The $560 Billion Dollar Technology That’s Changing the Future of Identity

The Future of Decentralized Identity

This year, Gartner Research named Decentralized Identity (DID) as a top technology for mass adoption; yet, to date, nobody has been able to correctly define the total economic value of this life-altering technology. The true economic impact has not been defined accurately because the current definitions of DID do not include the full functionality possible with new blockchain technology. Present annotations typically encompass an individual’s ownership of personal information that directly or indirectly identifies them, such as their name, username, email address, password, and online activity. Current definitions of DID are limited and do not cover ownership of every single asset — and the access rights — owned by that identity. They don’t take into account the new definition of identity whereby your identity is defined as “everything that defines you” as Daniel Buchner (Square) stated in a 2021 Bitcoin Magazine interview.

Most consumers today are unaware of how these new attributes of DID will empower them to do things never imagined possible. It will change the way people interact with every facet of their lives. The Open Rights Exchange (ORE) Network is purpose-built specifically to create a multi-chain DID for this future.

The Future of Decentralized Identity as Defined by the Open Rights Foundation:

The way identity is currently managed is often centralized (owned by governments or corporations), insecure and lacks user control. Centralized identity occurs when identifying data and information about an individual or business is stored, managed and fully controlled by an organization or institution in a single environment. DID has the potential to remove this centralization and allows users to own and control their own identity and data with greater privacy, security and increased functionality including:

Information Sharing Limited and Based on Need

In many parts of the world, eligibility to purchase age-restricted goods such as alcohol requires the purchaser to provide a government-issued ID. Historically, when sharing identification with a vendor, a person reveals not just whether they are over the legal age but also discloses their full name, height, weight — and even their personal address. Sharing unnecessary information increases the risk of crime and fraud; that’s unacceptable in today’s modern society. In this example, it is possible with DID, to ONLY share if the person is of legal age without displaying personal information.

Access Control and Management

Once a consumer or business provides personal data, it remains with the platforms and organizations that requested the information. It exists historically with minimal need for the organization. Does your dentist from five years ago still need your social security number? Does an app that you used years ago still need your address? With a Decentralized Identity, users will be able to not only provide parsed data from a single document (like a government issued identity) but can also REVOKE that access. Access Rights are a new concept for most end users, but are a powerful set of new tools that will be leveraged moving forward in the future.

Self-Sovereignty

The concept of the end user owning their own data and assets is a complete paradigm shift to the way the world operates today. Think your bank account is yours? No, you pay the bank to hold (and spend) your money and they control when and how you can access your own money. Blockchain DID changes this, enabling greater agency and autonomy for individuals to govern their own data and assets in ways that haven’t existed before.

Self-Data Monetization

Currently, billions of technology users are monetized without benefitting. According to Federico Zannier, an alumnus of New York University and an experienced IT consultant, the personal data of a US resident is worth somewhere in the region of $2,000 — $3,000 per year. The majority are unaware of the degree and depth that technology companies, brands and businesses profit from their information. More lack true understanding, and many have not knowingly given consent. Blockchain DID changes this dynamic. Once a user owns their own identity, assets, data and access rights to those things, users will be able to monetize their own data for the first time in history.

DID enables greater security and trust for businesses and organizations, and the technologies, products and services they offer. Fraud, security breaches, privacy, and other issues are significantly reduced by DID’s design.

This is not how many people think of DID today, but it is the future that ORE Network’s infrastructure is building towards. When accounting for its full, true functionality, if DID technology was available to all 5.16 billion internet users globally, and the value of each DID is worth an average of a conservative estimate of $100, (the market values a social media user anywhere from just under $100 up to $1,000), the full potential of this technology is a $560 Billion dollar industry that will usher in new eras in our world. The ORE Network brings this future forward now.

• Read our whitepaper
• Learn about the ORE Token
• Join us on telegram