Re: Proposed W3C Charter: Decentralized Identifier Working Group

Hello,

My name is Anil John and I am a Technical Director with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). S&T is the Science Advisor and the primary R&D arm of the Department and conducts applied research, advanced development as well as testing and evaluation of specifications, standards, tools and technologies needed to meet the mission needs of the multiple DHS Operational Components.

We support the creation of the W3C Decentralized Identifier Working Group.

Background
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As DHS S&T testified before Congress some time ago [1] , we see the current challenge with de-centralized technology as the potential for the development of "walled gardens" or closed technology platforms that do not support common standards for security, privacy, and data exchange. This in turn would limit the growth and availability of a competitive marketplace of diverse, interoperable solutions for government and industry to draw upon to deliver cost effective and innovative services based on these technologies.

We see formal international Standards Development Organizations such as the W3C as one critical pathway to mitigate and address this challenge by providing a well understood, open, global and transparent multi-stakeholder standardization process that turns specifications into formal standards that are open, royalty-free, and free to implement by any and all parties.

This in turn allows for innovation to occur on a foundation of interoperability.

Our Support of this Work
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As noted in the DID Final Community Group Report [2], "Portions of the work on this specification have been funded by the United States Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate under contracts HSHQDC-16-R00012-H-SB2016-1-002 and HSHQDC-17-C-00019."

As the DHS R&D Program Manager who initiated and funded the work referenced above we have, from almost its inception, been active champions and supporters of this work with the explicit intent and desire to ensure that outcomes are in the public interest. We seek to ensure that this work is conducted in an open, transparent and inclusive manner not under the control of any single entity such that it becomes available as a truly global and interoperable standard for the reasons that are noted above.

Our Current and Future Support of this Work
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Over the course of the last four years we have funded, supported and implemented these emerging specifications (i.e. DIDs and Verifiable Credentials) in a variety of projects and proof of concepts that have resulted in critical and open feedback to help in their evolution.  We are also on public record as requiring support for these emerging security, privacy and interoperability specifications in addressing the mission challenges of DHS Operational Components such as US Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS/USCIS), Transportation Security Administration (DHS/TSA) and US Customs and Border Protection (DHS/CBP). These challenges, under the overarching umbrella of  "Preventing Forgery and Counterfeiting of Certificates and Licenses" [3], range from Citizenship, Immigration and Employment Authorization, Identity Documents for Travel, Tribal Identity Documents for Travel, Identity of Organizations and Organizational Delegates, Cross-Border Oil Import Tracking and Origin of Raw Material Imports.

As this work moves thru the standardization process, we will continue to review and provide feedback based on DHS mission needs and use cases, and look forward to working with the broad community of interested stakeholders to ensure that the ultimate result is useful not just to us, but also to the global community of folks who wish to leverage this work to address their problems and use cases.

[1] https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/05/08/written-testimony-st-house-science-space-technology-subcommittee-oversight-and
[2] https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-spec/
[3] https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2018/12/04/news-release-st-seeks-collaborative-blockchain-innovations

Best Regards,

-          Anil

Anil John
Technical Director, Silicon Valley Innovation Program
Science and Technology Directorate
US Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC, USA

Email Response Time - 24 Hours

[https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/svip]