Re: did:cel - a cryptographic event log-based DID Method

On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 10:22 AM Filip K <filip26@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 11:23 PM Otto Mora <omora@privado.id> wrote:
>>
>> ...
>> Could you suggest what would be the economical or other type of incentives that would motivate an organization make a witness server available?
>
> Hi,
> that is the question I am trying to answer as well: who would be motivated to run witness services, ideally at little or no direct cost?
>
> The combination of the heartbeat mechanism and witness services is the core innovation. For this model to work, there must be a sufficient number of independent witness services available to support a reasonable threshold, e.g. 3-to-10, and diversity.
>
> Totally blind witness services should be inexpensive to operate and carry minimal risk. Identity managers and wallet operators are likely to be the most motivated participants. e.g. “Use our identity manager to gain access to a large and diverse set of witness services (and, on top of that, use our "AI" to select the right set for you ;).”
>
> Verifiers and infrastructure providers may be less directly motivated, but their participation adds diversity to the ecosystem and makes it function effectively.

Proof-of-existence services aka timestamping services (which is all
that is needed if the "witness services" are made to "blind sign a
hash") could become financially viable on their own for a number of
uses. Of course, this would imply that many would be for-pay services,
i.e., "This proof-of-existence service will sign your hash in exchange
for X in currency Y". Such a service has more utility than just for
DID logs. Similar services are already in the market today. It just
remains to be seen if a simple standard interface can easily be (or
even needs to be) put on them to promote healthy competition and avoid
vendor lock-in -- and whether "accreditation/trust lists" for these
services might also need to float around the ecosystem, similar to
what is anticipated in the broader VC issuance/verification ecosystem.


--
Dave Longley
CTO
Digital Bazaar, Inc.

Received on Monday, 15 December 2025 17:21:11 UTC