Improving the DID Specification Registry (was: Re: Potential list of securities in the US [was: Unlawful Unregistered Securities, DID and VC])

On Sun, Jun 18, 2023 at 5:40 PM Chaals Nevile
<charles.nevile@consensys.net> wrote:
> The exception is that there were some early and IMHO very valuable suggestions to apply slightly stronger criteria for what is acceptable as a registry entry.

Yes, so let's focus on this to see if we could get somewhere. I think
AlexT had a workable suggestion in this thread:

> I'd suggest only having methods in the registry that have a working DID Resolver and DID Registrar, regardless of whether they're blockchain based or not.

Before the previous charter of the DID WG ended, the group was already
discussing how we could raise the bar on the registry because the
number of entries in the registry was having a negative perception
problem. We wanted the bar to entry to be low (but significant
enough), but we probably set it too low in hindsight (after the
movement gained enough momentum).

One of the questions to DID Specification Authors we were considering
for inclusion into the registry is: Have you actually implemented the
specification you wrote, and is a sample request conformant with the
DID Core specification?

We knew that changing the bar and eliminating many of the registered
DID Methods would create its own controversy ("You're changing the
goal posts!", implementers would exclaim). So the plan was to wait to
see how the ecosystem developed, give everyone enough time to
implement their DID Methods, and then note that we were going to raise
the bar as the ecosystem matures (after more than enough warning --
possibly up to a year).

That change above is wrapped up in the rechartering process of the DID
WG currently, which is currently trying to decide if standardizing DID
Methods are in scope or out of scope, or if the next charter should
just focus on DID Resolution (or both!?). You can read the current
charter under consideration here:

https://w3c.github.io/did-wg-charter/

... which I expect to revisit this very question of the minimum bar
for entry into the registry.

-- manu

PS: Melvin, this would address some of your concerns by eliminating
large swaths of the registrations, but for a much different reason
(implementation vs. potential legal standing).

-- 
Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
https://www.digitalbazaar.com/

Received on Monday, 19 June 2023 05:51:30 UTC