TEUN VAN SAMBEEK
	13 FEBRUARY 2025

Let’s see how Wikipedia defines a Self-Sovereign Identity first:

Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is an approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over the information they use to prove who they are to websites, services, and applications across the web. Without SSI, individuals with persistent accounts (identities) across the internet must rely on a number of large identity providers, such as Facebook (Facebook Connect) and Google (Google Sign-In), that have control of the information associated with their identity. If a user chooses not to use a large identity provider, then they have to create new accounts with each service provider, which fragments their web experiences. Self-sovereign identity offers a way to avoid these two undesirable alternatives. In a self-sovereign identity system, the user accesses services in a streamlined and secure manner, while maintaining control over the information associated with their identity.

Well, this is quite a long definition with a lot of explaining going on. Why is this?

Now let’s look at how a company like Dock.io who builds Verifiable Credentials and Self-Sovereign Identity technology, applies the definition of Wikipedia. Dock.io connects Verifiable Credentials to a SSI in a way that is shown in this image:

In this model “Verifiable Credentials” can be issued by Passport Services or a University, enabling an individual to use these credentials, making the individual so called “Self-Sovereign“.

Now what if the Passport Services or University revoke or discontinue the “Verifiable Credentials“? If this happens, the individual needs to find new ways to prove his identity. And what happens if the individual wants to leave his identity behind and wants to create a complete identity? At that moment it becomes clear that the individual has no real control over his identity. The identity of a person is controlled by the government and banks that issue the verifiable credentials. Without a passport or identity card it is impossible to get financial services which makes it about impossible to survive.

The goal of a Self-Sovereign Identity is not (as Wiki wants you to believe) “have control of the information associated with their identity“. A Self-Sovereign Identity means that you and nobody else is in control of all aspects of your identity. When you are Self-Sovereign it means that there are no “trusted“ institutes that take part in verification system when someone asks you to “prove“ your Self-Sovereign Identity.

The definition used on Wiki is simply wrong. It is not about the data that is connected to your verifiable Identity. It is about the identity itself and all information that is attached to it:

A Self-Sovereign Identity is an Identity that I alone create for myself and that I can completely change all by myself, at any given time and without any permission from anybody. A real Self-Sovereign Identity is an identity where I just tell who I am, and where it is up to the others to see if they trust me to be who I say I am. And how do they know me? Simply because they saw me, they met me or know others that met me and told them about me.

We all know the movie clips where police officers in fascist Germany or communist China ask civilians for papers on every corner of the street. The excuse is always to keep these civilians safe from boogeymen, where the real reason is they want to know everyone’s whereabouts, so it is easier to protect the government from their own civilians.

The police should however work for the people that are in the street, by leaving them alone or helping them. Only when people are clearly misbehaving, the police should act, and even then, identity shouldn’t matter.

The same applies for online identities. We lived for 30 years very fine with the internet. If people misbehaved, there were plenty opportunities to counter it. With freedom comes responsibilities. The saying is:

“when you give up freedom for security, you will lose both.”

Or as Benjamin Franklin puts it:

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Being sovereign means that you need to take back full control over your identity first. Don’t allow anyone to be in charge of verification of your identity. As a sovereign human, you are the only one to decide what your identity is and what you do for others to trust you. That is where freedom starts and we shouldn’t take that lightly.

We also need to take back our financial freedom, because financial freedom is under an enormous attack by bankers and governments at the moment. A financial system is nothing more than a bookkeeping system that keeps track and lubricate the barter anyone does with their goods and services. The bookkeeping is however attached to identities of humans. Currently the identities the banks and governments used are not at all self sovereign, which helps the banks and governments a great deal to attack our freedom.

That is why we need to check if it is possible to have a new financial system that uses Self-Sovereign Identities. We need to check how a financial system works when it is entirely based on SSI’s.

If you imagine such a system it will look like this. In a system where everyone participates equally in the money creation, somebody decide to change his identity. This human could spend all his coins, start a new identity and with it receive an new average starting amount of coins.

That situation doesn’t look fair at a first glance. You however might be wrong. When you have a system where everyone can check anyone’s history, one can also see that a human has created a very recent identity. When you see that, it means you need time to build trust. This human will need time before other people will know him better and start accepting his coins.

Now when this system also applies demurrage (automatic devaluation), changing your identity will become even less attractive. The demurrage namely is actively bringing the value of the coins down. This means that the coins of a human with a new identity reduce in value over the time he needs to build new trust.

Starting a new identity can be very easy, but building trust in a financial system where your short history will be checked, might take quite much more time.

A proper Self-Sovereign Identity will teach people to rely on their human instincts rather than to rely on government or “Big-Tech“ systems. In combination with a financial system, a proper SSI will provide humans real freedom because no large institute can control the financial business. In a world that is already heavy ‘financialized’, financial freedom is almost as important as general freedom. A proper SSI will help humans to learn how to trust each other, which should be the core of any financial system. This is why we think that to chose a proper SSI is very important, simply because real trust among humans is essential to create a free and safe society.

Wikipedia

Dock.io

Verifiable Credentials and Self-Sovereign Identity

13 February 2025

Teun van Sambeek MSc, MRE

Creator of: 1CoinH & Copiania