[HN Gopher] A Primer for Decentralized Identifiers
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       A Primer for Decentralized Identifiers
        
       Author : vlfig
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2021-05-01 07:20 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (w3c-ccg.github.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (w3c-ccg.github.io)
        
       | lucb1e wrote:
       | Aside from a spec that tells the "how", I don't understand what
       | or why it is. What problem does this solve? How can or should I
       | use this?
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | It's mentioned in the "How DIDs Differ from Other Globally
         | Unique Identifiers" section.
         | 
         | > The need for globally unique identifiers that do not require
         | a centralized registration authority is not new. UUIDs
         | (Universally Unique Identifiers, also called GUIDs, Globally
         | Unique Identifiers) were developed for this purpose in the
         | 1980s and standardized first by the Open Software Foundation
         | and then by IETF RFC 4122.
         | 
         | > As a rule, however, UUIDs are not globally resolvable and
         | URNs - if resolvable - require a centralized registration
         | authority. In addition, neither UUIDs or URNs inherently
         | address a third characteristic - the ability to
         | cryptographically verify ownership of the identifier.
         | 
         | TLDR: We've used UUIDs for a while now, they're cool and all
         | but don't work in a distributed network as they assume
         | location-addressing to one central, verifying server. Instead,
         | DIDs work via content-addressing, making them more ideal in
         | distributed networks as they're easier to verify.
        
       | max_ wrote:
       | For privacy preserving IDs I suggest you look at Coconut
       | Credentials -- https://medium.com/chainspace/coconut-threshold-
       | issuance-sel...
        
         | capableweb wrote:
         | How is DIDs not privacy preserving? You chose what information
         | you put in it. Also, Coconut Credentials seems to be for
         | "distributed ledgers" while DIDs are agnostic in their usage.
        
           | max_ wrote:
           | I don't know much about DIDs this was my first encounter.
           | 
           | I was just sharing.
        
             | capableweb wrote:
             | Sorry, I wasn't meant to be abrasive or anything, it's a
             | genuine question. When you say "For privacy preserving
             | IDs..." it sounds like DIDs are not privacy preserving,
             | while the people who worked on DIDs did in fact think about
             | privacy when designing it. But maybe I'm understanding your
             | previous comment wrong, sorry if that's the case.
        
       | networkimprov wrote:
       | See also:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-sovereign_identity
       | 
       | https://identity.foundation/
       | 
       | https://human-id.org/ (a non-profit startup)
        
         | clairity wrote:
         | it's a little disheartening that all of the sites you link to
         | include conglomerated tracking mechanisms, e.g., proprietary
         | tracking for wikipedia (even if this is relatively benign),
         | google for the latter two, plus wordpress for human-id.org.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-05-02 23:01 UTC)