Identity - Past Solutions & Current Blockchain Landscape. Intro and profile of ENS (Ethereum Naming Service) & uPort identity solution. Silicon Valley Ethereum meetup @ Goodwin Law, May 7, 2017.

1. Identity: Past Solutions &
Current Blockchain Landscape
SiliconValley Ethereum Meetup: May 7, 2017
Andy Atkin (andrew.atkin@gmail.com)

2. What is Identity? (Dictionary)
1. The fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
2. A close similarity or affinity
• People
• Organizations (e.g. companies)
• Things (e.g. IoT devices, servers)

3. Identity: Control & Ownership
(B. Golden, email conversation 3/2017)
•Who “owns” it?
•Who controls it?
•Who has the ability to change it?

4. Personal Identity
(wikipedia)
• Composed of multiple overlapping attributes many of
which change over time:
• Age
• Race
• Clan/Family
• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• Gender
• Profession etc.
• A philosophical and social construct.

5. Digital Identity – Related Concepts
(wikipedia)
•Subject & Entity
•Attributes, Preferences &Traits
•Trust, Authentication & Authorization
•IdentityTaxonomies
•Identity Networks

6. Digital Identity – Some Legal Intersections
Compliance Census/National ID Digital
Notaries
Travel Crime
KYC/AML – US
Financial
Sector
India - Aadhaar Notarize.com Passports –
TSA ”Pre”
Identity
Theft
HIPAA – US
Healthcare
Citizenship Services -
Estonia
DocuSign Immigration &
Visas
Fraud
Right to be
Forgotten - EU
Access to Medical
Care
Blockchain
Solutions – e.g.
Blocknotary
Refugees and
plight of the
undocumented
Illicit
Purchase

7. Current Electronic Identifier Examples
(all have limits, often combined in 2FA & MFA)
1. Username/Password
2.Biometrics
3. “Hard” tokens
4. PKI – Client Certificates
5.PGPWeb of Trust / Keybase
6.EmailAddress

8. Current Identity Landscape
225 companies, 13 segments (oneworldidentity.com)

9. Startup Identity Landscape
187 companies, 7 segments (oneworldidentity.com)

10. ”Traditional” Blockchain Identity
(Excerpt from Sabadello on github)
• Wallet Address is an abstract term for the entirety of addresses owner by a
single user (stackexchange)
• Namecoin is a blockchain that has been conceived from the start to be used
for registering domain names. It is the first fork of the Bitcoin software
• Contract Address (ethereum), the original Eris project was an early attempt
a DAO contract registry written in LLL (DOUG).
• Simple Registries (e.g. namereg on ethereum), e.g. wallet address -> 20 byte
name or email lookup

11. Hierarchically Deterministic (HD)Wallets
(Mastering Bitcoin/BIP32, 39, 44)
An approach for multiple identities from a common seed

12. Self-Sovereign Identity (Allan)
1. Existence: Users must have an independent existence.
2. Control: Users must control their identities.
3. Access: Users must have access to their own data.
4. Transparency: Systems and algorithms must be transparent.
5. Persistence: Identities must be long-lived.
6. Portability: The user remains in control of his identity no matter what.
7. Interoperability: IDs are of little value if they work only in little niches.
8. Consent: Users must agree to the use of their identity.
9. Minimization: Disclosure of claims must be minimized.
10.Protection: Freedoms and rights of the individuals over the needs of the
network.

13. uPort - Overview
(uPort.me)
• Uses mobile devices, the ethereum blockchain and off-chain BLOB store
(e.g. IPFS, AWS, Dropbox)
• Built on self-sovereign identity principles
• Key recovery/revocation possible using a quorum of delegates
• Allows for creation of attestations, credentials and reputation on an
immutable identity

14. uPort Credentials & Attestations
(uPort whitepaper)

15. uPort – Current Status
(from uPort.me)
• Incubated by ConsenSys
• Currently in Alpha
• iOS & Android* client currently available (keys stored in secure
enclaves)
• Partnered with Gnosis, others to follow
• Future Enhancements (whitepaper):
1. Multiple identities
2. Swappable enhanced controller with spending limits and other features
3. Recovery delegate list to be hidden from public view
4. End-to-End encryption for messaging server (Chasqui)
5. Better user subsidy logic for onboarding users (Sensui)
• * Just updated slide

16. What Makes a Good Name Service?
(Johnson)
1. Separation of concerns
• Don’t conflate registration & resolution a la GoDaddy etc.
2. Distributed authority & implementation
• Keep in decentralized to avoid single points of failure
3. Forward-compatibility
• There will be unforeseen applications of a naming service
as there were with DNS
4. Efficient on-chain resolution (must be fast!)

17. Ethereum Naming Service –Version 0.1
(ENS Documentation, EIP 137, 162)
• Performs a similar functional as DNS but implementation
details differ significantly
• Resolve human readable names for ethereum addresses,
Swarm & IPFS content hashes as well as metadata (e.g.
whois, contract ABIs)
• Composed of:
1. Registry
2. Resolvers
3. Registrars

18. Components of ENS
(Johnson)
Registrar/Owners of a Domain Registry Resolver
• Set the resolver andTTL for
domain
• Records owner of the domain • Translates names into addresses
• Transfer ownership of domain to
another address
• Records resolver of the domain • Supports an optional number of
different record types
• Change ownership of subdomains • RecordsTTL for all records under
domain

19. Registering a Name
(ENS Documentation, EIP 162)
1. .eth Registrar is FIFS (first in first served)
2. Interim “McDonalds” solution until permanent
registry is finalized
3. Restricted to .ethTLD with subdomains being a
minimum of 7 characters in length
4. Uses aVickrey auction: Sealed bid, 2nd price
5. Initial deeds last for 1 year

20. ENS – Current Status
1. Supported by
• Metamask supports sending funds to ENS names.
• Mist is working on ENS support
• LEth is working on ENS support
• Status is working on ENS support
2. No firm date for permanent registry (?)
3. Not directly affiliated with ConsenSys

21. Questions/Comments?
• Feel free to get in touch with me:
 andrew.atkin@gmail.com
• SpecialThanks to:
 Grant Fondo (speaker and host @ Goodwin Law)
 Bernard Golden (speaker & topic idea)
 Christian Peel (SV Meetup organzizer)
 Daniel Buchner (speaker)
 SteveWaldman (moderator)

22. References
1. Antonopoulos, A. (2014). Mastering Bitcoin Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies. Chapter 4. San Francisco, CA:
O’Reilly Media.
2. Allan, C. (2015, April 25). The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity [Web log post]. Retrieved May 7, 2017, from
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2016/04/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity.html.
3. D’Ambrosi, C. (2017, January). The Identity Industry Landscape: 225+ Companies . Retrieved May 7, 2017 from from
https://oneworldidentity.com/identity-industry-landscape/.
4. Digital Identity. (2017, May). Retrieved May 7, 2017 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_identity.
5. Johnson, Nick. (Presented at DEVCON2, September 19-21, 2016). ENS: Ethereum Naming Service. Retrieved May
7, 2017, from https://arachnid.github.io/devcon2/#/title
6. Lundkvist, Heck,Torstensson et al. (DraftVersion February 21, 2017). uPort: A Platform for Self-Sovereign Identity.
Retrieved May 7, 2017, from https://whitepaper.uport.me/uPort_whitepaper_DRAFT20170221.pdf.
7. Personal Identity. (2017, May). Retrieved May 7, 2017 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity
8. Sabadello, M. (2017, April). Blockchain and Identity. Retrieved May 7, 2017, from
https://github.com/peacekeeper/blockchain-identity.
9. The Identity Startup Landscape: 187 Companies. (2017, February). Retrieved from
https://oneworldidentity.com/identity-startup-landscape.
10. Welcome to ENS’s documentation!. (2017, May). Retrieved May 7, 2017 from http://docs.ens.domains/en/latest/
11. uPort. (2017, May). Retrieved May 7, 2017 from https://www.uport.me/.