Re: Utah State-Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI) legislation

On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 7:50 AM Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
wrote:

> Just wanted to point out that the Utah State-Endorsed Digital Identity
> (SEDI) legislation has been posted for review and it is /really,
> really good/.
>
> https://le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/static/SB0275.html
>
> Kudos to a number of digital credentials ecosystem long-timers for
> working with Utah legislators on this bill (Timothy Ruff, Sam Smith,
> Steve McCown, some in the "No Phone Home community", and others that
> I'm forgetting or not aware of).
>
> The most important thing about the legislation is that it upholds a
> number of principles that have been at the core of the W3C
> Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials work. It's an
> excellent read, and I hope other U.S. states take notice.
>

Agreed!

Utah's SEDI program keeps impressing me. I've written up a fuller analysis
in my "Musings of a Trust Architect" series

    • "Progress toward a State-Endorsed Identity (SEDI) in Utah":
https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/Musings-SEDI/

Two things jumped out. First, SB275 includes a bill of rights for digital
identity. The very first entry recognizes that identity is "innate to the
individual's existence and independent of the state" — which is remarkably
close to the Principle #1 "Existence" that I wrote as part of my original
SSI principles a decade ago. Seeing a legislature arrive there is powerful.

Second, the Duty of Loyalty. Verifiers, wallet providers, and relying
parties must act in the "best interests of an individual." Compare that to
surveillance capitalism's current model and the difference is stark. This
evokes agency law in a way that echoes the Principal Authority work we did
in Wyoming.

    • "Principal Authority: A New Perspective on Self-Sovereign Identity"
https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/Principal-Authority/

But here's what I think we need to watch out for: these duties and rights
are only as durable as the political will behind them. The Duty of Loyalty
as written can't be signed away in a clickwrap — it's a statutory minimum
that has priority over contract law. But carve-outs can be lobbied into
existence.

We should beware platforms bearing gifts: the Googles and Facebooks who
will push for exemptions that make these protections optional. Regulatory
capture is the real threat to everything good in this bill.

Take a look at SB275 if you haven't yet — it's long but quite readable:

    https://le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/static/SB0275.html

Give it your support!

— Christopher Allen