4th TF-DLT Meeting (April 2022) Notes

14:00-14:05

Welcome and follow up to February's meeting

14:05-14:35

• Where might SSI make a difference?
• (note that a design goal is to make students' use of SSI much better)
• Use cases:
•  eduID:
  • as worked upon by a number of NRENs (such as SURF, SWITCH, SUNET).
  • to create a stable identity throughout educational and academic career, supporting lifelong learning.
  • the wallet model is a natural evolution for this concept and removes the need for a centralised NREN infrastructure to hold credentials.
• Diplomas and micro-credentials:
  • trusted exchange of digital diploma information, 'badges' and the like.
• Researcher identification and authorisation:
  • Blend of institution identities and external identities
  • In this case, the centralised infra would only be used to hold VO credentials, not as an authN proxy
  • Removes the need to switch between accounts (instead user would select the claims to communicate to the provider).
• Open questions remain:
  • How to handle long-term management of credentials?
  • Diplomas/badges may still need user identification attached to credentials
  • Can the trust ecosystem be shared between all use cases?
  • How many wallets will have to co-exist?
  • What are the rules or participation likely to be, and how does that apply in cross-regional contexts
• Next steps:
  • From the incubator, the work is finished but a final cycle in GN4-3 might look at some aspects of this.
  • There is a proposed WP re distributed identity/SSI - Christoph Graf will lead that in GN5.
  • We must be part of the discussion of the EC's view on the diploma use case
  • There are also a number of EU tenders ongoing around wallet-based scenarios and EIDAS regulations.

• Layer-2 Blockchain based on Hyperledge BESU (open source project for deployable EVM-compatible blockchain infrastructure)
• Open to anyone
• Demo

• Positioning in the European Digital Identity Ecosystem
• Core eWallet functions: identification/authentications (PID), both pseudeonymous or anonymous authentication, providing attributes and attestations, creating qualified electronic signatures.
• eWallets will create a shift from 'identity only' eID to a wide range of identity related attributes, and every member state must make available at least one eWallet for citizens. 
• eID will be not only for the public sector, but also for private sector use cases, and must be accepted by private organisations, e.g. for student registration at educational institutes.
• eWallet and attestation providers will not be allowed to use eWallet usage data unless permitted by the user.
• eWallets will have to be free to the users.
• Becoming a wallet provider would not be a sensible approach as multiple wallets already exist, however, it might be that a generic open-source prototype wallet will be provided by the EU to use in the build, and it might be that this concept simplifies the process of becoming a wallet provider.

See also: GÉANT’s Digital Identity Strategy and implementation in GN5, Upcoming eIDAS projects and changes to the European Digital Identity Regulation infoshare, 20th April 2022.

GÉANT’s Digital Identity Strategy and implementation in GN5, Upcoming eIDAS projects and changes to the European Digital Identity Regulation

https://geant.app.box.com/s/s5stagbnbnc3z785r0u63hii05xnf9ty