Decentralized Identifiers

Description

Via J.P. Morgan:

"Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) are alphanumeric identifiers that represent entities, users, documents, credentials, objects or anything else that can be uniquely identified. DIDs are a recognized standard within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - an international community that works together to develop web standards to ensure its long-term growth. DIDs are the fundamental buildings blocks of the self-sovereign identity (SSI) ecosystem and their utility lies in their uniqueness, their provability, and their portability. The uniqueness of DIDs prevents confusion between subjects. Conceptually, we can compare this to a government-issued identification number. For example, there might be thousands of Jane Smiths, but each one would have their own DID. Referring to them by DID rather than by name prevents cases of mistaken identity. The portability of DIDs is one of their most powerful and important features and centers around the idea that a DID is owned and controlled by the ‘subject’ of the DID. This means no one can delete a person’s DID, and people are free to use their DIDs across different platforms and even move their DIDs and associated data from one platform to another."

(https://www.jpmorgan.com/onyx/documents/Digital-identity-assessing-web3s-building-blocks.pdf)