A Business Trip with FlexID SSID

Unless you have been living under a rock, chances are that you already are familiar with traditional (physical) wallets that are used to store a variety of assets such as cash, debit/credit/ATM/bank cards, bus tickets, business cards, health insurance, etc.

Then, the question is, what would these wallets look like if the notion of wallets was invented in today’s digital world?

In the offline world, we typically store credentials in a physical wallet — it keeps them all in one place, protects them by keeping them close to our body, and makes them easy to carry around and access when we need them. The job of a digital wallet is no different:

1. Store your credentials, keys/keycards, bills/receipts, etc
2. Protect them from theft or prying eyes.
3. Keep them handy — easily available and portable across all your devices.

Now, What is a FlexID digital wallet, and what does it typically contain?

Using the definition of Drummond Reed,

A digital wallet consists of software (and optionally hardware) that enables the wallet’s controller to generate, store, manage, and protect cryptographic keys, secrets, and other sensitive private data.

Put simply, The FlexID wallet enables end users to manage their identity information and decide when to share information with third parties. It simplifies the management of credentials, certificates, contacts and other personal data. This information itself is stored only on the user’s device and can be presented by the user to the desired third parties.

In other words, a FlexID wallet (and the digital agent used with it, which is the app in this case) is the nexus of control for every individual, organization, and thing participating in Self Sovereign Identity (SSID). What falls under the heading of “other sensitive private data” that might be stored in a digital wallet is as varied as what people might choose to put in their physical wallets or purses.

To ground our discussion of the various functions of FlexID digital wallets and agents (apps), let’s take a real-world scenario where we make use of our physical wallets: a business trip from Harare to Pretoria. From start to finish, these are the times on a business trip when you usually need to share information from your physical wallet(traditional wallet):

1. Making plane, car rental, and hotel reservations.
2. Passing through airport security.
3. Presenting your boarding pass for the plane.
4. Car rental, hotel, and conference check-ins.
5. Business card exchange

It’s easy to envision the all-digital version of this scenario if you see your digital wallet as a replacement for your physical wallet. Assuming that you have the FlexID digital wallet installed on your smartphone, here are the digital versions of each step. In this context, agent refers to your FlexID mobile app.

1. Making plane, car rental, and hotel reservations — At each website, you use your phone to scan a QR code. Your agent prompts you for permission to establish a private, peer-to-peer connection. (After associating this new connection with your existing website account, you should be able to “log in” to the website using your digital agent and wallet without any username or password.) When you are finished making your reservation, your agent prompts you to accept a digital credential for your reservation. When you click Yes, your agent stores the reservation credential directly in your digital wallet, ready for your trip.
2. Passing through airport security — You tap your phone on an NFC device, and your agent prompts you to share the required information from an acceptable government ID credential. You click Yes, the security agent verifies your picture, and you are good to go.
3. Presenting your boarding pass for the plane — Your phone connects with a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device when you are three feet from the gate as you get in line to board the plane. Your digital agent (not the gate agent) prompts you to share your plane reservation credential. You click Yes. A facial recognition scanner compares your face with your plane reservation. If everything matches, the light turns green, and you board the plane.
4. Car rental, hotel, and conference check-ins: Each of these is essentially the same ceremony: you scan a QR code, are prompted by your agent to share the necessary credential proofs, click Yes, wait for the proofs to be verified and your biometrics (such as your picture) to be matched, and then are finished.
5. Business card exchange — When you meet someone at a conference with whom you want to exchange business cards, one of the two of you opens your digital wallet app and clicks the menu to display a QR code. The other one scans it. (This ceremony can also work via Bluetooth, NFC, and other edge networking protocols.) The two agents instantly negotiate a private DID-to-DID connection. Then each agent prompts its controller for the business card(s) to share over this new connection. Choose the card(s), and you’re finished. You both now have a direct personal connection — with no intermediary — that will last as long as you both want it.

So as shown above, the FlexID system is not limited to the exchange of personal identity data, but also allows the exchange of any information required for authentication purposes. This can be the transfer of registration data, information about creditworthiness, Membership certificates, admission tickets of any kind as well as the access to websites (via single sign-on “SSO”) or buildings.

The FlexID initiative is open to new partners who want to join our network. More information about the project can be found on our website flexid.asia