The Decentralized Identity (DID) Alliance is planning a proof-of-concept (PoC) to develop a minimum viable product by the end of July, a BCN Media report said. The PoC will include a health passport use case.
The DID Alliance is collaborating with its members as well as other domestic and foreign organizations for this trial. International firms involved in the PoC include CVS and Aetna.
Although Korean companies dominate the DID Alliance membership, it has quite a few international members, including NEC and Fujitsu from Japan and CVS from the United States.
The DID Alliance was founded by Ramesh Kesanupalli, the CEO of Digital Trust and Dr. Soonhyung Lee, the CEO of Raon Secure.
February of this year saw the launch of the blockchain testnet of the OmniOne Network for identity, which was founded by Raon Secure. The company expects to roll out the mainnent in the coming months.
A spokesperson for Digital Trust claimed that there is no “special endorsement of OmniOne by the DID Alliance”. A news report previously linked from the DID Alliance website stated that the DID Alliance plans to support its members adopting OmniOne. The Digital Trust spokesperson claimed this was a conflation of Dr Lee’s involvement in both Raon Secure and the DID Alliance. Nonetheless, the OmniOne website lists four Directors and Advisors, all of whom are involved with the DID Alliance either as co founder or Chairman of the Korean wing.
Digital Trust says that the Alliance uses W3C standards for decentralized identity (although we could not find that mentioned directly on the DID Alliance website). The DID Alliance is developing the Global Standard for Digital Identity (GADI) which Digital Trust says relates to standards not covered by other organizations and will be tested during the PoC for compatibility with other networks.
The stated goal of the Alliance is to develop a global digital identity network using GADI standards and enable interoperability between identity systems.
South Korea has a handful of decentralized identity projects. The KFTC is a member of the alliance and is responsible for certain interbank clearing systems. It has launched a blockchain-based digital IDs for financial services using W3C standards.
NH Bank is a member of another digital identity initiative called Initial DID Association, and is using blockchain for ‘Mobile Employee ID’. Members of the Association include SK Telecom, LG Uplus, KT Corp, Hyundai Card, BC Card, Shinhan Bank, Samsung Electronics, KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank, CJ Olive Networks and Koscom.
Korean startup ICONLOOP is also exploring blockchain for digital identity has launched the ‘my-ID’ service.
Separately, LG CNS, which is a member of the DID Alliance, has launched a decentralized identity project for autonomous cars in Sejong city. The company recently partnered with Evernym, the organization behind the Sovrin self-sovereign identity network.
Update: This article has been extensively altered following requests from Digital Trust.
