DIF – Universal Resolver + Universal Registrar (DID’s across blockchains)
App Auth RFC8292 BCP212 Q&A
Wednesday 1D
Convener: Markus Sabadello
Notes-taker(s): Markus Sabadello
Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:
Several communities are making progress on specifying "methods" such as btcr, sov, etc. for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) in different blockchains, DLTs, and other decentralized storage systems.
The Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF - http://identity.foundation/) is now working on a "Universal Resolver" that can resolve DIDs to their DID Documents in a unified way, by exposing an abstract interface that is implemented by a "driver" for each DID method.
The Universal Resolver can be deployed as a web service, and drivers can be implemented as docker containers. For some DID methods such as btcr and sov, a driver has to go through a number of steps to dynamically assemble the DID Document. In other cases such as v1 and ipid, the DID method actually stores the DID Document that can be returned by the Universal Resolver directly.
Right now, preliminary drivers exist for btcr, sov, ipid, uport, ipid.
Corresponding to the Universal Resolver, there will also be a Universal Registrar that can cover registration (and updates, and revocation) of identifiers, using a similar architecture involving an abstract interface and a set of drivers. Depending on the method, this may require the user to take certain action (e.g. send funds to a Bitcoin address, or contact a Sovrin trust anchor).
