Principles or Cult - An Irreverant Discussion on the Principles of SSI
At the end of 2020, the Sovrin Foundation published the 12 Principles of SSI, https://sovrin.org/principles-of-ssi/ . Building on the earlier works from Kim Cameron, and Christopher Allen, these principles layout what must be foundational principles around any self-sovereign identity system. The evolution of the Principles of SSI came about through the need to differentiate what is ‘true’ SSI versus marketing forces twisting the concept. This market driven motivator can bring cultish overtones to the process.
With this event we had a bit of fun in what is otherwise 'serious' business.
A few themes that come out of the discussion:
- The position of the holder of the credential - when does the holder become the source of truth and the key to value creation? In most current business value conversations the holder appears to incidental; the focus is on how to incent the verifiers and issuers with little regard to the position and influence of the holder. While the SSI ‘triangle’ puts the holder at the ‘top’ of the triangle, the lack of consideration of the trust and value equation there, implies the triangle should be inverted elevating the issuers and verifiers and putting the holder on the bottom.
- When principles become a means of “locking in” a definition, they become a means of “locking out” those that do not meet the “bar”. A concern voiced was that with this mental model, and the implication of the moral ‘righteousness’ of this position, the real commercial values of SSI are lost and those not in the ‘cult’ turn away.
The panelists are:
Simone Ravaioli, Director Digitary
Rob van Kranenberg, IoT Council and NGI Forward
Nicky Hickman, Chair of the ID4All WG, Sovrin Foundation
Michael Shea, Moderator of Vienna Digital Identity Meetup
To listen to a recording of the event please check out the link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/580329620
Time markers:
0:05:00 - Introduction
0:10:07 - Simone Ravaioli
0:17:09 - Nicky Hickman
0:25:44 - Rob van Kranenburg
0:35:00 - General Discussion
1:15:07 - Rob van Kranenburg
1:23:45 - Wrap up
Resources
Slide decks:
Simone Ravaioli : Principles vs Cult (Simone)
Nicky Hickman : Principles vs Cult (Nicky)
Rob van Kranenburg : Slide Deck 1 Slide Deck 2
Blog Posts:
If interested in getting notifications of upcoming events please join the event group at: https://www.meetup.com/Vienna-Digital-Identity-Meetup/
The Vienna Digital Identity Meetup is hosted by The Dingle Group and is focused on educating business, societal, legal and technologists on the new opportunities that arise with a high assurance digital identity created by the reduction risk and strengthened provenance. We meet on the 4th Monday of every month, in person (when permitted) in Vienna and online on Zoom. Connecting and educating across borders and oceans.