What is a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)?

Sovereign identity (also called Self-Sovereign Identity, or SSI) is a set of information about a person that it can control, share with anyone (private or public), and take away access to whenever it wants.

The SSI system is based on decentralized technological architectures and is made to put security, privacy, individual autonomy, and the possibility of user self-realization first.

What Does SSI Give You?

SSI makes it possible to make a digital identity that can be used for life and is independent of centralized providers. The economy can benefit from this technology in the following ways, which are unique to SSI:

• Getting documents out and checking them will cost less.
• Putting in place universal data standards is a way to standardize information.
• Anti-Fraud: Cryptographic signatures are hundreds of times safer than physical signatures.
• Giant centralized databases are more vulnerable than smaller databases that are spread out.
• Context unification is the ability to programmatically combine data from different sources in order to verify and audit content.
• The ability to check data right away to see if it meets privacy requirements. Since users control who can see their information, SSI systems can meet privacy requirements.
• Personalization: Users can make a portfolio of their preferences or achievements and use it to get services that are tailored to them.

How does SSI solve problems?

Data fragmentation

With all of the connections in the digital world, we need a new type of documents that are open and available to all users, are digital by nature and can be viewed on a computer or phone, are permanent, can be proven, and don’t depend on the provider.

As an alternative to social networks, banks, and government agencies, SSI provides a one-stop solution that can connect multiple applications and share data.

Standards are easier to use and less expensive to maintain and develop because they have already been set. In traditional models, you have to install hundreds or thousands of APIs. With SSI, you only have to install a document schema once, and then any third party can use it right away. Even though the schemes are open to the public, personal information can only be shared if the owner gives permission to do so.

Bundling separate storage systems together is also helpful because it lets you use raw data. For example, a worker who always gets to a factory on time can show a future employer that he is always on time. By the time they get to college, a student who has done thousands of homework assignments can have built a personalized learning plan.

Inefficient document processing

Most of the time, the value of a certificate (or other document that verifies something) is not in the document itself, but in the services, products, and opportunities it gives its owner access to. For example, you may need a high school diploma to get a job or a research grant. You may also need financial information to get a credit card or open a business bank account.

Automating bureaucratic systems is the only way to speed up service delivery and make them easier to use. An algorithm, not a person, should do things like verifying and collecting identification information and working with documents. Automation streamlines, modernizes, standardizes, and speeds up the process. It also eliminates corruption, bias, and discrimination.

As more bureaucratic systems use verifiable identities and SSIs, people will have more faith in the process. For example, after a bank does a goodwill and KYC check, the client can use the results to get another service from another organization, as long as that organization trusts the bank.

Data standardization

Existing trust systems need a standard that both people and machines can understand in order to grow and automate even more. As the number of documents made and checked by software grows, so does the need for standardized data formats that machines can read.

Standardizing data also makes it easier to connect different data providers and checkers. Instead of making one-to-one API integrations, which is expensive and takes a lot of time, an entire industry or country can use a shared data format with verified identities.