ethereum account address. For example, the ENS name floberlin.eth resolves to the wallet address 0xb56238d0225c7e6155591916167c138a4be2babc and can be used in decentralized application for identification purposes. This concept is even further developed with the addition of Sign-In With Ethereum, which is currently discussed and standardized in EIP-4361.
Conclusion
As this short overview of the self sovereign identify shows, there are already meaningful projects that try to create a possible authentication method on a public decentralized structure that is not only compatible with today’s standards but also protects the privacy of the users and most importantly puts the identity back into your own hands, away from the concept that external companies have sovereignty over your digital self.
If you like the ideas and theories examined here, feel free to subscribe and stay tuned for more stuff like that! Cheers, Flo.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/floberlin_eth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-lueffe-6a87969a/
Join Coinmonks Telegram Channel and Youtube Channel learn about crypto trading and investing
Also, Read
- Best Crypto Swap Platforms | Best Crypto Exchanges
- Buy Bitcoin India | Pionex Review | Crypto Trading bots
- NGRAVE ZERO review | Phemex Review | PrimeXBT Review
- Best Blockchain Analysis Tools | Earn Bitcoin
- Cloudbet Casino Review | Ignition Casino Review
Cryptoeconomics: Self-Sovereign Identity was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.