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Submission: Bare minimum agent for identity paper, Snorre Lothar von Gohren Edwin
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# Bare minimum agent for identity

Author: [Snorre Lothar von Gohren Edwin](https://vongohren.me/)

## Abstract
Diwala want to contribute to enable the current ["offliners"](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/03/world-wide-web-not-wealthy-western-web-part-1/) to take back control of their digital selves. This paper goes through some problem areas of the current emerging markets and their ability to run the existing decentralize identity solutions, based on their device penetration.

We want to come out of RWoT with a clear information paper, from a collection of experts, how to get started to deliver a bare minimum decentralized identity solution.

## Background
Working with devices in the African continent for about a year now, we time after time experience app and device problems with the current existing identity solutions we work with. Also we experience that the current device penetration today, in Uganda particularly, is not 100%, meaning that it is difficult to provide value for everybody with an app solution.

First we want to discuss what the bare minimum specifications that an identity app needs to provide value? How can an identity be represented physically? What are the pros and cons of a combination of these situations.

The second issue is to discuss how to enable an ecosystem, what is needed to get other startups with their own non did solutions in play. Is it SDKs, libraries, proxys, some kind of shared infrastructure?

These are questions we want to raise and discuss in this paper, from a collection of experts, for anyone wanting to charge into this space.

## Slow devices
Phones are getting faster. I don’t think anyone will disagree with that. Stronger GPUs, faster and more CPUs, more RAM. Phones are going through the same rapid development desktop machines did in the early 2000s.

However, that’s just one edge of the distribution. **_Slow_ phones are stuck in 2014.** The process to create the chips from half a decade ago has gotten so cheap that phones can now be sold for around $20, and cheaper phone will reach a wider audience. ~50% of the world are online, meaning that the other ~50% are not. However, these offliners are _coming_ online and are predominantly located in emerging markets such as many of the African countries, where people simply can’t afford any of the [Wealthy Western Web](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/03/world-wide-web-not-wealthy-western-web-part-1/) flagship phones.

We want to discuss how to tackle this properly and how to enable them to represent themselves online with a proper ID and DID.

## No devices
As mentioned above, there are still a lot of people who are offline, and they are slowly getting online. But to save them some time from having to understand what this digital identity thing is and get a feel of how to properly represent yourself online. We want to understand what can be done for the no devicers/offliners now.

Last year, ID pass presented a really cool solution, and I want to continue that talk. ID pass solution can work well and is perfect for closed ecosystems like a refugee camp, but will have a problem of working well in an open ecosystem like the city of Kampala. Because how do you enable people to share credentials and their DID properly. Solutions with cards and phones are not far away [according to this tweet]([https://twitter.com/gravityblast/status/1145865341903474688](https://twitter.com/gravityblast/status/1145865341903474688)). But it again depends on a pretty new devices.

We feel this area needs more discussion. What are the needs for such a physical identity? How can easy device to card communication be enabled? What are the best way for an interaction to happen in an open ecosystem? That be receiving and sharing a VC, backing up a VC and so on.

## Enabling the ecosystem
In an area that has leapfrogged in certain digital areas, but are still living with a thight connection to the physical world, the core digitalization has not yet started. It is very fragmented and is not a very good hotbed for a digital ecosystem. That is where decentralized identity can come in.

But, with a fragmented digitilization it is hard to understand where to start. Its even more difficult to start where there is still a need for a bridge between physical and digital. These are areas we want to discuss and be able to declear some pointers and steps to move forward with, to be able to kick start the ecosystem of self sovreign identities in a digital space.

# Goal
With this paper we want to create the dicsussions on how to approach a market that is in a clear need of a good digital infrastructure that have not taken all the steps as the west. With a clear divergence of device penetration, and types of devices that are in the market, is it possible to put up a strategy for a bare minimum decentralized identity solution? Which will enable these people to take control of their digital selves and set a base layer for a proper digital infrastructure. Can we come up with some guidelines for the ecosystem, an example architecture, or even an app to showcase to the community how one can get started?
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10 changes: 5 additions & 5 deletions topics-and-advance-readings/README.md
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### Secure Storage

* [Datashards: secure storage primitives for the web](./datashards-rationale.md)
* By [Christopher Lemmer Webber](https://dustycloud.org/), with help from [Serge Wroclawski](https://emacsen.net/@emacsen) and [Tom Marble](https://info9.net/wiki/tmarble/)
* "Over the last year we have been working on a general mechanism for URIs representing private, encrypted storage that can live in a variety of locations. We call this system 'Datashards'."
* #storage #datashards #cas
* By [Christopher Lemmer Webber](https://dustycloud.org/), with help from [Serge Wroclawski](https://emacsen.net/@emacsen) and [Tom Marble](https://info9.net/wiki/tmarble/)
* "Over the last year we have been working on a general mechanism for URIs representing private, encrypted storage that can live in a variety of locations. We call this system 'Datashards'."
* #storage #datashards #cas


* [Combining Verifiable Credentials and Zero Knowledge Proof Systems](https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/verifiable-credentials-and-zero-knowledge-proof-systems.md)
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## Alphabetical Listing

[Addressing DID Connection Man in the Middle Attacks](addressing-MITM-attacks.md) - Kyle Den Hartog
[KERI for a Universal DKMI](https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/KERI-Universal-DKMI.md)
* [Addressing DID Connection Man in the Middle Attacks](addressing-MITM-attacks.md) - Kyle Den Hartog
* [Bare minimum agent for identity](./Bare-minimum-agent.md)
* [Combining Verifiable Credentials and Zero Knowledge Proof Systems](https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/verifiable-credentials-and-zero-knowledge-proof-systems.md)
* [Decentralising Opencerts](https://github.com/waichung/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/Decentralising%20OpenCerts%20v2.md)
* [DID Resolution collected diagrams](https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot9-prague/blob/master/topics-and-advance-readings/did-resolution-collected-diagrams.md)
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