Obstacles in Implementation, Integration, and Security of Self-Sovereign Identity and Proposed Solutions

Self-Sovereign Identity is an approach to handling identity documents in a user-centric manner around user consent. Specifically, identity documents are always controlled by the user they identify, and any operations involving them are carried out by the user. This is in contrast to existing models of identity management where information is stored and processed in a centralized manner by an external party. This approach gives rise to many applications including service authentication, cross-border travel, education-focused credentials, and other user-centric technological use cases. However, work is still required for these applications to become reality. One of the key issues is that a fragmented standards space hinders efficient product building. A potential consequence is the emergence of compartmentalized ecosystems, which would drastically decrease systems’ user-friendliness. In this paper, we define several Self-Sovereign Identity implementation choices within identity layer, software layer and cryptographic layer. We also explain the security effect of the various implementation choices. We also analyse the impact of obstacles faced in implementing and integrating Self-Sovereign Identity on security and the user experience. Further, we suggest how the situation could be improved, including detailed suggestions for improving the use of scope-defined presentation requests.