Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

The centralized third-party authentication model for digital identity validation is obsolete in light of newer and more secure means of ensuring accurate digital identification. Governments, private organizations, and citizens should be encouraged to explore the means by which they can maximize the latest in digital developments to protect themselves and their online identities. California should begin to implement the precepts of the decentralized Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) model, which is superior to its predecessor in its simplicity, as it requires only three things to validate a digital identity: (1) a blockchain which has the information necessary to satisfy the consensus algorithm ensuring adequate replication across the network nodes; (2) verifiable credentials; and (3) decentralized identifiers. Because this system is predicated on a trustless Proof of Work (PoW) model, at present, blockchains are practically immutable, thus making it impossible to falsify or forge information on them. The use of cryptographic hash functions ensures that the security of each block of data is independently secured from one another, and ultimately known only to the controller and owner of the information: the user. California should join other state and national governments in the research and implementation of SSI-compliant models of governance to better protect and support the needs of its citizenry in an increasingly digitized world.

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