- From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
- Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2021 10:10:37 -0400
- To: public-credentials@w3.org
On 8/21/21 7:26 PM, steve capell wrote: > * I'm unclear about which VC-API interactions should require authorisation > and which should not. There is clarity on most, but not all, of the endpoints we have defined so far wrt. authorization. There is a column here marked "Authorization Required?": https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hlevKRxCXsJBWvJTkL30nZVp8cpF26aY3PJqzuHtIZE/edit#gid=0 To be clear, we're talking exclusively about authorization (not authentication, e.g., DIDAuth -- that's out of scope). > * I can imagine that an issuer will certainly want to authorise a subject > that is requesting a VC. "yes, that's the john smith we know, here's your > digital drivers license" The term I believe you meant to use was "authenticate", because "authorization" is subtly orthogonal. So, let's make sure we're talking about the same thing first: https://stackoverflow.com/a/6556548 "yes, that's the john smith we know" is authentication "and given that it's the john smith we know, he is authorized to receive a digital driver's license" is authorization. "here's your digital drivers license" presumes some sort of authorization took place. Providing the digital drivers license happens AFTER authorization was successful. > * But I cant imagine why or how a verifier will want to authorise John > when he presents his license as proof of age in a bottle shop because > there's very unlikely to have been any a-priori registration of either john > or his chosen system to the bottle shop system. Instead I'd expect an > anonymous access "yes, that's a valid drivers license and, yes, the photo > on it looks like you sir, here's your vodka". Again, "yes, that's a valid drivers license and, yes, the photo on it looks like you sir" is authentication. "and given that you're above the age of ??, you are allowed to purchase alcohol" is authorization. "here's your vodka" presumes some sort of authorization took place. You're not far off, but we do need to make sure we're very clear about what we're talking about "authorization", and what's not necessarily the focus of the current discussion "authentication". > would it be possible to see a diagram of VC-API interactions with some > indication of which require auth and which dont? Column G here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hlevKRxCXsJBWvJTkL30nZVp8cpF26aY3PJqzuHtIZE/edit#gid=0 The Use Cases team is working on some more detailed data flow diagrams to elaborate upon the matter further. I expect we're several weeks of from those being done. Did that help, Steve? -- manu -- Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/ Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc. News: Digital Bazaar Announces New Case Studies (2021) https://www.digitalbazaar.com/
Received on Sunday, 22 August 2021 14:10:57 UTC