Securing Internet protocols with decentralized identity
DIDs and Verified Credentials as SASL method
There has been much innovation in the last few years in the area of decentralized digital identity, including the development of standards such as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs). These technologies have led to large-scale initiatives around the world to develop digital identity wallets, including for example the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI). These initiatives aim at making it possible to obtain and use digital versions of identity documents such as drivers' licenses, birth certificates, university diplomas, and more.
The potential of these technologies however is much greater than just logging in to websites. In this project, we work on integrating decentralized digital identity technologies into widely used Internet protocols themselves, such as XMPP for instant messaging. In this case, a combination of identity and messaging means that you can authenticate to a messaging service using a digital identity wallet, rather than username and password. We accomplish this by specifying and building a DID-based extension for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL).
- The project's own website: https://github.com/peacekeeper/did-based-sasl
This project was funded through the NGI0 Commons Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 101135429. Additional funding is made available by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
