How/why "methods" became part of the original Decentralized Identifier conversations? from Michael Herman (Trusted Digital Web) on 2026-03-17 (public-credentials@w3.org from March 2026)

From: Michael Herman (Trusted Digital Web) <mwherman@parallelspace.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2026 02:00:16 +0000
To: Drummond Reed <drummond.reed@gmail.com>, "Manu Sporny (msporny@digitalbazaar.com)" <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>, Markus Sabadello <markus@danubetech.com>, "Daniel Hardman - Personal ()" <daniel.hardman@gmail.com>
CC: "public-credentials (public-credentials@w3.org)" <public-credentials@w3.org>
Message-ID: <IA3PR13MB7541614606D8B1E8BC3B8478C341A@IA3PR13MB7541.namprd13.prod.outlook.com>

To: The Original DID People,
Who remembers how/why "methods" became part of the original Decentralized Identifier conversations?  What was the original catalyst/reason d'etre for having "methods"?
Why aren't we all just using something simple and universal like: urn:<hash>?  ...that is, one universal syntax plus multiple diverse back-end technology implementations?

Michael
Web 7.0

Received on Tuesday, 17 March 2026 02:00:24 UTC