What is a Decentralised Identifier ("DID")?
Decentralised Identifiers ("DIDs") are essential cornerstones of how decentralised identity works at a technical level. They are very important to understand conceptually.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium ("W3C"), a Decentralized Identifier, or DID, is “a globally unique identifier that does not require a centralized registration authority because it is registered with distributed ledger technology or other form of decentralized network.”
This definition is a bit complex and technical, so let's try and simplify it down.
It is easy to think of DIDs as identifying something in the same way as how a registration plate identifies a car, and a car's owner.
To take an example, this is James Bond's Aston Martin DB5.
Image showing James Bond's Aston Martin DB5
James Bond's Aston Martin has a unique identifier, the license plate, identifying the owner of the car and also the features of the car:
BMT 216A
Similarly, a DID is a unique identifier, identifying the DID subject (a person, company or thing), and providing information about the DID subject.
did:cheqd:mainnet:zF7rhDBfUt9d1gJPjx7s1JXfUY7oVWkY
Both identifiers can be checked against a registry in order to provide verifiable information about the thing that the identifier is identifying.
The process for withdrawing the information from the DID is very similar to the license plate number: this will be expanded on in the section How do you resolve a DID?
License plates and DIDs both give third parties a high degree of trust and confidence in who/what they are interacting with.
To understand what we mean here, let's look at the following scenario:
Well, James Bond can likely prove control and ownership of that car in 3 main ways:
- 1.The license plate is on James Bond's car. And the unique registration plate
BMT 216Awill be linked to Mr Bond's identity through a registry, such as the DVLA. Anyone is able to check that the registration details of the car match it's visual features, and authorised persons are able to check whether James Bond's identity matches the license plate. - 2.James Bond holds the physical keys to unlock and use the car.
- 3.James Bond holds a physical document called a VC5 Logbook, which is a required document, alongside other identity documents, to update any of the information in the DVLA database.
This model uses the DVLA registry and the physical access/documentation about the car, as two separate layers of trust and assurance, meaning:
- 1.The
BMT 216Alicense plate could be removed and placed on another car - 2.James Bond's keys could be stolen
- 3.James Bond's VC5 Logbook could be stolen or forged
However, doing any of the above would not result in an ownership change on the DVLA registry.
Trust in Self-Sovereign Identity models works in a very similar way, where:
- A Decentralised Identifier (DID) is like the license plate
- A DID Document on a blockchain is like the DVLA registry
- A private cryptographic key is like the VC5 Logbook
- Authenticating using the keys in the DID Document is like proving that you can open the car with your set of keys
Of course, there is a lot of complexity here, so we will walk through each part in this learning documentation in simple terms.
A DID is very similar to a car registration plate in the sense that it is a unique identifier, which if resolved, provides more information about the DID.
To fully understand how DIDs work and why they are important, we will walk through the core information required for DIDs:
For further reading on DIDs, you can read: