| Title | : | Identity and Reputation Management |
| Speaker | : | Pappu Kumar (IITM) |
| Details | : | Mon, 18 Dec, 2023 11:00 AM @ SSB-233 |
| Abstract: | : | Identity Management (IdM) or Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a critical process for any private or government organization. IdM comprises all the functions and technologies to identify and authenticate a user. Our identities are primarily drawn from some trusted third parties (TTPs) like the government. In the digital world, our identity is fragmented because our identity is drawn from many TTPs. Due to fragmented identity, a common user manages, on average, 191 usernames and passwords (credentials) to use the services online. To remember these credentials, users set easy-to-remember credentials. It is one of the reasons for data leaks and breaches. Organizations like Google and Microsoft try to solve this problem by reducing the number of credentials by introducing Single Sign-On (SSO) services. However, these services are not the standard way of proving Identity online. Due to full access to our identity and private data, these companies often use our sensitive identity data to provide personalized Ads without our consent.
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a model of identity management that promises users control over their identities. SSI promises to solve the mentioned problems and provide a way to create an identity management system in which the users will control and manage their identity. This leads to a question: who will provide the infrastructure (storage and computing) to support these SSIs? Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), popularly known as Blockchain, is a peer-to-peer network that allows us to perform transactions without needing a trusted third party. Blockchain can provide the infrastructure for these SSIs. Many researchers have considered using Blockchain technologies to design and build SSIs. Our research focuses on designing a new blockchain architecture to sup- port the population-level application and using it to meet the different self- sovereign identity needs of the masses. We propose a fundamentally new P2P network design tailored for DLTs to penetrate markets deep within large geo-political regions. The architecture comprises a small set of core nodes that provide stability to the network. Inspired by Hedera’s governing council paradigm, the network comprises select council members that have the motivation, willingness, and ability to commit to stable network operations. The users are regular citizens with widely varying computing capabilities (typically mobile phones or small computers that operate under spotty Internet connectivity and electric power supply), but collectively forming a large bulk of the network. Collectively, we envision that most of the traffic and application requirements will emanate from the citizens. Our research also focuses on designing, building, and using SSI in many sectors, both from global and Indian perspectives. From the Indian perspective, we are working on using the SSI in the Education, Healthcare, and Banking sectors to make our identity more robust and secure. According to a recent report by the World Bank, Globally, around 850 million people do not have any identity. This can impede the outreach efforts of various organizations seeking to provide services to needy people. To solve this identity crisis, We are working on an SSI architecture that allows anyone to create an identity with ease and minimal cost without compromising the one-entity-one-identity principle. To provide the infrastructural support for this SSI architecture, we plan to design a P2P blockchain/DLT system that can scale and penetrate the population level. Google meet link: https://meet.google.com/acv-jpni-eqy |
