Decentralized Identity: How Microsoft Plan to Empower Users to Own and Control Personal Data

Published on by Cointele | Published on

This time, Microsoft presented a vast blockchain-related plan: a decentralized identity network built atop of the bitcoin network, which can potentially empower users all over the internet to take control over their personal data and content.

Decentralized identity: from helping refugees to fighting data centralizationThe initiative could be traced back to the summer of 2017, when Microsoft collaborated with Accenture and Avanade to create a blockchain-powered database system that would enable multiple parties to share access to the same data with an "Extremely high level" of confidentiality and security.

Around the same time, Microsoft presented its prototype aimed at narrowing the identity gap, while the tech juggernaut also became a founding member of the Decentralized Identity Foundation.

"With data breaches and identity theft becoming more sophisticated and frequent, users need a way to take ownership of their identity. After examining decentralized storage systems, consensus protocols, blockchains, and a variety of emerging standards we believe blockchain technology and protocols are well suited for enabling Decentralized IDs. We need a secure encrypted digital hub that can interact with user's data while honoring user privacy and control."

Essentially, ION lets users obtain control over their own data via the management of their Public Key Infrastructure.

In other words, having a DID allows users to control their own data and content - including login details and photos, which is not currently possible on most social media platforms that store such data on their private, centralized servers.

"Currently, large platforms control vast amounts of personal data and are suspect to centralized attacks in which bad actors can gain access to sensitive information." According to Smith, the bitcoin network, which has never been hacked could serve as an effective public blockchain to hold private data.

Microsoft's allies from the DIF community seem to be working on their own decentralized data solutions as well.

"We envision a future where users have a lot more direct control over their personal data, and we also believe in open, interoperable architectures," the startup's CEO, Matthew Commons, told Forbes.

As per the announcement, users' ID data is currently stored on the Telegram cloud, but "In the future, all Telegram Passport data will move to a decentralized cloud." Indeed, that could help the messenger to boost its data tool's security - just a few days after Telegram Passport was announced, cryptographic software and services developer Virgil Security reported that it is vulnerable to brute force attacks.

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