Table of Contents
- 1 Key Takeaways:
- 2 What Is a Reusable Identity?
- 3 Challenges of Traditional Identity Verification
- 4 Reusable Identity vs. Traditional Identity Verification
- 5 Benefits of Reusable Identity
- 6 For Organizations:
- 7 Reusable Identity in Digital ID Wallets
- 8 Technical Considerations For Implementing Reusable Identity Systems
- 9 The Role of Verifiable Credentials in Reusable Identity
- 10 Use Cases for Reusable Identity
- 11 How Identity.com Embraces Reusable Identity
- 12 Identity.com
Key Takeaways:
- Reusable identities allow individuals to access multiple online services with a single set of verified credentials. This eliminates the need to create and manage separate logins for every platform, increasing convenience.
- Reusable identities grant granular access, allowing you to disclose only the data each service needs. This reduces the amount of personal data stored by individual platforms.
- Unlike traditional methods, reusable identities leverage strong encryption and security protocols to safeguard your personal information. This minimizes the risk of identity theft and fraud.
Numerous identity cards compete for space in our wallets, each ready to be shown to law enforcement or government officials as needed. These range from driver’s licenses and passport cards to a variety of credit and debit cards critical for daily transactions. This assortment of identity verification tools highlights the complexity of our current identity management system.
Things get more complex when we consider the digital aspect of identity management. Individuals find themselves managing multiple usernames and passwords, a task that’s not only hard to keep up with but also introduces risks and hassles due to the identities being spread out over several centralized systems. However, the concept of “Reusable Identity” offers a promising solution to these challenges.
As of 2022, the market for reusable identity is valued at $32.8 billion, with projections suggesting it could grow to $266.5 billion by 2027. This significant market potential indicates that reusable identity is set to become a key player in the development of the decentralized web. Given its expected impact, it’s important for us to understand what reusable identity entails. This article aims to shed light on the concept, making it accessible and informative for everyone. Continue reading to explore and engage with this rapidly growing ecosystem.
What Is a Reusable Identity?
Reusable identity is a single set of identity credentials that allows individuals to access multiple platforms without repetitive verification. Unlike traditional centralized systems, which demand separate identity verifications for each service or platform, a reusable identity streamlines the user experience. This approach reduces the burden of multiple verifications and addresses inefficiencies and security risks linked to the repeated sharing of personal information.
Challenges of Traditional Identity Verification
Traditional identity verification methods, reliant on physical documents, present numerous challenges and inefficiencies. This approach requires individuals to present documents like passports, driver’s licenses, or birth certificates in person for verification purposes. Not only is this process often cumbersome and time-consuming, but it also brings several risks and inconveniences:
- Prone to Loss and Damage: Physical documents can easily be misplaced, damaged, or even destroyed, leading to significant hassle and administrative burdens.
- Vulnerability to Forgery and Theft: These documents are susceptible to forgery and theft, as malicious actors can steal or replicate them for their own gain.
- Inconvenience: Carrying physical documents for every verification situation is cumbersome, especially if you need immediate or remote verification.
- Time-Consuming Processes: Traditional verification methods often involve long wait times and bureaucratic procedures, hindering access to services and opportunities.
In contrast, reusable identity solutions leverage digital technology to streamline the identity verification process. They eliminate the need for physical documents by utilizing encrypted digital credentials or tokens, therefore enhancing both convenience and security.
This approach puts individuals in control of their digital identity. You can choose exactly which credentials to share, revealing only what’s necessary to trusted parties. This selective disclosure significantly reduces the risk of fraud and identity theft. With enhanced security, convenience, and efficiency, reusable digital IDs are a clear upgrade over traditional verification methods. They represent the future of secure and streamlined identity management. To learn more, read our article on how reusable IDs can further eliminate the need for repeated IDs.
Reusable Identity vs. Traditional Identity Verification
| Differences | Reusable Identity | Traditional Identity Verification |
| Process | Digital, involving electronic sharing and verification of credentials | Manual, requiring physical presentation of documents |
| Security | High security with encryption and strong authentication measures | Vulnerable to forgery and theft of physical documents |
| Privacy | Enhanced privacy control, allowing individuals to choose when and with whom to share credentials | Limited privacy control, as physical documents are often shared and stored by multiple parties |
| Convenience | Eliminates the need to carry physical documents, enables easy online verification | Requires individuals to present physical documents in person, can be inconvenient |
| Efficiency | Digital credentials can be quickly verified online, improving efficiency | Manual verification of physical documents is less efficient |
| Cost | Reduces costs related to physical document storage and processing | Incurs costs due to manual verification processes and physical document storage |
| Fraud Prevention | Digital credentials are difficult to forge or steal, enhancing fraud prevention | Physical documents can be easily forged or stolen, increasing vulnerability to fraud |
Benefits of Reusable Identity
Reusable identity systems offer a range of benefits for both individuals and organizations, streamlining processes, enhancing security, and improving user experience.
For Individuals:
- Convenience: Users bypass the hassle of managing multiple usernames and passwords, simplifying access to various services and saving time.
- Privacy: This approach empowers users to control their personal information, deciding what to share and with whom, which enhances privacy and reduces data misuse risks.
- Accessibility: Accessible from anywhere with internet connectivity, reusable identity solutions eliminate the need for physical documentation for online identity verification.
- Cost Savings: Users can avoid expenses related to traditional verification methods, such as travel costs, by leveraging their reusable identity.
- Interoperability: Designed to work across multiple platforms, reusable identity solutions enhance user experience by reducing the need for multiple identities.
- Flexibility: Updating personal credentials is straightforward, avoiding the complexity associated with traditional methods.
- Security: Incorporating strong encryption and security protocols, reusable identity systems significantly lower the risk of identity theft and fraud.
For Organizations:
- Faster Onboarding: Reusable identity solutions streamline the onboarding process, enhancing user satisfaction and potentially boosting revenue by allowing logins with existing profiles.
- Improved User Experience: A seamless verification process leads to higher user satisfaction and retention, minimizing friction at login or verification stages.
- Regulatory Compliance: Easier compliance with privacy standards like CPRA, GDPR, and POPIA is achievable, as users have greater control over their identification information.
- Increased Efficiency: Streamlining identity verification processes leads to operational efficiency and reduced administrative costs.
- Interoperability: A uniform identity verification process across different platforms simplifies integration and reduces complexity.
- Cost Reduction: Significant savings can be realized by eliminating manual verification efforts, lowering the costs associated with traditional identity verification.
- Enhanced Security: Advanced encryption and security measures protect user data, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring compliance.
- Scalability: These solutions are scalable, supporting growth without compromising verification quality or performance.
Reusable Identity in Digital ID Wallets
Digital ID wallets, or identity wallets, are at the forefront of leveraging reusable identity systems. These wallets allow users to store and manage their digital identities securely on their devices. By using reusable identity credentials, individuals can access various services without repeatedly verifying their identities.
For example, a digital ID wallet can store a verifiable credential proving legal age. When accessing age-restricted services or purchasing age-restricted products, users can present this credential without disclosing their full birthdate or other personal information. This selective disclosure protects privacy while meeting legal requirements.
Digital ID wallets simplify the verification process for numerous services, including banking, healthcare, and e-commerce, by allowing users to present verified credentials quickly and securely. The integration of reusable identity in these wallets reduces the need for multiple logins and enhances user convenience and security.
Technical Considerations For Implementing Reusable Identity Systems
Creating effective reusable identity systems requires careful attention to several technical aspects. These systems aim to simplify the user experience by eliminating the need for multiple accounts and passwords, while still prioritizing security and privacy.
Here are key considerations for developers:
- Leveraging Blockchain Technology: Building the system on blockchain or similar distributed ledger technologies is vital for transparent and secure identity verification management. DLTs ensure data is immutable and verifiable across different platforms.
- Prioritizing Decentralized Storage: Choosing decentralized storage over centralized databases strengthens both security and privacy. This approach minimizes the vulnerabilities associated with storing data in a single location.
- Ensuring Regulatory Compliance: The system must place a strong emphasis on user privacy to comply with regulations like GDPR, CCPA. Integrating “privacy by design” principles is crucial to meet legal standards and build user trust.
- Achieving Interoperability: A major advantage of decentralized digital identities is their ability to function seamlessly across various platforms. Developers should prioritize interoperability to make the system more useful and appealing to users.
- Adopting Open Standards: Following established open standards and protocols, like the W3C guidelines for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs), is essential. These standards ensure the integrity and interoperability of digital identities, enabling wider adoption and use.
Building a strong foundation is key for successful reusable identity systems. This means addressing core elements like scalability, security, user experience, privacy, and compliance. To achieve this, the system’s architecture should deeply integrate these aspects. By leveraging decentralized technologies for authentic identity verification, we can not only protect against the risks associated with centralized systems, but also promote transparency and empower users to control their digital identities.
The Role of Verifiable Credentials in Reusable Identity
Verifiable credentials (VCs) are fundamental to enabling reusable identity. Imagine VCs as secure digital versions of your physical ID cards, like a driver’s license. They contain information issued by trusted organizations but with a key difference: you control them.
This empowers users to store verifiable credentials in a digital wallet and selectively share specific information based on the situation. For example, you could present a verifiable credential proving your age, without revealing your entire date of birth. This protects your privacy and eliminates the need to constantly share the same information across different platforms.
Additionally, VCs offer enhanced security, being tamper-proof and cryptographically verifiable, allowing anyone to confirm their authenticity without directly contacting the issuer. This streamlines the verification process and minimizes fraud risks. VCs essentially serve as the backbone of reusable identity, providing a secure, self-controlled, and privacy-preserving approach to managing your digital identity.
Use Cases for Reusable Identity
Reusable identity offers benefits across various sectors:
Financial Services
Opening a bank account can often be a long and tedious process, leading to over 50% of potential customers giving up if it takes longer than 3-5 minutes. Reusable identity systems simplify this by using verified credentials to speed up account openings, loan applications, and access to other financial services. In return, this reduces abandonment rates and increasing both efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Healthcare
In healthcare, reusable identities make patient registration and access to medical records easier. Patients can securely share their health data with providers, enhancing service efficiency.
For example, Estonia’s e-Health Record system uses reusable digital identities to allow citizens to access medical records, schedule appointments, and order prescriptions online, increasing both healthcare efficiency and patient control.
E-commerce
E-commerce sites can improve the shopping experience with reusable identities, enabling a faster and more secure checkout process. This can lead to fewer abandoned carts and higher customer satisfaction.
Travel and Hospitality
Reusable identities can simplify the travel experience by allowing passengers to use their digital identities for boarding, hotel check-in, and other travel-related transactions. This can help reduce wait times and improve overall travel efficiency.
Education
Educational institutions can leverage reusable identities to streamline the admissions process and access to educational resources. This allows students to seamlessly apply for courses, access online learning platforms, and interact with faculty and staff, all with their digital identities. Verifiable credentials play a crucial role in the education sector, offering a secure and verified way to manage academic records and achievements.
Government Services
Governments can utilize reusable identities to improve access to public services for citizens. This empowers citizens to use their digital identities to access government websites, apply for benefits, and even participate in online voting, simplifying interactions with government agencies.
For example, Canada is actively exploring these solutions to enhance citizen access to government services. The Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) is working to develop a framework for trusted digital identities that can be used across government departments and agencies.
How Identity.com Embraces Reusable Identity
At Identity.com, we’re leading the way in digital identity innovation by using on-chain solutions to create a future where digital identities are secure, universally applicable, and easy to verify across different platforms. We’re achieving this through the development of tools like the Gateway Protocol, DID:SOL, and Cryptid, which form a strong foundation for decentralized identity verification. This infrastructure allows users to confirm their identities while simultaneously safeguarding their privacy. This reduces the need for repeated verifications and enhances the security of digital interactions.
We’re also working on the Identity.com App, which will expand our capabilities beyond the blockchain. This app will serve as a central hub where users can securely store, manage, and share their verifiable credentials directly from their device. It aims to give users more control over their personal data, allowing them to selectively share credentials in a private way. The app reflects our commitment to creating a digital environment that prioritizes user convenience and security.
By integrating our on-chain technologies with the upcoming off-chain app, we’re taking a comprehensive approach to reusable identity. This not only simplifies the identity verification process but also lays the groundwork for a future without intermediaries. Imagine a trustless ecosystem where transactions are secure, transparent, and happen directly between users. As we continue to advance our technologies, Identity.com is leading the way towards a more interconnected and user-empowered digital landscape. This demonstrates the transformative potential of reusable identity in building trust and facilitating seamless digital transactions.
Identity.com
Identity.com, as a future-oriented organization, is helping many businesses by giving their customers a hassle-free identity verification process. Our organization envisions a user-centric internet where individuals maintain control over their data. This commitment drives Identity.com to actively contribute to this future through innovative identity management systems and protocols.
As members of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), we uphold the standards for the World Wide Web and work towards a more secure and user-friendly online experience. Identity.com is an open-source ecosystem providing access to on-chain and secure identity verification. Our solutions improve the user experience and reduce onboarding friction through reusable and interoperable Gateway Passes. Please get in touch for more information about how we can help you with identity verification and general KYC processes.