Digital identity is a combination of identifiers like usernames, emails, or phone numbers and attributes about a person, such as demographics, interests, or purchase history. Together, these form a holistic view of the user’s identity in digital systems. Traditionally, companies store and manage this information in centralized databases, but this setup often leads to challenges with privacy, consent, and security.
To overcome these challenges, Digital identity is undergoing a significant transformation, influenced by multiple factors, to create verifiable data ecosystems, reduce intermediaries, and enable direct value exchange that establishes trust across systems and borders. In a world flooded with misinformation and where data is the new oil, developers must now work with trusted data—not just raw data—without the impracticality of calling hundreds of APIs in a fragmented consumer data world.
This is where the innovation from community groups like W3C and the OpenID Foundation has extended standards like OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 to support cryptographically signed digital proofs, allowing parties to collect and present verified data. The user now acts as the authorization server, shifting away from traditional intermediaries. Trust is established through cryptography, enabling a scalable and flexible system where multiple sources can attest to a fact about a user.
For developers, this evolution simplifies the process by standardizing protocols for collecting and presenting verified data, leaving infrastructure choices open, thus ensuring interoperability and trust through cryptographically secure frameworks.
In the physical world, we build trust through simple actions—showing ID cards or sharing documents to verify who we are. Decentralized digital identity brings this human connection to the digital space, enabling users to control when and how their information is shared. Technologies like Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs) let users share data securely with consent, while businesses can instantly verify it, reducing complexity and building trust.
Imagine as a consumer, knowing that the delivery person at your door or the financial consultant on the phone is who they claim to be, verified by their company with a single click. Or as a business, increasing conversions by building trust with users who feel secure enough to share their data for a personalized experience.
If these scenarios resonate, this workshop is for you. Today, you’ll learn how cryptographic proof-based data exchanges can create new, secure ways to do familiar things. This isn’t just another API—it’s an entirely new set of Open Identity Protocols. Think about how SMTP or HTTP unlocked a world of innovation by creating unified ways to communicate. Now, imagine a protocol that allows users to seamlessly share their data with you and from you, securely and with full consent. Instead of managing multiple APIs to gather fragmented data, these emerging Open Identity protocols let developers access a user’s full digital identity in one seamless interaction, improving both user experience and efficiency.
This workshop will introduce you to the tools and concepts that make this possible. You’ll learn how to integrate these decentralized technologies into your applications with really low effort, offering your users a smoother, more trusted experience. The future of managing and accessing user data is here. Let’s dive into how you can lead this new wave of digital identity.