Re: Is Decentralized Identity/Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) the killer application for blockchain/DLT?

The 'why not X' question comes up often in some tech communities.

Let me at least offer my opinion, coming from a non-profit perspective.

Right now, funders are funding distributed ledger development. And these
systems being built are working and actively being improved upon.

There's a great, vibrant community of technical and non-technical people
working on these systems to ensure their success. They are driven by
open-source, so I can be sure that at the least I can continue to make sure
the solutions we put in place remain available to be worked on and
accessible.

No one is banging on my door to offer to help me figure out how to build an
identity system using a distributed database nor are they offering funding
to help do it. And certainly, I'm under no illusions that the major
enterprise database companies would offer any help in this regard, rather
they would want millions of dollars year after year in perpetuity.

So, when someone asks me, why not use X, I ask back, if X works then why
hasn't X already been implemented to solve this problem?

On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 10:07 AM Nathan Aw <nathan.mk.aw@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi friends at w3c and Indy,
>
> Is Decentralized Identity/Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) the killer
> application for blockchain/DLT?
>
> Can the idea Decentralized Identity/Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) be exist
> without a merkle tree based distributed ledger with BFT algorithm? Any
> distributed database could be the storage tier.
>
> This is a philosophical question that I wrestle with daily every night --
> 0200 in Singapore now.
>
> If someone can share some insights on this deeply philosophical question,
> it will be great?
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nathan Aw
> https://sg.linkedin.com/in/awnathan
> https://www.hyperledger.org/community/technical-ambassador
>
> http://www.nasdaq.com/article/guest-post-understanding-the-limits-and-potential-of-blockchain-technology-cm874892
>
> https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2017/12/05/developer-showcase-series-nathan-aw-ntt-data
> https://bitcoinmagazine.com/authors/nathan-aw/
> https://twitter.com/Hyperledger/status/938105092644974594
>
> https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2018/07/24/hyperledger-sawtooth-seth-and-truffle-101
> https://www.hyperledger.org/persons/nathan-aw
> https://github.com/nathanawmk
> https://erc725alliance.org/
>
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/103/materials/slides-103-dinrg-decentralized-identity-01
> https://www.hyperledger.org/news/speakersbureau
> https://www.meetup.com/BlockChain-Dapps-Technology/events/254556114/
> https://www.meetup.com/Hyperledger-HK/events/248011521/
> https://blockchain.ieee.org/newsletter/editorial-board
>