On Monday, November 23rd the Vienna Digital Identity Meetup* held its 17th event, the focus of this event was on Guardianship and SSI. Our presenter was Philippe Page of The Human Colossus Foundation and is a current member of the Sovrin Foundation Guardianship Working Group.

Guardianship is a legal status where one individual is under the legal care of another. A natural guardian relationship is between parent and child, legal guardians are persons who are recognized by the courts as having the legal authority and duty of care for another.

While there are long standing legal precedents and processes around the assignment, management and revocation of guardianships, these requirements were not met by existing digital identity management solutions. With SSI, this mechanism now exists. SSI can work in conjunction with traditional identity and credential management systems while being able to integrate into existing legal processes and provides a robust mechanism for revocation.

Guardianship is a complex topic, with many subtleties and layers. In the humanitarian sector the it is a reality of daily life when supporting and assisting migrants, refugees and displaced persons. It is a topic we all are faced with in our lifetimes; whether as a child (being cared for) or as an adult (caring for or being cared for). In this first event on this topic, Philippe has provided an overview of how SSI and Guardianship fit together and how SSI meets the lifecycle stages (Inception, Creation, Usage and Termination) of guardianship.

An objective of these events is to educate the community on how high assurance digital identities unlock new possibilities across all entities and industry sectors. Using the tripartite relationship in clinical drug trials of patient, doctor and pharma company, Philippe covered how guardianship can also be used to manage consent to derive a business value unlocked with high assurance digital identity.

Guardianship is an important legal concept, and will be a topic we will return to in 2021.

For a recording of the event please check out the link: https://vimeo.com/482803989

Time markers:

• 0:00:00 - Introduction

• 0:03:55 - Philippe Page - Introduction

• 0:08:03 - Overview

• 0:08:41 - Guardianship background

• 0:20:15 - Core Components

• 0:33:51 - Scaling and Standardization

• 0:39:04 - Bridging Economic Actors & Human Centricity

• 0:45:45 - Applications

• 1:02:08 - Questions

For more information on:

- Sovrin Foundation Guardianship Working Group : https://sovrin.org/guardianship/

- The Human Colossus Foundation : https://humancolossus.foundation/

And as a reminder, due to increased COVID-19 infections we are back to online only events. Hopefully we will be back to in person and online soon!

If interested in getting notifications of upcoming events please join the event group at: https://www.meetup.com/Vienna-Digital-Identity-Meetup/

*Vienna Digital Identity Meetup is hosted by The Dingle Group and is focused on educating business, societal, legal and technologists on the value that a high assurance digital identity creates by reducing risk and strengthening provenance. We meet on the 4th Monday of every month, in person (when permitted) in Vienna and online on Zoom. Connecting and educating across borders and oceans.