Re: Negative VCs

On 06/24/2017 03:30 PM, Joe Andrieu wrote:
> David,
> 
> I can see where it reads that way, but I'm not making that
> assumption at all.
> 
> Relating the subject to any particular entity is dealt with outside 
> the claim. There may be enough information in the claim itself to do 
> the correlation or it may need to be done externally either in 
> context or based on other data. This is a problem of authentication, 
> not verification.
> 
> Of course, if the subject is uncorrelatable through any means then 
> the claim can't be tied to a specific entity, then the 
> inspector/verifier/relying-party will have a hard time applying the 
> claim.
> 
> However, one could generate random pseudonymous unique identifiers 
> and use those to collect a set of claims from various issuers, 
> presenting the set of claims as a related set and the RP could 
> correlate across those claims some relevant fact. For any given
> claim the subject appears random and private, but isn't in fact in
> the context the set of claims. Each of those claims are valid, even
> if useless in isolation.
> 
> In the case of a truly noncorrelatable subject, i.e., the random 
> unique number private to the subject, the claimant still doesn't 
> *have* to prove anything for the claim to be valid. The claim, 
> however, may be useless. Which is fine. Not all verified claims are 
> going to be useful. But bearer claims exactly fit this use case. The 
> bearer of this claim *is* the subject of the claim and due the 
> privileges associated with the claim.
> 
> We don't want to conflate the possibility of authenticating the 
> claimant as the subject with it being an innate requirement of 
> Verifiable Claims. Nor do we want to require some proof of rights or 
> relationship between the claimant and subject. These are outside the 
> scope of the claim itself. That's why I say that ROLE_B doesn't 
> innately have to prove anything.

I agree -- but I'd like to note that "outside the scope of the claim"
does not mean outside the scope of the VCWG (and definitely not outside
the scope of the CG).


-- 
Dave Longley
CTO
Digital Bazaar, Inc.
http://digitalbazaar.com

Received on Monday, 26 June 2017 16:21:20 UTC