a Contributed Article by Kihyuk Lee, the Vice Chairman of DID Alliance Korea

 (a professor at Chung-Ang University, the Chairman of Korea FIDO Forum)

At the end of 1999, I was the first to use the word of ‘platform’ in Korea. And in 2000, the following year, I was working as the manager of platform development department by forming an organization named as Platform Research Institute. At that time, I was busy explaining the meaning of ‘platform’ because not many people understood that word.

15 years later, I came across FIDO(Fast Identity Online) which was started in United States and I established Korea FIDO Forum in 2015 and have been operating it since then. As you may already know, FIDO is the technology for safe and convenient personal authentication with biometrics, which is to replace typing in ids and passwords on the small screens of widely spread smartphones.

DID, the Identification system based on blockchain, is recently drawing global attention. The new system emphases the trust through decentralization, which is one of the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.DID shares similar ideas with FIDO. That is, the individual manages his identity in his own smart phone, not in a centralized server. Considering the risk, as high as 75%, of privacy invasion of centralized identity system, DID may significantly reduce such issues.

Also, self-managing one’s identification in mobile devices supports the idea of self-sovereign identity and reduces inconvenient of repeated logging-ins. Based on these strengths, various companies are preparing to get into DID based on blockchain by forming consortiums.

The goal is to provide ID service to everyone. Microsoft, Apple and Facebook announced their business plans on DID as well as some of the domestic companies. However, a few companies’ providing related services will not be enough to the expansion of DID. In this context, it is quite meaningful that various parties in Korea gathered to form the DID Alliance. This will be a basis for Korea to be in a leadership position in identification technology, its global standardization and expanding DID ecosystem for many global entities to join.

While pursuing the establishment of test beds and business models as suggested by DID Alliance, the participants will have better access to strategic partnerships. Additionally, various types of consortium networks will generate synergy effects for entities with different specialties.

DID Alliance led by Korea will be the pioneer of blockchain based DID industry with emphasis on standardizing DID technology.,