Self-Sovereign Digital Identity by Diego Fernandez | Devcon Bogotá

Introduction to Self-Sovereign ID

In this section, Diego Fernandez introduces himself and explains how Buenos Aires is planning to implement a self-sovereign identity approach.

Identity in the Analog World

• People carry attestations of their identity in their wallets.

• Institutions issue credentials that make up a person's identity.

• Each institution issues its own credential without knowing what other institutions have issued.

Verification of Credentials in the Analog World

• Verification of credentials follows a trust triangle where trust is at the base.

• The verifier needs to trust that the credential is valid and not forged.

• The city government needs to know how credentials are made to verify them.

QuarkID: A Self-Sovereign ID Protocol

In this section, Diego Fernandez talks about QuarkID, which is a self-sovereign ID protocol promoted by Buenos Aires.

Identity in the Digital World

• There is no digital ID primitive yet.

• Each company has its own security frameworks for verifying identities.

• This results in having many apps on our phones for interacting with different organizations.

Advantages of Self-Sovereign Digital IDs

• Trust line becomes more solid due to blockchain technology.

• Each user creates a digital identifier with cryptographic materials needed to decode it on a public blockchain.

• Holders can accept or reject credentials given by issuers.

Verification Process for Digital Credentials

In this section, Diego Fernandez explains how verification works for digital credentials using self-sovereign IDs.

Accepting or Rejecting Credentials

• Holders must accept or reject credentials before they can be added to their wallet.

• This ensures that nobody can give a credential without the holder's consent.

Claims-Based Request for Proof of Credential

• When verifiers request proof of a credential, it is claims-based and not credential-based.

• This means that the verifier only asks for specific information needed to verify the claim.

Example of Claims-Based Request

• When buying alcohol at a bar, the bartender only needs to know if the person is over 21 years old. They don't need to see any other personal information.

Quark ID Protocol Overview

In this section, the speaker provides an overview of the Quark ID protocol and how it works.

How Quark ID Works

• The Quark ID protocol is a claims-based system that allows users to provide proof of certain aspects of their identity without revealing all of their personal information.

• Verified credentials are stored off-chain on the user's personal device, while digital identifiers and associated cryptographic information are stored on-chain in a distributed ledger.

• Verifiers can check the blockchain to ensure that a given verified credential is valid and was signed by the private keys of the issuer.

• Users can use an open-source wallet to store their private keys. If they lose their wallet, they can recreate their digital identity if they have saved their private keys and backed up their confidential storage. Otherwise, they will need to request each credential again from each institution or organization that issued them.

Four Layers of the Quark ID Protocol

In this section, the speaker describes the four layers of the Quark ID protocol.

The Four Layers

• Level 1: Blockchain level - where every digital identifier is written on-chain in a distributed ledger.

• Level 2: Peer-to-peer communication level - where verifiers establish peer-to-peer communication with issuers without any agent in between using DID (Decentralized Identifier).

• Level 3: Proof claims and credentials level - where users interact with proofs, claims, and credentials.

• Level 4: Ecosystem level - where authorized entities are announced for issuing credentials.

Building the Quark ID Protocol

In this section, the speaker discusses how the Quark ID protocol was built and why it is a community protocol.

Building Quark ID

• The Quark ID protocol was built by calling on Argentina's thriving community of developers and companies, including Open Zeppelin, Decentraland, RSK Labs, and IOV Labs.

• The goal was to create a community protocol rather than a government protocol because open permissionless blockchains are more trustworthy than government-created protocols.

Introduction to QuarkID

In this section, the speaker introduces QuarkID as a self-sovereign ID protocol that is compatible with various implementations around the world.

QuarkID Overview

• QuarkID is a self-sovereign ID protocol that is chain agnostic and compatible with various implementations around the world.

• The most important implementation of self-sovereign ID model is the ID Union which is proposing Sovereign ID model with ngi lab Sovereign, ion, and marketing.

• QuarkID works as a layer on top of any given blockchain. It was anchored in Ethereum layer one but can be used in any EVM-compatible blockchain.

• The second implementation of QuarkID was done using Bitcoin layer 1 through Microsoft's Ion implementation of subtree moderna protocol.

• The first implementation made by QuarkID was Polygon, followed by RSK and Storjnet.

Scaling and Adoption Plan for QuarkID

In this section, the speaker discusses how they plan to scale and adopt QuarkID.

Roadmap for Adoption

• Buenos Aires City plans to roll out MVP in November 2021 and launch the protocol in January 2023.

• They plan to create 30 different verified credentials such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, driver's licenses etc., and mint between 300k - 500k identifiers within 2023.

• Buenos Aires has a community of seven million people including commuters. They plan to start with three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand identifiers within 2023.

• Any organization can use this protocol for free without requesting permission from any government.

QuarkID in a Nutshell

In this section, the speaker summarizes QuarkID as an open standard self-sovereign ID protocol that is multi-chain and interoperable with most of the solutions tackling digital ID.

Summary of QuarkID

• QuarkID is an open standard self-sovereign ID protocol that is multi-chain and interoperable with most of the solutions tackling digital ID.

Introduction

In this section, the speaker introduces the topic of digital identity and explains why it is important.

Importance of Digital Identity

• The speaker discusses the importance of digital identity in creating a public-private ecosystem.

• The government should be a user rather than having users of the government.

Dilemma with Digital ID

In this section, the speaker discusses the dilemma associated with digital identity and how to tackle it.

Tackling Digital ID Dilemma

• Solving negatives is easier than proving positives in digital identity.

• Both positive and negative aspects are necessary for self-ownership and positive reputational systems.

• Developing an identity primitive is necessary before unleashing negative reputation power.

Potential Negative Aspects of Reputation Systems

In this section, the speaker talks about potential negative aspects of reputation systems.

Negative Aspects of Reputation Systems

• Disenfranchised communities can benefit from using their reputation as collateral for loans but there are potential negative consequences such as discrimination based on religion or gender.

Conclusion and Q&A

In this section, the speaker concludes by inviting people to visit their website and download their white paper followed by a Q&A session.

Conclusion

• The audience is invited to visit quarkid.org website to download white paper. Code will be available on GitHub soon.

Q&A Session

• Sovereign tokens and verified credentials are two different aspects of our identity that will converge at some point.

• The speaker and his team worked with partners to build the strategy for this project and find the right vendors and protocols.

Anchoring the Seat of Buenos Aires with QuarkID

In this section, Diego Fernandez discusses why they decided to anchor the seat of Buenos Aires with QuarkID and how their technology can be implemented.

Implementation of Self-Sovereign ID Model

• The decision to anchor the seat of Buenos Aires was made due to the clubs provided by QuarkID and belief in their technology.

• Three different wallets are being built for implementation: QuarkID protocol wallet, Xcapit crypto wallet, and Always City digital identity wallet.

• Users can export private keys and store them in a safe place for backup. If phone is lost, users can recreate their wallet using private keys and confidential storage.

• Users who do not have technical knowledge will need to go back to each issuer of credentials and request reissue if phone is lost.

User Experience

• User experience is important when planning implementations for millions of people.

• Backup options are available but it may take time for users to understand how to use them effectively.

• Positive outlook on user adoption of web-free technologies.