OuiShare Fest 2016 in 3 tweets: Identity

Identity is a crucial component of any distributed system. To communicate, trade or transact with a stranger across a platform, we must know:

• They are human, not a bot
• They are who they say they are, not impersonating someone else
• The identity they claim is verified by some reputable authority (a government or trusted party)
• The person is trustworthy: rated, reviewed or vouched for by the community

The first two conditions are necessary for security. The platform must be able to vet users, and ban spammers. The third is usually needed for compliance (KYC in financial services, for example). The fourth reassures the user that the experience or service will be good. All four must be met for a platform to build trust.

The problem, as our infrastructure increasingly moves online, is that any centralized ID system becomes a single point of failure. The anime Summer Wars imagines a future where a dominant social network becomes the identity provider for all local and government services, with disastrous consequences.

So who should we trust to provide our digital identity? Governments? Most national ID systems are archaic. Passports are starting to include chips and biometric data, but proving identity in daily life often still relies on a photocopy of a paper document.

Estonia’s eResidency scheme is a step forward. Kaspar Korjus introduced himself with his ID number: his public key.

eResidency is a transnational digital identity. For Estonian residents, their ID card enables voting in elections, declaring taxes and picking up prescriptions. For non-residents, eResidency is mainly providing business services: the ability to establish an Estonian company (with the benefits of EU membership), digital contract signing, access to ebanking and online payment services. As more nations start to open up their digital borders, we hope to see increasing competition leading to provision of better public services.

Access to multiple public service providers may lead people to question why these services need to be tied to nations. Why not cut out the middle man and bypass governments altogether? As Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof said:

“If the government is no good, why would you need more help from the government?”

Better to empower world citizens in a post-nation state era. BitNation is a virtual nation, powering decentralized service provision: encrypted messaging, notary functions and more! It’s only a matter of time before blockchain can handle births, marriages and deaths better than your local council.

In the short term, are private companies equally well placed to act as guardians of identity? Banks and building societies are trusted institutions, and could sell a premium service of authentication to their customers. Supermarket brands have already experimented with offering white-labeled banking, insurance and telecoms. Loyalty schemes of big brands could offer identity tools as a perk, but the downside might be consumers locked into a limited choice of providers.

At present, identity is not portable across platforms. The reputation accrued by our online profiles stays locked in silos. My Airbnb superhost status does not improve my credibility on eBay. Social networks monetize our identities and networks by using our content and connections to target us with advertising. A unified identity system, whoever the provider, would allow users to benefit from their reputation across all spheres of life.

Startuple is François Hoehl and Sinead Doyle. Find out more at startuple.works