Re: [Hyperledger Indy] Some Burning Questions on Decentralized Identity/Self-Sovereign Identity - Please help? -- Nathan Aw from Singapore

I'll take a stab at these...

Stephen Curran
Principal, Cloud Compass Computing, Inc.
P // 250-857-1096 (tel:250-857-1096)
W // https://www.cloudcompass.ca

On Nov 15 2018, at 9:06 am, Nathan Aw <nathan.mk.aw@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am a blockchain engineer from Singapore. Been working on blockchain 3 years back and now looking at decentralized identity very, very seriously.
>
> After studying and experimenting Hyperledger Indy on my machine, I discovered that Indy is a great decentralized platform and I am keen to evangelise this platform in this exciting part of the world - ASEAN.
>
> However, I have some genuine burning questions on decentralized identity and Indy. Please find questions below. Can someone help clarify, please?
>
> 1. Understand that Indy Node maintains a public permissioned distributed ledger and arrives at consensus via RBFT. In this ledger (rocksDB), it contains the transaction logs which are connection requests/proof request correct? Key-value store.
No interactions between identities (e.g. connection requests/proof requests) go on the ledger. The things that go on the ledger are DIDs/DIDDocs, Schema, Credential Definitions and Revocation Registries. CredDefs link a Credential Issuers DID and a Schema to enable issuing Credentials. Revocation Registries are linked to CredDefs.
>
> 2. Other than a trust anchor, what could be the reason (i.e., incentives) for one to run a validator node? In short, why should anyone run a indy validator node?
Currently, Public Good is the primary motivation. A currently null token implementation can be added to HL Indy and that could be used to create incentive. The Sovrin Foundation is at work determining how that might be used.
>
> 3. Since RBFT is the chosen consensus mechanism, what happens when more than 1/3 of the nodes turn malicious? Highly unlikely of course but assuming these nodes start to collude, etc, will the network come to a screeching halt? i.e., one is unable to issue claims, verify claims, etc
I believe that is the case - the network could be slowed to a crawl and the processing of transactions would decrease. Note that this would only affect ledger transactions - reads and writes - and not so much peer-to-peer transactions, so some activities would be unaffected. However, even things like restarts of a server that has to refresh it's cache of ledger data would be impacted, as would revocation and checking revocation.
>
> 4. I like to explore a pan ASEAN decentralized identity solution where one's identity could be portable across the different ASEAN countries -- my driver license registered in Singapore can be used in Indonesia, for example. Can I assume that I need a Indy validator node in Indonesia as well? What are the technical setup required for a pan ASEAN/supra nation setup?
You don't need a validator in any specific location, you just need access to the nodes that are in the network. You might want to have a validator else where for non-technical reasons, but there is no technical requirement.
>
> 5. Understand that privacy risk is mitigated through the use of unique pairwise DIDs with different trust anchors. pseudonym, that is. This is achieved through ed25519 cryptographic primitive. Is this idea/concept similar to public key private key relationship? Sort of mathematical relationship? Lastly, Is ed25519 quantum resistance?
A bit of my expertise, but yes, ed25519 is a public/private key pair. Googling ed25519 quantum resistence and looking at the Wiki page suggests that it might be, but that's way out of my league. :-)
>
> To be sure, Indy is a great platform and I am keen to evangelise this platform. Hope someone can provide answers to the above questions.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nathan Aw
> https://sg.linkedin.com/in/awnathan
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/103/materials/slides-103-dinrg-decentralized-identity-01
> https://www.hyperledger.org/news/speakersbureau
> https://erc725alliance.org/
> https://www.hyperledger.org/community/technical-ambassador
> https://www.meetup.com/BlockChain-Dapps-Technology/events/254556114/
> https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2017/12/05/developer-showcase-series-nathan-aw-ntt-data
> https://www.meetup.com/Hyperledger-HK/events/248011521/
> https://blockchain.ieee.org/newsletter/editorial-board
>
> _._,_._,_
> Links:
> You receive all messages sent to this group.
>
> View/Reply Online (#265) (https://lists.hyperledger.org/g/indy/message/265) | Reply To Sender (mailto:?subject=Private:%20Re:%20%5BHyperledger%20Indy%5D%20Some%20Burning%20Questions%20on%20Decentralized%20Identity%2FSelf-Sovereign%20Identity%20-%20Please%20help%3F%20--%20Nathan%20Aw%20from%20Singapore) | Reply To Group (mailto:indy@lists.hyperledger.org?subject=Re:%20%5BHyperledger%20Indy%5D%20Some%20Burning%20Questions%20on%20Decentralized%20Identity%2FSelf-Sovereign%20Identity%20-%20Please%20help%3F%20--%20Nathan%20Aw%20from%20Singapore) | Mute This Topic (https://lists.hyperledger.org/mt/28147776/952312) | New Topic (https://lists.hyperledger.org/g/indy/post)
> Your Subscription (https://lists.hyperledger.org/g/indy/editsub/952312) | Contact Group Owner (mailto:indy+owner@lists.hyperledger.org) | Unsubscribe (https://lists.hyperledger.org/g/indy/unsub) [swcurran@cloudcompass.ca]
> _._,_._,_