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Decentralized Identity

Own your digital identity with DIDs and verifiable credentials—control your data, access finance globally, verify without intermediaries

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Green Finance & ESG

Introduction to Decentralized Identity

Today, your identity is controlled by governments, tech companies, and banks. Facebook can ban your account. A bank can freeze your access. Lost passport? You're stuck. Decentralized identity (DID) flips this: you own your digital identity on blockchain. No company can revoke it. You control what data to share, when, with whom. Financial inclusion for 1.7 billion unbanked becomes possible.

The Problem: Identity is Broken

✗Centralized control: Companies/governments can delete your accounts, lock access
✗Data breaches: Equifax (147M), Yahoo (3B accounts)—your SSN/passport exposed forever
✗No portability: KYC at every bank. Upload same documents 10 times. Weeks of delays.
✗1.7B unbanked: No government ID = no bank account, no loans, no financial access

The Solution: Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)

Decentralized identity uses blockchain to create self-sovereign identity: you hold cryptographic keys, control your data, choose what to share. Three core technologies:

1. DIDs
Unique identifiers you own (like username + public key on blockchain)
2. Credentials
Signed certificates proving claims (degree, credit score, age)
3. Wallets
Apps storing your DIDs and credentials (you hold private keys)

Market Size & Adoption

$30B
Digital identity market by 2027
1.7B
Unbanked people needing identity
EU
Digital ID wallet law (2024)
W3C
DID standard (2022)

Why It Matters for Finance

  • →Financial inclusion: 1.7B unbanked get verifiable identity → open bank accounts globally
  • →Portable KYC: Verify once, use everywhere. No repeating paperwork at every bank/exchange
  • →Privacy: Prove creditworthiness without exposing full financial history (zero-knowledge proofs)
  • →Reduce fraud: Credentials cryptographically signed—cannot be faked or stolen like SSNs

Historical Context: Identity Evolution

Pre-2000Physical Identity

Government-issued physical documents (passport, driver's license). Paper-based, easy to forge, hard to verify remotely.

2000-2015Federated Identity

"Login with Google/Facebook." Convenient but centralized. Companies control your access, track your activity, sell your data.

2015-2025Decentralized Identity

Blockchain-based DIDs. You own keys, control data. W3C standardization (2022). EU wallet mandate (2024). Mass adoption incoming.