CS: Blockchain Series – Practical and Extensible Decentralised Identity Management

This event is hosted by the IEEE Foothill Section Computer Society Chapter in collaboration with the newly formed IEEE Foothill Blockchain Group, and the IEEE Orange County Blockchain Group. As an early entry in our Blockchain Series, this presentation is part of a curated lineup of workshops and talks designed to introduce participants to the fundamentals, real-world applications, and hands-on implementation of blockchain technology. Through this series, attendees will gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills to build competency in blockchain development and its broader ecosystem. Abstract: Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is an emerging, user-centric, decentralised identity approach affording entities greater control over their identity and data flow during digital interactions. For digital credentials to be widely accepted, there is a need for an end-to-end system that provides secure verification of the participant identities and credentials to increase trust and a data minimisation mechanism to reduce the risk of oversharing the credential data. The talk will first present an overview of the decentralised identity ecosystem. Next, we will introduce CredChain, a blockchain-based SSI platform that allows for the secure creation, sharing, and verification of credentials. Beyond verifying identities and credentials, the self-sovereign identity architecture allows users to have complete control over their credential data using a digital wallet, including the ability to selectively disclose part of credential data, as necessary. Current SSI solutions assume the issuers to be “official” entities (e.g., government agencies) who must follow a stringent process to vet their credentials. However, there is no systematic support for directing the same level of trust agencies for individual users who may issue credentials (e.g., delegation of access, consent letter) in the context of business processes. A verifier who relies on user-issued credentials to complete a business process (e.g., a postal worker handing over a parcel to someone other than the addressee) bears the risk of accepting these credentials without reliance on a trust agency. The last part of the talk presents a Verifiable Credential-based Trust Propagation Protocol (VCTP) that allows individual users to be trusted as verifiable issuers in the SSI platform by establishing a trust propagation credential template in the blockchain. Speaker(s): Dr. Kanhere Agenda: 2:45 PM – Setup 3:00 PM – Presentation 3:50 PM – Q&A 4:15 PM – Meeting Ends Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/472078