Self-sovereign Identity — Users and network effect
After three years in the domain, I learn that the two most essential skills in an emerging new field are:
- have a right to be misunderstood for a long time
- have a right to make a mistakes
- unlearn old concepts
We focus too much on decentralization and ownership — it is crucial but not an essential attribute of SSI.
One of the cornerstones is the user's inalienable right to act autonomously on behalf of himself. This right itself accelerate the Network effect on the global internet.
Apps and social network providers form a network that exchanges identity and shares user data, creating an exclusive network of privileged players that own your identity and data and do business out of it.
We extend a list of independent players by every user or personality in a network.
Social login violates identity laws. Please read this paper before we go. It is a mind changer and critical for understanding a more significant concept.
- Identity providers know too much about user relations with businesses and other applications.
- App owners know that users have a social login and even more get a communication channel to a user (google email address or Facebook profile) and sometimes force them to know about the user too much.
With an SSI and network of sovereign identities, we don't need a user database/ management system or in-house PII storage as same as we don't need a social hubs, and probably a concept of a user will go away.
In many cases, Bussines or apps identity management systems are not user databases but a database of relationships of the entity with some data attributes and rights limited in time.
Some businesses not even aware that they build identity systems in a specific domain. So everybody some how play in identity space.
We shoulsd unlearn concept of user and should rethink identity in scope of data driven privileges systems.
