Jolocom is participating as SSI technology provider in 4 of 11 regional showcase projects developing ecosystem solutions
Eleven high-caliber consortia composed of SMEs, research institutes, tech providers, international corporations, and municipalities have commenced extensive discussion and planning around their entries for the Schaufenster Sichere Digitale Identitäten (SDI) innovation competition, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economics Affairs and Energy.
Future-proof concepts we can build today
Concepts coming from competing consortia will concentrate on reducing the amount of data people are required to share with third parties when using online services, while increasing the control each of us have over where and how our data is being handled.
Ensuring the availability of digital services across platforms — so users can avoid switching between applications or interfaces during service interactions — is a further goal.
Which projects are in the running?
What’s the SSI concept for SDI?
Each team shares the aim of devising an innovative concept for providing citizens, customers, and visitors with easy-to-use technology for managing their digital identities. Competitive showcase concepts are proposed by the consortia to demonstrate their user-friendly solutions.
Jolocom will provide its full SSI technology stack (SmartWallet, SDK, Library) to several of the showcase projects for implementation and integration in building out the core identity layer of the proposed designs to support an open, interoperable, and secure identity ecosystem.
We have joined three of the consortia as full partner:
ONCE
led by Bundesdruckerei,
with a focus on the area of Hesse;
EMIL
led by targens,
will have its hubs in Jena and Ulm;
SDIKA
led by FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik,
and situated in the wider Karlsruhe region.
And a fourth consortium as an associated partner:
ID-IDEAL
led by Hochschule Mittweida,
representing the Mittweida municipality in Saxony.
Toward an open & secure ecosystem for identity
We are excited for the opportunity to continue advancing Jolocom’s mission to foster Self-Sovereign Identity for everyday users through our involvement in the SDI competition. Collaboration with the consortia and engagement with regulators on behalf of the larger open standards community has already earned toward improvements in interoperability — especially for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials — within the SSI ecosystem.
More precisely, we are looking forward to contributing to collective efforts to connect the SSI ecosystem with eIDAS signatures and identities, establish interoperability between identity ecosystems on a foundation of open standards, and ensure that all personal information remains with users, so that citizens can enjoy sovereignty and control over their digital identity.
As has been our belief since the company’s founding in May 2014, people should have easy access to their data and be able to use digital services — whether booking a hotel room or interacting with their government — without undue effort.
The SDI Roadmap
The 11 consortia that successfully earned participation in the Secure Digital Identities competition began their work in June 2020 and will through October 2020 continue to identify the most promising use cases for implementing Digital Identity Solutions, develop pilots and demonstrators, and adjust their concepts and strategies to finalize a blue-print for tailor-made regional solutions that satisfy foreseeable demands on interoperability in a potential rollout on the national level.
In December 2020 the teams will present their concepts to an expert jury consisting of regulators, engineers, and government representatives.
Three concepts will be selected by the SDI competition committee and awarded funding from a EUR 15M grant set aside for a 2–3 year implementation phase.
Competition winners and recipients of the prize money will be notified in January 2021.
Further updates and announcements about the consortia projects and concepts for Secure Digital Identities will be published as the competition unfolds.
General information about the competition:
- Official call for participation (in German):
Innovationswettbewerb „Schaufenster Sichere Digitale Identitäten“ - Full list of consortia selected for the showcase competition, including contact information.