Commons Foundation Advances Development of Public Distributed Ledger-Based Decentralized Identity (DID)

With a single DID, individuals can directly manage the personal information and identity verification they need to provide to governments, institutions, companies, and services, and selectively provide only some of the information, minimizing personal information infringement. / Provided by Commons Foundation Korea Office

The Commons Foundation has initiated the development of Decentralized Identity Verification (DID) that can leverage the advantages of public distributed ledgers amid the global surge in digitalization.

Last year, the Commons Foundation announced its concept for a tracking management system utilizing public distributed ledgers, and earlier this month, it unveiled an epidemiological investigation system using distributed ledger technology suited for the post-COVID-19 era. Through this DID development, they plan to implement real-world applications in this field.

In this regard, Director Yongkwan Choi stated, "As the demand and necessity for contactless services increase socioeconomically in the post-COVID-19 era, it is essential to create an environment where users can easily prove their identity and manage personal information through DID services."

DID stands for 'Decentralized ID' and refers to proving one's identity without a central authority based on distributed ledger technology. It is also called decentralized identity verification, distributed identity verification, or distributed ID. Instead of providing all personal information that does not meet the purpose of identity verification or registration to a specific institution, users store the information necessary for personal identity verification on their smartphones and can selectively provide the required information for each institution or situation, minimizing the risk of personal information leakage.

DID can be used through biometric authentication such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or iris scans, so even if a smartphone is lost, there is no risk of personal information exposure. Additionally, issuance and usage histories are stored on a tamper-proof distributed ledger, allowing secure management of access control records.

With the passage of the Electronic Signature Act last month, which abolished the public certification system, DID is likely to gain attention as a new authentication method. Director Yongkwan Choi explained, "In this situation, if government ministries, companies, and other institutions use different DID authentication systems, consumers face the inconvenience of having to install, register, and access each one individually. Also, most ongoing DID systems currently use private distributed ledgers controlled centrally, which are highly vulnerable to security risks and ultimately no different from existing systems. Therefore, a DID authentication system utilizing a public distributed ledger is necessary, which is why this project was initiated. DID on a public distributed ledger network should become the standard for personal authentication, entrusting personal information management to individuals."

Through this, the Commons Foundation announced plans to strengthen business integration by applying years of public distributed ledger research and development (R&D) achievements to build a DID system on a public distributed ledger, starting with projects such as epidemiological investigation systems and tracking management systems suitable for the post-COVID-19 era.