Re: How/why "methods" became part of the original Decentralized Identifier conversations?

Melvin, https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6920.html is very interesting. It suggests a backward compatible syntax for adding an Authority component to a DID 1.1 legacy identifier...

did://authority/method:unique-item-id

Legacy DIDs (did:method:unique-item-id) can assume a mapping to a default authority value of: www.w3.org

did://www.w3.org/method:unique-item-id
e.g. did://www.w3.org/key:hash

Support for Authority is needed, for example, to create proper DID identities for things like context schema documents.

This wasn't the purpose for my original question, but I like the outcome. Thank you. 🙂

Michael Herman
Chief Digital Officer
Web 7.0


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________________________________
From: Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2026 11:49:06 PM
To: Michael Herman (Trusted Digital Web) <mwherman@parallelspace.net>
Cc: 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>; public-credentials (public-credentials@w3.org) <public-credentials@w3.org>
Subject: Re: How/why "methods" became part of the original Decentralized Identifier conversations?



út 17. 3. 2026 v 3:03 odesílatel Michael Herman (Trusted Digital Web) <mwherman@parallelspace.net<mailto:mwherman@parallelspace.net>> napsal:

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?

Originally there was work using schemes like ni:// (RFC 6920) and related hash-based identifiers, which provide standardized content-addressable identifiers. I also built a proof of concept using ni:// for the web, which fed into later CG discussions.

DIDs emerged when the problem expanded beyond identifying content to identifying subjects with control: keys, rotation, and service endpoints. That shift introduced the need for method-specific resolution. At the same time, “decentralized” became a popular framing, including from a marketing perspective, which influenced the terminology and direction of the work.

From there, multiple use cases and stakeholders led to a proliferation of methods.

In the case of did:nostr, the aim is closer to the original hash-based simplicity, using the public key as a stable identifier, with did:nostr:<hash> as a compromise to interoperate with the DID ecosystem.




Michael

Web 7.0