Re: A Proposal for Credential-based login (public-webpayments'at'w3'dot'org 3-14-2014)

This was really interesting thanks,

It helps shed some light on the different perspectives within this
community and the history of these ideas.

I would encourage everyone to read this. And those who already know and buy
into the ideas presented in this article but are confused by the
Hyperledger/Sovrin esc ideas would do well to read article for a similar
purpose https://www.cs.ru.nl/~jhh/pub/secsem/chaum1985bigbrother.pdf.

It seems we often talk past each other, but we all want roughly the same
things. The differences, to me at least, come down to an emphasis on
different aims. It seems some of us are working to enable Verifiable
Credentials that are simple, and easy to use specifically within the
context of the web as a core focus with privacy important but not a deal
breaker. Whereas other members are most focused on ensuring the privacy of
holders when using digital credentials in any context through strong
cryptography. This approach is naturally complex, so while simplicity is
important it has not been the main priority.

I am biased, but I just want to point out cryptographers have been talking
about credentials using much the same language and for many of the same
reasons since before the W3C existed. If privacy-preserving integrity
assured credentials that enable independent minimal disclosure of a
required set of attributes within a certain context while reducing the
potential for correlation are a priority for this group, we would do well
to at least have knowledge of the prior art.

To be clear I am not saying cryptography is a panacea for all of the
challenges in digital identity, but cryptography is the science of secure
communication. And (secure) communication is key component when forming our
identities, whether in the digital world or otherwise.

Joe - I wonder if the cryptographers perspective is another Mental Model of
Identity?

Cheers,
Will

On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 5:54 PM Brent Shambaugh <brent.shambaugh@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Haha. Manu.
>
> http://manu.sporny.org/2014/credential-based-login/
>
>
>