Governance of Ledger-Anchored Decentralized Identifiers

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Garzon, Sandro Rodriguez, Segat, Carlo, Küpper, Axel
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916054118170624
author Garzon, Sandro Rodriguez
Segat, Carlo
Küpper, Axel
author_facet Garzon, Sandro Rodriguez
Segat, Carlo
Küpper, Axel
contents A Decentralized Identifier (DID) empowers an entity to prove control over a unique and self-issued identifier without relying on any identity provider. The public key material for the proof is encoded into an associated DID document (DDO). This is preferable shared via a distributed ledger because it guarantees algorithmically that everyone has access to the latest state of any tamper-proof DDO but only the entities in control of a DID are able to update theirs. Yet, it is possible to grant deputies the authority to update the DDO on behalf of the DID owner. However, the DID specification leaves largely open on how authorizations over a DDO are managed and enforced among multiple deputies. This article investigates what it means to govern a DID and discusses various forms of how a DID can be controlled by potentially more than one entity. It also presents a prototype of a DID-conform identifier management system where a selected set of governance policies are deployed as Smart Contracts. The article highlights the critical role of governance for the trustworthy and flexible deployment of ledger-anchored DIDs across various domains.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_16972
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Governance of Ledger-Anchored Decentralized Identifiers
Garzon, Sandro Rodriguez
Segat, Carlo
Küpper, Axel
Networking and Internet Architecture
Cryptography and Security
A Decentralized Identifier (DID) empowers an entity to prove control over a unique and self-issued identifier without relying on any identity provider. The public key material for the proof is encoded into an associated DID document (DDO). This is preferable shared via a distributed ledger because it guarantees algorithmically that everyone has access to the latest state of any tamper-proof DDO but only the entities in control of a DID are able to update theirs. Yet, it is possible to grant deputies the authority to update the DDO on behalf of the DID owner. However, the DID specification leaves largely open on how authorizations over a DDO are managed and enforced among multiple deputies. This article investigates what it means to govern a DID and discusses various forms of how a DID can be controlled by potentially more than one entity. It also presents a prototype of a DID-conform identifier management system where a selected set of governance policies are deployed as Smart Contracts. The article highlights the critical role of governance for the trustworthy and flexible deployment of ledger-anchored DIDs across various domains.
title Governance of Ledger-Anchored Decentralized Identifiers
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16972