What is decentralized identity?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Decentralized identity is the idea of carrying your identity as an identifier you control plus credentials issued to you, rather than as an account inside one company's system. It involves an issuer, a holder and a verifier. The technology works; deciding whose issuance to trust remains a human question.
Key points
- The identifier is held by the person, not a provider
- Issuer, holder and verifier form the basic triangle
- You can disclose only the fields actually needed
- Whose issuance to trust is not a technical question
Definition
An identity model built on an identifier (a DID) the user controls with a key, where credentials issued by third parties are held by the user and shown only to chosen verifiers. Also called self-sovereign identity.
Conventional identity means opening an account with each service and handing over your name and date of birth each time. Every copy widens the exposure. Decentralized identity anchors on an identifier you control with a key, keeps credentials with you, and presents them only when needed.
Three parties are involved: the organisation that issues a credential, the person who holds it, and the party who checks it. The verifier only has to check the issuer's signature and never contacts the issuer, which is why verification can work offline.
Plenty remains unsolved in practice — recovering from a lost key, what happens when an issuer shuts down, and which issuers deserve trust. None of these are settled by the technology alone, and the social side has to catch up before the mechanism is usable.
Watch out for
- · Lose the key behind the identifier and every credential tied to it becomes unusable
- · Anything you present may be retained, so disclose only what is required
- · Personal data written on-chain cannot be deleted afterwards