Custodian Biometrics SSI

10% of the Indian population is not in the national Aadhaar ID system. Today, much of the banking, medical and social services rely on technology that omits the fact that about one billion people across the world still do not own a mobile phone, and a third of the world's population is unable to access the internet. We propose using self-sovereign identity with biometrics control to connect ID holders with credential issuers and services verifiers. With this design, we link ID holder with (i) payment systems, (ii) health and social care, (iii) savings and loans, and (iv) supply chains and work opportunities. Task-specific custodians manage the digital wallets without any knowledge of the wallet content. Different SSI networks are connected via ToIP or dedicated ebridge. Onboarding is done locally in a covid control environment. Notifications are sent to the holder’s feature phone or the phone of a designated contact person.

Nowadays services move from face-to-face to online with increased dependence on the availability of smartphones, computers and internet access. Here, we shift the technological burden to task-specific custodians using biometrics for final authorisations. SSI features strong privacy and interoperates with other SSIs and ID systems.  We expect this custodian managed ID system will reach out to the one billion people across the world who do not own a mobile phone, and the third of the world's population who is unable to access the internet.  In India, for example, the SSI system has the potential to reach out to the 10% of the Indian populations who are not in the national Aadhaar system.

Apart from NGOs, the roles of custodianship can be performed by specific professional, e.g. banking custodians manage savings and loans, medical custodians manage health data, treasury custodians manage payments while welfare officers become custodians of social services. Such an arrangement helps to overcome problems with access when the holders are illiterate or have no access to technology. This helps to protect the marginalized and vulnerable populations to facilitate remote access to services and benefits. Finally, the identity holders also have the choice of managing the wallets themselves.

Traidcraft Exchange, our consortium member, has a long-standing record of working with homebased workers in India who have been severely affected by covid. Many are now in a situation of destitution and hunger. Some of them have missed out on the welfare aids as they are not in the national Aadhaar ID system. Before covid, these homeworkers waited long time to be paid for the assignments from the factories. Similar situations are observed in Bangladesh and Nepal, and some migrants from these countries return home after the supply chains have collapsed after covid.  Our workplan to improve services in relation to payment, health and social care, banking and supply chains management for this marginalised population. Sovrin established open standard for SSI making it interoperable across systems and across jurisdiction. In EU, effort has already been made to have SSI bridge between eIDAS system in different EU countries. Similar bridges can be built elsewhere so that the ID and personal credential (such as health data) can also be presented in different countries and accepted in a trusted manner.  In the last 18 months, there have been much development in “Trust over IP” (ToIP); this allows interoperability between different SSI systems internationally. 

We have been working with homebased workers near Delhi, investigating various ways to improve services related to (i) payment systems, (ii) health and social care, (iii) savings and loans, and (iv) supply chains and work opportunities.  There are exclusion factors that hampered their access to these services.  At the same time, some percentage of the populations are excluded from the national ID system in many countries. We will use the knowhow gained from working on the SSI custodian wallets for care home to construct digital ID wallets for this population to allow them better access to the services listed above.

The innovation of our proposal is on its holistic approach in tackling the complex exclusion factors and requirements. To tackle the lack of internet connectivity and access to technology, we propose a flexible custodian arrangement to shift the tech burden to the custodians, viz. bankers (for banking transactions), medical professionals (for health data) etc. while control information access via biometric credentials. We focus our effort on the marginalised populations by making sure that our proposed ID solution can operate alongside the existing national ID systems. But our proposed SSI solution goes beyond what are available at present due to its interoperability and the emergence of ToIP; SSI can now extrapolate between individual SSI systems and bridge across existing national ID systems as show in the SSI-eIDAS bridges. Finally, our SSI based solution, in the form of verifiable credentials, opens up a huge range of possibilities reaping the full benefits of an ID system.  Our workplan covers four areas of services centred around the individuals who are being marginalised, viz. payments, savings & loans, health & care, and supply chains. For example, in terms of payments, we plan to connect the proposed ID system to the 12.5 million grocery stores so that the homeworkers can collect their wages in cash or exchange them for food. So, apart from creating an all-inclusive ID system, we also investigate how such an ID system can be integrated into the four areas of services listed above.

The SSI framework is a relatively recent development led by Sovrin Foundation (https://sovrin.org/) built on a decentralised ID system that is self-sovereign and privacy preserving. Instead of different organisations managing the users ID and passwords, the individuals control their own portfolios of ID/password.  So, for example, instead of the DVLA (Drivers Licensing Authority) controls a centralised database of all individuals who have passed the driving tests, an individual keeps an encrypted “wallet” in her smart phone with a valid digital driving license certified by the DVLA. The covid pandemic has generated much impetus for the birth of many covid digital passports (https://www.covidcreds.com/) that allow the holder to present her covid test results as requested, and where a positive test result might trigger a series of quarantine decisions in the track-and-trace system.  The most important ingredient here is the trust instilled by design. The issuance of a credential (e.g. valid driving license) is safeguarded by a public-private key pair, the end-point connection is protected by Transport Layer Security, while each communication is encrypted so that the identity of the holder cannot be correlated. Our implementation of SSI is managed using biometric, in this case a vein scan from a finger.  The vein information is not stored, but converted into a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) which is a one-way hash consists of a pseudo-random 128-bit number that is being used as the “wallet” ID. It is this combination of biometric hash and SSI wallet that we bring to meet this ID challenge.

Traidcraft Exchange, our consortium member, has a long-standing record of working with marginalised urban and rural communities in India, many of whom have been severely affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. Many are now in a situation of destitution and hunger. Some of them have missed out on the welfare support, in some cases because they are not in the national Aadhaar ID system.  Similar contexts are observable elsewhere in South Asia.

Our short-term plan is to first understand the worker vulnerabilities, both in relation to their overall life and work situation as well as in the context of solution development and roll-out to support identification of key features of the proposed systems.  We will interview home workers, subcontractors, contractors/agents, informal unit management and other ecosystem enablers (e.g. shopkeepers with payment delivery capacity) in terms of digital access and emerging/likely trends from the perspective of various local organisations.

We will also meet local trade unions, worker associations, local and national CSOs, industry association eps, export factory management, global/MNC apparel brands/companies to conduct a rapid assessment of the situation in e.g. textile supply chains, particularly the National Capital Region (including Delhi, Gurgaon and NOIDA) and also Tiruppur including production networks, patterns and supply chain configurations and emerging/likely trends. These meetings are crucial for the ID system design that will support the payments and supply chains management for these marginalised populations in the short and medium term while we continue to make long term plans.

At the technological front, Sovrin has now established open standard for SSI making it interoperable across systems and across jurisdiction. In EU, an effort has already been made to have SSI bridge between eIDAS system in different EU countries. Similar bridges can be built elsewhere so that the ID and personal credential (such as health data) can also be presented in different countries and trusted by government and other critical stakeholders.  In the last 18 months, there have been much development in “Trust over IP” (ToIP) which allows interoperability between different SSI systems internationally.  

Nowadays services move from face-to-face to online with increased dependence on the availability of smartphones, computers and internet access. Here, we shift the technological burden to task-specific custodians using biometrics for final authorisations. SSI features strong privacy and interoperates with other SSIs and ID systems.  We expect this custodian managed ID system will reach out to the one billion people across the world who do not own a mobile phone, and the third of the world's population who is unable to access the internet.  In India, for example, the SSI system has the potential to reach out to the 10% of the Indian populations who are not in the national Aadhaar system.

Apart from NGOs, the roles of custodianship can be performed by specific professional, e.g. banking custodians manage savings and loans, medical custodians manage health data, treasury custodians manage payments while welfare officers become custodians of social services. Such an arrangement helps to overcome problems with access when the holders are illiterate or have no access to technology. This helps to protect the marginalized and vulnerable populations to facilitate remote access to services and benefits. Finally, the identity holders also have the choice of managing the wallets themselves.

Our solution does not require user to be smart device user or have access to internet. Instead, it uses CUSTODIAN DIGITAL WALLETS managed by task-specific professionals, e.g. banking personnel, medical staff, welfare officer, etc while retain the final authorisation via biometric proof. The users are supported by custodians.  This is useful for the populations who are marginalized or excluded due to lack of access to technology or illiterate.  For users who can manage smart devices and internet, they can operate and manage their own digital ID wallets. 

Sovrin has established open standard for SSI making it interoperable across systems and across jurisdiction. In EU, effort has already been made to have SSI bridge between eIDAS system in different EU countries. Similar bridges can be built elsewhere so that the ID and personal credential (such as health data) can also be presented in different countries and accepted in a trusted manner.  In the last 18 months, there have been much development in “Trust over IP” (ToIP); this allows interoperability between different SSI systems internationally.   All the Sovrin SSI APIs are open source. The Linux Foundation, Sovrin Foundation and the Covid Credential Initiatives have a huge collection of open source routines and APIs. We have been working with Trinsic and Evernym who both provide their wallets APIs and support charitable and humanitarian works. We follow closely the W3C open standard as well as all the governance codes outlined by Sovrin and CCI. Out team members are members at various Sovrin and CCI working parties.

Our proposed system relies heavily on task specific custodians, e.g. bankers as financial custodian, grocery store managers as treasury custodians, health professionals as medical custodians, and social workers as welfare custodians.  They will manage the "wallets" of information on behalf of the "users" but without the privilege of seeing the content in the wallet. Only when authorisation is granted by the users through biometric proof, will information be disclosed on a zero knowledge proof (or need to know) basis. Basically, we expect the users to be supported by task specific custodians. Hence, low connectivity, low literacy and numerical levels should not prohibit the users in participating in the proposed ID system as well as the four areas of support services, i.e. payments, banking, health & care, and supply chains. 

Currently, we are working on the prototype and initial work plan. We expect, when product is finished, it will serve hundreds of thousands. 

We would establish the model and proof of concept within the first year while promoting SSI digital identity, and concepts custodian and guardianshipto all stakeholders. 

To establish a scalable and sustainable resourcing model would require government and industry buy in since it is aimed at low income communities who are price-sensitive consumers.  

We also need user engagement and support from government to allow integration of the national ID system with the SSI digital ID.

We will leverage the scale and density of population in South Asia to generate local critical masses relatively quickly. This has precedent, noting for instance the rapid rise of mobile phone penetration and internet connectivity in India which shows how scale can be relatively quickly achieved. This is about developing an appropriately differentiated solution for those who continue to be left behind by inequitable economic growth.

We also plan to promote the advantages of SSI and work  use cases with real users to encourage acceptance and adoption. 

We have a consortium of organisations, mostly academic and research institutions and charities.

We have worked together, and delivered real outcome. We also have on-going projects and collaborations.

We have different consortium for different projects. We have about 10 different organisations in the pool working on using AI, SSI and blockchain in humanitarian work.