Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to their own identity information, but the fear is that our personal data is being abused by some third party applications or institutions, it is in this context, block chain technology, its one of the most core application is to protect our online identity and data security,
Block chain technology way is very simple: to protect the data of personal data in the form of encryption is stored in a decentralized network, by using the private key to the other party to provide these data information, this is similar to us through a private key encryption of monetary sent to others, Coinbase encryption, such as monetary giant recently is decentralized ID (identification) field layout, protection of online identity related applications in the encryption monetary industry have got strong justification and support,
However, while the application is reasonable in logic, but before large-scale use block chain to protect personal data, still faces many challenges, one part is technical, while others are commercial level, to strengthen the company of this field were standing in a different perspective to deal with these problems, but when to solve these problems, choose from "completely" decentralized ideal seems to be necessary,
And even if overcome the technical challenges, Facebook can provide the public with all kinds of attractive "free" and perfect service, as a result, people still don't want to leave like Facebook platform,
Control and privacy
E-commerce platform and ID CEO and founder of Nuggets Alastair Johnson says:
The present a real problem is that people cannot control their own data, real people's personal data - payment card details, home address, email address, password and other personal information - the average distribution in some 100 online accounts, people can access the data, but they do not have these data,
Block, by contrast, the use of chain technology allows users to enjoy the control, the user has the right to decide with whom they Shared their identity data, mainly through the use of "decentralized authentication (decentralized identifiers, referred to as DIDs)", Coinbase on August 15, announced the acquisition of focus on start-up companies in the field of ID Distributed Systems, Coinbase will to encrypt their currency trading platform to develop a decentralized login system, allowing users to retain ownership of their own ID, Coinbase said:
Decentralized ID will allow you to allow you to prove your identity, or you prove the relationship and social security bureau, and don't need to copy the identity,
Through setting, such as Cambridge Analytica this scandal is unlikely to happen again, it will also give the individual an unprecedented power at the same time, it will make companies more respect now users, because they no longer have the sensitive data,
Personal data storage and control by retailers, in a series of marketing companies, utilities companies and institutions such as the centralized database data report company, if you want to shopping online, individuals must authorize these different institutions to connect them to hold pieces of information can be traded,
However, while individual users currently relies on hundreds of different companies for storage and transmission of data to gain access to services, but the block chain technology is introduced into a complete reversal of this balance, this is just one block chain application scenarios, in fact, using block chain technology still has a lot of additional benefits in terms of identification data,
First, it improved the privacy, personal ID will not be those who need to verify the institution or organization, it is through the use of zero knowledge proof (ZKPs), ZKPs is a kind of encryption method, it can not really share certificate claim data prove that under the condition of claim for compensation, ZKPs by Sovrin company is carried out, and plans by Civi, Verif y and Blockpass startups such as use,
By using ZKPs, these companies will make the authentication process is simpler and more efficient, as well as on the block chain store biometric identity provides may, after validation of our information, the company does not need to be stored as data, which in turn eliminates potential vulnerabilities, because these institutions will often they receive any data stored in a centralized database,
Though not all used ZKPs decentralized ID platform, but other platforms will continue to use a function a similar approach, for example, SelfKey used a it describes "data to minimize the" technology, the technology "to allow identity owner provide as little information as possible to meet the requirements of a third party or validation", that begs the development to the need of advanced technology, such as ZKPs, of course, the technology also has sparked the controversy on how to define "minimize",
SelfKey wrote, "so we can let people choose only disclose the least amount of information," however, if there is no more accurate specification about "minimum" and "choice", you can imagine ZKPs or similar function may eventually revealed more user data,
Safety
In addition to providing more powerful user control and privacy, authentication platform based on the chain block is more security than centralized platform, this is because the data will be distributed across multiple nodes, they don't like traditional identity system (such as government database, social network) as a single point of failure, although blocks in one or two nodes on the chain is likely to be less active, but that doesn't affect the use of the user, and encryption technology can prevent any leakage of sensitive information,
By eliminating single points of failure, decentralized ID platform will hardly be hacking, the attacker will have to get everyone's private key individually, rather than suddenly break into a centralized database, because the latter will all user information is stored in one place, India in the past one year was hacked for many times, the government hopes the AADHAAR database (the world's largest biometric identification systems, including the record of more than 1 billion people) into the form of block chain,
Block chain transparency and immutability means that the user can see when their data is accessed, and access by who, so as to provide a deterrent to any potential hackers, similarly, the transparency and immutability only in extreme circumstances would be destroyed, that is, a perpetrator assuming control about 51% of the block chain nodes, which will allow it to access data in theory, then delete the corresponding records of illegal access,
AADHAAR though at the moment, it is not based on block chain, at the same time, the dubai government at the international airport using block chain as to the identity of the project is still under construction, Estonia has a government-led ID system, it USES the distributed ledger this technology (DLT), it's KSI (no signature key infrastructure) block chain constitutes the backbone of all kinds of electronic services, including electronic health record system, electronic prescription database, electronic laws and court system, electronic police data, electronic banking, electronic commerce and electronic land registration registration,
Also, the use of KSI block chain system provides greater transparency than before, because it can detect when the user data is accessed, when to be changed, in terms of misuse detection data, faster than the traditional platform also, those irregularities can be quickly on identity system based on block chain detected, it's because they are open and allow a wide range of professionals,
Standardization and interoperability
Nowadays, the world's digital identity system is separated, this has forced people to on the new website or new equipment constantly create new account and data, this led to a surge in personal data to dangerous levels, thus increasing the data leak and the possibility of cyber crime, for example, during the period of 2011 to 2017, in the United States alone, the cost of identity theft to reach $106 billion, at a time when consumers have an average of 118 online accounts,
Digital identity system based on block chain provides a solution, many start-ups (including Polkadot, Cosmos and Aion) are building interoperability platform, separate blocks of chain connected together, they can by implementing a accepted by all other platforms need to be the authentication standard of identity, to suggest a huge ecological system, so that it can greatly reduce people are forced to produce large amounts of data,
Instead, the user will use an ID to create an account based on the block chain, then use the ID to register to other services and systems, block chain of interoperability is still an emerging field, different organizations are looking for different ways to implement it,
Capacity problems
Block chain identity system the feasibility of the biggest problems is its extensibility, according to its definition, identity service should be able to provide service for millions of people, therefore, any blocks which form the basis of such a service chain must have a strong extensibility, however, so far, the most popular of decentralized chain application blocks (DApps) - the etheric fang - in last year was a popular game CryptoKitties nearly to the collapse of,
This is why most platforms mentioned above is not based on any one of the most famous block chain, but built on proprietary books, some of the books are not in conformity with the traditional definition of decentralized block chain, for example: Estonia KSI block chain is not using asymmetric key encryption mature block chain, but based on the classification of Merkle books, at the same time, Sovrin network through a limited set of validators node to reach a consensus, can say that it is not like other block chain to decentralization,
To sum up, this balance shows that if a platform identity to improve extensibility, so it needs to reduce the decentralization in some ways - and may be less secure, but from the practical point of view, what is more important to define what is a "block chain", because the current is not up to the most familiar block chain large-scale send our personal data protection and task,
Vested interests
That's why even the most advanced projects in the planning roadmap after 2020, as a viable platform for identity need to new distributed books to balance the transparency of the encryption algorithm and the privacy of personal information needs, and, even if the above all a platform in a short period of time to achieve this goal, they will also face another huge obstacle: the existing vested interests (including Facebook and other social media giant) and governments dominance,
The government's initiative
For example, in recent years, British and Australian government in building their own invested millions of dollars on centralized identity authentication system, which makes them is unlikely to be easy to some decentralized alternatives, likewise, Facebook wants to reinvent themselves as a truly decentralized platform (user personal data privacy) is unthinkable, because Facebook by our data, sold to the highest bidder, bidder have billions of dollars of profits each year, it has been widely used in the on-line identification of the user, so it is unlikely to give up easily dominance of block chain platform,
That is to say, now only a few countries and state (such as Singapore, Illinois) has been the trial based on the identity of the block chain system, the public mood may be a key factor of the change on Facebook - Cambridge Analytica scandal, the public mood has changed, in addition, even if the block chain technology in the field of encryption currency outside still not confirmed, as long as it in the privacy and security showed the advantage of the system is better than ever, will begin to win the trust of the user,