Re: Open Wallet Foundation (and how it might fail)

Anil,

I’m grateful for your comments and urge your continued attention to the
wallet issues as human issues rather than business issues.

No matter what “alphabet soup” of workgroups and protocols, old and new,
that create an impactful wallet, it’s imperative that we look at digital
wallets in terms of human rights rather than business.

For example, it’s arguable that digital wallets are the most important
example of a digital public good. More important than access to broadband.
More important than effective regulation of digital currency. Can we think
of any aspect of digital infrastructure that will be more important to
equity across the totality of universal human rights? How will a rich
person’s wallet be different from a poor person’s? How will a US citizen’s
wallet differ from the wallet of an undocumented migrant? Will the wallet
of a Venezuelan migrant also work in the US?

Medical records are another example of digital public goods. All of the
questions I pose above for general use-cases apply just as much to the very
large use case of medical data. (As you may know, I’ve been involved in
planning for managing the medical records of Ukrainian refugees.)

AAMVA and the governmental entities participating in mDL via opaque
standards and secret meetings seem like the antithesis of the kind of
transparency that you are calling for below.

IETF has a formal human rights component which may be used to inform
specific work groups. How would we introduce human rights considerations
into the discussion of wallet standards and protocols?

Adrian


On Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 2:19 PM John, Anil <anil.john@hq.dhs.gov> wrote:

> Manu > … dilutes focus in the technical specification work ...
>
>
>
> I would be curious to understand where the “technical specification work”,
> as it relates to digital wallets, is taking place currently in a manner
> that:
>
>    - Is open and visible to the global community
>    - Has a mechanism in place to move it into formal standardization
>    pathways
>    - The output of the work is open, royalty free, patent free and free
>    to use by anyone globally
>
>
>
> I consider digital wallets to be both critically important to the DID/VC
> ecosystem AND simultaneously the most hand-waved over piece of
> implementation infrastructure!
>
>
>
> The gaps that I can see existing include:
>
>    - A clear articulation of what features/capabilities should be within
>    a core, normative, baseline of a digital wallet that is expected to store
>    and manage high value credentials, and what should be optional / value add
>    - How those features can be detected by issuers and verifiers
>       - Independent testing / evaluation
>       - Cryptographic Challenge/Response
>       - Formal Certification / Accreditation by some entity after an
>       in-depth technical and business model review
>    - How wallets can signal intent and capability to an Issuer and
>    Verifier such that they can make a risk-based decision to interact with
>    that wallet
>
>
>
> … and so much more!
>
>
>
> Best Regards,
>
>
>
> Anil
>
>
>
> Anil John
>
> Technical Director, Silicon Valley Innovation Program
>
> Science and Technology Directorate
>
> US Department of Homeland Security
>
> Washington, DC, USA
>
>
>
> Email Response Time – 24 Hours
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