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- Microsoft decentralized identity team has rolled out its first version of ION Decentralized Identifier
- The integration can be used to secure access to resources and sign and verify credentials
- Any user can now make their DID or for their firms and businesses
Microsoft, one of the top ten firms in market capitalization has announced the launch of its first version of ION Decentralized Identifier (DID) network. The network has been rolled out on the Bitcoin blockchain, which will help the users to to take more control in their hands. Moreover, the developers can also add such identifiers in wallets, dApps, and other credential related services.
How will ION DID’s integration help Microsoft?
According to Protocol Labs, the team behind InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), ION is a decentralized identity service. ION’s public network provides distributed public key infrastructure via such identities and Sidetree protocol. The Sidetree protocol is an open source protocol for decentralized identifiers, built on top of Bitcoin.
According to Pamela Dingle from Microsoft, DIDs are identifiers, and can be used to secure access to resources. Moreover, such identifiers can also be used to sign and verify credentials, and can also facilitate application data exchange.
How will the ION DIDs help the users?
In the traditional way, a user uses a public and private key to confirm that they own a specific account or address. DIDs are owned and controlled by a person, institution, or device, which is a different case in comparison to traditional usernames and email addresses.
Thus, the identifiers need no special tokens, trusted validators, or any additional consensus mechanism, just takes the linear process of BTC’s timechain. Means the identifiers don’t depend upon any outside institutions or trusted intermediary. Thus by enabling interoperable decentralized identities and dApps ecosystem. According to Dingle, the network only answers to the community.
Among the uses, any user can now build a DID for themselves or their firm and cryptographically link it to web domains. Furthermore, the users can also use DID to issue digital proofs like diplomas, event tickets, etc. The users can also deactivate their identifiers, and only the owner can deactivate their DIDs. So, there will be no violations of digital rights. On the other side, the ION network also offers a registry capability for users running app store and package managers. However, the team of Microsoft was building the DID since 2019, and achieved its goal after getting help from a number of collaborators at the foundation.
