Pioneering the KERI stack

Over the course of 2020, Jolocom added support for an off-chain element based on KERI. This is in addition to the Jolocom DID method (did:jolo and did:keri), which supports the Jolocom-Lib, our own SDK and the Jolocom SmartWallet.

Jolocom focused on the Rust KERI implementation, which we donated to DIF last fall and can be found here.

An example of the KERI DID registrar/resolver integrated in our library can be found here. This is also included in the Jolocom SmartWallet via the SDK integration.

With that, interested parties can already start building high-level verifiable credential-based services and workflows on KERI. More details are available here. KERI is currently being worked on in the Decentralized Identity Foundation’s Identifiers and Discovery Working Group, which is co-chaired by Dr. Sam Smith who originated KERI and contributed ideas and feedback to this article. Currently, there are three community-driven implementations in progress, in Python, Rust and JavaScript. Anyone who wishes to get involved in these is actively encouraged to do so.

Driving standards and interoperability

There is a substantial need for interoperability within and beyond the SSI community. As such, numerous efforts to achieve this are taking shape among the broader SSI community. In that context, DIDComm was donated to DIF by the Aries community’s Daniel Hardman (thank you!). Under DIF, a dedicated working group is working on the DIDComm v2 specification. 

We at Jolocom strongly believe that DIDComm is a crucial infrastructure element for the broader and future-proof SSI stack, and current work on DIDComm v2 includes Jolocom’s implementation of the specification with authcrypt (authenticated encrypted) and most of the low level of the protocol. 

Rotation messaging is supported with the library, only the logic of actually handling it will be on the caller’s side. The initial implementation was developed here and will now be donated to DIF. 

ConsenSys Mesh are working on a staged approach, where they focus first on DIDComm v2 payload and Aries issue credentials/present proof. We will then add the JWE (JWM) encryption layer.

During the DIF F2F, a small demo will be held to show the message lifecycle in various setups  – direct, mediated, raw, encrypted or signed – using didcomm-rs library. DIDComm is currently being worked on in DIF’s DID Communication Working Group, co-chaired by Sam Curren, Oliver Terbu and Tobias Looker. Once again, interested parties are actively encouraged to participate.