What results have we achieved in self-sovereign identity?

What should a wallet for education and research comply with? In this proof of concept, we developed a wallet app for use within the context of SSI. The aim was not to achieve a production-ready environment, but rather to do a technical exploration.

With this experiment, we are better able to answer questions we have about SSI. Some wallet functions that have been tested are:

• Sharing data with parties inside and outside our industry;
• Gaining insight into study results;
• The ability to better identify users.

Download the report (pdf)

Contact: Marlies Rikken, marlies.rikken@surf.nl

SURF has collaborated with the IRMA initiative in recent years and gained experience with the technology in various PoCs and pilots. Examples include the pilot of accessing SURFspot via IRMA and issuing teaching and research personal data as IRMA attributes.

Read more:

• Remote Vetting PoC
• IRMA Attributes: Demo SURF Research Access Management
• IRMA: privacy and authentication go together just fine!
• IRMA Attributes: Demo Education and Research

Contact: Arnout Terpstra, arnout.terpstra@surf.nl

In this exploration, we examined the (technical) features, standards and implementation of an SSI solution. We also assessed the maturity and usability of a blockchain-based solution by deploying and testing it with other components in the AAI ecosystem.

Read more about this exploration

Contact: Niels van Dijk, niels.vandijk@surf.nl

The results of this exploration will help NRENs better understand the opportunities and limitations of the EU Digital Identity Wallet concept and how it may affect their digital identity initiatives.

In June 2021, the European Commission announced the introduction of a framework for a European digital identity. This framework creates a new qualified trust service for issuing attributes, for example attributes that deal with educational qualifications. The EU Digital Identity Wallet allows these attributes to be offered, shared and exchanged across country borders. This is completely secure, with data protection and legal recognition and under full control of the end user.

SURF, together with InnoValor, has submitted a research proposal to GÉANT. This research helps NRENs gain a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the EU Digital Identity Wallet concept and how it may affect their digital identity initiatives.

It answers three research questions:

1. How will the EU Digital Identity Wallet affect the roles of NRENs and login data providers?
2. How can existing NREN initiatives be leveraged to support EU digital identity wallets?
3. Is there a coordinating or supporting role for GÉANT in this development?

Read the research proposal (pdf)

Contact person: Michiel Schok, michiel.schok@surf.nl

What can eduID look like as a Self-sovereign identity solution? And what standards can be used to implement eduID as an SSI system. The internship research provides answers to these questions.

eduID is a digital student identity independent of the educational institution. Currently, eduID provides a way for educational institutions to allow guests, e.g. teachers and researchers from other institutions and external consultants, to access internal systems. However, that is just the beginning for eduID. A possible future for eduID lies in the concept of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), a new user-centred approach to digital identity.

In the second half of 2021, Matti Eisenlohr explored what eduID could look like as a Self-sovereign identity solution. In doing so, he looked at which standards could be used to implement eduID as an SSI system.

Besides a detailed description and inspiring screen examples of eduID as an SSI, Matti concludes that SSI offers a very interesting future for digital identity and eduID. However, there is still a long way to go because of the lack of maturity in many areas. Open standards need to become more mature and conventions need to be established on their implementation within the wider SSI community.

Read the blog

Read the report

Contact: Peter Clijsters, peter.clijsters@surf.nl

The Higher Education Sector Architecture (HOSA) provides frameworks for digital sector facilities of the future with a horizon of three to 10 years ahead. HOSA's domain architecture IAM (pdf) describes several SSI-related use cases in the sector. From the perspective of strengthening public values in the sector, SSI's thinking is seen as important.

Contact: Menno Scheers, menno.scheers@surf.nl