Re: [AGENDA] W3C Credentials CG Call Tue, August 13th, 12 noon EDT, 9 AM PDT

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 5:37 PM Kim Hamilton <kimdhamilton@gmail.com> wrote:

> 8. Wyoming Representative Mike Lin to discuss relevant upcoming
> legislation in the state of Wyoming (15 minutes)
>
>    - Christopher framing
>    - Mike content
>    - Q&A
>
> Unfortunately, it looks like Wyoming Representative Mike Lin will not be
available to speak next Tuesday after all, but I wanted to give some
context:

I've been participating in *Wyoming **Blockchain Task Force* meetings for
the last two years and was appointed this year to a sub-committee on
digital identity. This sub-committee is to address new internet identity
and privacy-related laws for the coming legislative session in 2020, and
investigate some low hanging fruit for some digital identity projects to be
funded in Wyoming.

In particular members of the W3C-CCG, there is an opportunity to present a
*joint** DID *(Decentralized Identifier) *& Verifiable Credentials-based,
open standards* community solution for *Corporate Registrations and
Corporate Filings* before the *Wyoming Blockchain Task Force* and the
*WyomingSec.
of State*.

*General Background:*

Wyoming has a long history of being a leader in business governance and
personal privacy. This includes the invention of the LLC and Wyoming offers
some the strongest laws protecting privacy using corporations as a legal
tool. Due to this, Wyoming is one of the largest states for incorporating
and domiciling in the US. Wyoming wishing to increase the number of
companies based Wyoming by demonstrating their leadership in blockchain
technologies and digital corporate governance, and thus formed the
Wyoming Blockchain
Task Force three years ago.

In the last two legislative sessions, the Blockchain Task Force has passed
13 "blockchain" laws, but in particular, for this project, we are speaking
of these four:

HB101-2018 <https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2018/HB0101> "Electronic
corporate records"
HB0126-2018 <https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2018/HB0126> "Limited liability
companies-series"
HB0185-2019 <https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2019/HB0185> "Corporate
stock-certificate tokens"
HB0017-2019 <https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2019/HB0070> "Commercial Filing
System"

Specifically, the last law in the list above (HB0017-2019
<https://wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2019/HB0070> "Commercial Filing System") is
significant as it was initially proposed to be a mandate for the Wyoming Dept.
of State to accept corporate filings and issue credentials about such
filings. Unfortunately, it was watered down through lobbying to only be
"study" to be completed by 2020. Many members of the Wyoming Blockchain
Task Force and the broader Wyoming Blockchain community desire Wyoming to
be more aggressively be able to offer this capability sooner. This
capability will allow Wyoming to compete with other states (and countries)
to be the preferred location for corporate registration and domicile.

*Demo & Presentation before Wyoming Blockchain Task Force*

I believe the W3C-CCG and self-sovereign decentralized identity communities
are in a position to influence the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force and the
Wyo Sec. of State to accelerate the capability to accept corporate filings
and issue digital credentials for corporations. Thus I have asked for some
time at a future Blockchain Task Force meeting to present these ideas to
them.

The next meeting of the Blockchain Task Force is in Sheridan, Wyoming,
August 19th-20th but I have not been assured that the Wyoming Sec. of State
will be in attendance. Instead, I suggest we plan for the meeting in
*Laramie, Wyoming, *on *September 19th-20th*. I know that some folk in our
community will be at TPAC in Japan that week, but if you are not going
there this may be a good alternative.

The details for future Wyoming Blockchain Task Force meetings are at
https://wyoleg.gov/Committees/2019/S3

So far, at least one DID-based software platform company (Digital Bazaar
for Veres.One) is committed to being able to demonstrate this capability by
the September Blockchain Task Force meeting. Several others are considering
joining in to do so as well.

*Proposed Technical Details of Demo*

*(skip this section if you don't want to dive into the tech)*

The first step in the process of chartering a digital corporation in Wyoming is
that a person (natural or business entity) needs to register as a
Commercial Registered Agent. Current details on this are at
https://soswy.state.wy.us/Business/CRAHome.aspx , but I can send you copy
of the actual registration form as well as Wyoming statutes for Registered
Agents if you want.

That applicant must a) have a physical address in Wyoming (Registered
Office), and b) if the person is a business entity, identify a natural
person who is at that address during normal business hours. In combination,
this is a Registered Agent. There are a large number of individuals and
companies who offer these services in Wyoming.

I propose for our demo (and for bootstrap reasons) that we initially only
do natural persons as Registered Agents. The prospective Registered Agent
basically uses their own DID (from among those DID methods accepted by the
Wyoming Sec. of State), and then offers a self-signed Verifiable Credential
that contains the data in the registration form, optionally include other
Verifiable Credentials about themselves such as a proof that their office
is located in Wyoming. (I'm not sure that the current Office of Sec. of
State does any confirmation that the applicant maintains an office in
Wyoming under the current manual system but we should expect that they will
in the future.)

The Wyoming Sec. of State receives the request, verifies the claims and
accepts payment, and issues a Verifiable Credential(s) using the
appropriate DID method(s) to the Registered Agent confirming their status.

Once someone has a DID and Verifiable Claim from the Wyoming Sec. of State
as a Registered Agent, the Registered Agent now has the privilege to be
able to present information about representation of companies to the state.

A prospective Wyoming company would then create a DID and self-sign
corporate foundational documents that required to register a company in
Wyoming. The Registered Agent then counter-signs those foundational
documents, along with a claim that they have the personal info of those
beneficial owners on file (in Wyoming, for privacy reasons the state does
NOT get these names, only the Registered Agent knows).

The Registered Agent then submits a Verifiable Presentation (consisting of
Verifiable Claims that he is a Registered Agent, the companies signed
foundational documents, adds his own claim that he represents that company,
and offers payment information) to the Wyoming Sec. of State.

The Wyoming Sec. of State receives the request, validates the claims and
accepts payment, and issues a Verifiable Credential using the appropriate
DID method(s) that the company is established as of a particular date, and
is in good standing through the expiration date.

Companies should be able to renew or update these records with the Wyoming Sec.
of State, as well as pay additional fees to the Wyoming Sec. of State which
may include renewals of Verifiable Claim of good standing as well as other
corporate filing fees, or to receive other Verifiable Claims from the Sec.
of State, and long-term other Verifiable Claims from other Wyoming offices.

*A key to this demo* is that from what I've seen is that the Office of the
Wyoming Sec. of State may stall unless *we can demonstrate to them that
they will not be locked into sourcing this new technology from a single
company or single platform*. Thus even if we can't demo in September full
interoperability, we should emphasize that we are using open standards and
that our goal of interoperability is possible.

*Desired Outcomes*

After our demo, I'd like the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force to push this
opportunity at the next legislative session to mandate that a) the Office
of the Secr. of State actually deploy, not just study this b) require that
the vendors support open standards and interoperability, and c) fully fund
this initial effort.


*Next Steps*
If you are interested in participating in a conference call about the
project, please email me at ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com. I hope to
have our next call this Friday.

The Blockchain Task Force meeting in Laramie is open to the public, but you
should get your plane reservations in soon and keep an eye on the wyoleg.gov
 website for lodging discounts. There is also a blockchain conference and
hackathon at the University of Wyoming immediately after the Task Force
meeting with some significant prizes if you are interested.
https://wyohackathon.io

-- Christopher Allen