- Thinking in a decentralized architecture -

We have a tendency to apply existing solutions or frameworks towards new things.

In the early days of the web, many companies implemented fax on the Internet, rather than rethinking if faxes were still the best solution for certain types of information exchange.

Are we doing the same thing today with wallets?

Wallets are a tool which we employ to store physical identity cards, credit/debit cards, receipts and other things. But when we think about storing digital identities/credentials, of course employing a wallet sounds like an appropriate thing to do, considering it's what works as the physical world.

I wonder however if framing it as a digital wallet boxes our thinking.

A second tendency we have, specifically in the digital identity space (and I'm guilty of this at times..), is to look at things as layers or foundations.

I often hear phrases such as: "Government issued digital identities will form the foundation for [insert use case]."

Rather than looking at it as something foundational, we should try framing our thinking around a decentralized architecture.

Read more here: https://northernblock.io/musings-on-wallets-identity-metasystems-with-phil-windley/

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Phil enjoys teaching, writing, and solving problems. He writes content on https://www.windley.com/, elegantly covering topics such as information technology, identity, decentralization, personal autonomy, computer science and more.

You can find Phil on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/windley; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/windley/.

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- Filling holes in the web3 stack -

This was a very fun and interesting conversation with Lauren Feld, Head of Growth at 3Box Labs, a company building the Ceramic Network.

The Ceramic Network in my opinion is one the most exciting projects in the web3 space. Ceramic is a decentralized, open source platform for creating, hosting, and sharing streams of data.

This is interesting to consider in a decentralized identity context. As we all know, we leave massive traces of ourselves in the digital world. The products that have enabled user generated content in the web2 world have dramatically increased the volume of data we leave behind. If this data is valuable, which social media companies can attest is true, then how could this data be returned to the rightful generator/owner of it,. How can it also be made portable across different applications?

On this podcast we often talk about Verifiable Credentials and recently a bit more about government issued digital IDs. I hope this conversation gives listeners some excitement about what’s now being made possible with some exciting bottom-up approaches and how turning the data layer of applications into a public utility is the logical evolution of the web.

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About Guest

Lauren Feld, Head of Growth 3Box Labs, building The Ceramic Network

You can find Lauren on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/laurenfeld629; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-feld-5b04249b/.

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About Episode - Progress is often slowed down because of binary thinking. This type of behaviour sometimes happens within the self-sovereign identity world: “Such protocol is good, such protocol is bad”; “Such community is good, such community is bad.”

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Rouven Heck is the Identity Lead @ ConsenSys Mesh and the Executive Director @ Decentralized Identity Foundation

Prior to joining ConsenSys, Rouven had a number of positions at Deutsche Bank working as a Blockchain Expert, COO, Program Manager, and Service manager.

You can find Rouven on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/rh7; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rouvenheck/.

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About Episode - Every week there seems to be mention of a new Trust Framework. People are now trying to monetize them. But to understand trust frameworks, let’s first understand what constitutes trust. We must define concepts such as levels of assurances and what defines technical vs human trust? Once this is better understood, the conversation about where a particular organization fits into a digital identity ecosystem is simpler. And note, in user-centric digital identity (or SSI), organizations no longer need to be at the centre of the universe.

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Mentions during episode:

About Guests

Tim Bouma is  Senior Policy Analyst for Identity Management at Treasury Board Secretariat of the Government of Canada. My mandate is to develop a government-wide identity management strategy that spans across the service delivery and security communities.

You can find Tim here on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/trbouma; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trbouma/

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Darrell O'Donnell is a technology company founder, executive, investor, and advisor. He’s on a mission to help organizations build and deploy real-world decentralized (#SSI) solutions. He advises numerous startups, senior government leaders, and investors.

You can find Darrell here on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/darrello; and on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellodonnell/

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About Episode - What use cases should a National Digital Identity program prioritize in collaboration with the private sector? As use cases become verticals of their own, what are then some of the horizontal considerations that need to be applied to enable all of the use cases to function within their relative ecosystems? Hakan Yildiz can help us answer these questions being that he’s a Research Associate at TU Berlin and a Consortium Partner at IDunion.

About Guest

Hakan Yildiz is a Research Associate at TU Berlin and a Consortium Partner at IDunion. He’s a seasoned product manager with experience in every product life cycle for B2B and B2C products. Hakan is a SME in Blockchain, Distributed-Ledger Technology (DLT) and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI).

You can find Hakan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/h-yildiz/

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About Episode - This episode features a live recording of an Indicio community event. Digital Wallets are taking off! OS operators such as Apple are starting to support open standards for digital credentials (here). Technology disruptors (like the companies represented in this episode) are taking wallet solutions to market (here). This objective of this discussion is not to take a deep dive from a technical perspective, but more from an adoption standpoint.

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About Episode - Yoma is a youth marketplace that is incubated by UNICEF in Africa.  It enables youth to Learn (through Yoma learning partners), Earn (through employers in the ecosystem) and Thrive by completing Impact challenges (e.g., plastic clean-up, reforestation) that benefit our environment and communities.  All of this is enabled through a SSI-enabled digital CV and personalized learning environment.

During this conversation, we discuss:

About Guest

Lohan Spies is the Founder & CEO of DIDx, a South African company focused on self-sovereign identity. Lohan is thought leader in decentralized identity and well tapped into the pulse on the African continent. DIDx is also a founding steward of the Sovrin Network.

Lohan also acts as the technical lead for the Yoma Foundation, a UNICEF organization that is using SSI to empower African youth to learn, earn and create impact.

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About Episode - During this podcast, we try to answer the question: ‘Why Are Governments Choosing Hyperledger?’. Timo Glastra is one of three founders of Animo Solutions. At just 23 years old he has built up an extensive expertise on the implementation of open standards in the field of self-sovereign identity. Timo is well positioned from an open standard and open technology standpoint to help us answer this question.

During this conversation, we discuss

About Guest

Timo is a dedicated software developer, and an ardent believer in open source work. With Animo, Timo is working on the interoperability of open-source self-sovereign identity infrastructure and aiming to give people full control over their own digital interactions.Advisor on Digital Identification, German Chancellery

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About Episode - Why not take the best practices from a real world National Digital ID ecosystem that is live and thriving? In today’s episode, we dive into what’s happening within the Digital ID landscape within Europe. Sebastian Manhart is very well positioned between policy and technology in the European Union. In this episode of SSI Orbit, he shares his experiences and future projections.

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Sebastian is an expert in the field of Digital Identity and has advised nonprofits, businesses, and governments on how to design, implement, and scale identity programmes.

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About Episode - As we continue diving into use cases for self-sovereign identity, we spend some more time in the Web3 space. Sandra Ro has been working in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space since 2011. She also has an extensive background working in Traditional Finance (TradFi) in FX, Derivative trading and more. Since 2018, Sandra has held the position of CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), a Swiss non-profit focusing on education, advocacy & partnership across over 40 countries.

During this conversation, we discuss

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