eID and Self-Sovereign Identity Usage: An Overview

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic helped countries to increase the use of their mobile eID solutions. These are based on traditional identity management systems, which suffer from weaknesses, such as the reliance on a central entity to provide the identity data and the lack of control of the user over her or his data. The introduction of self-sovereign identity (SSI) for e-government systems can strengthen the privacy of the citizens while enabling identification also for the weakest. To successfully initiate SSI, different factors have to be taken into account. In order to have a clear understanding of the challenges, but also lessons learned, we provide an overview of existing solutions and projects and conducted an analysis of their experiences. Based on a taxonomy, we identified strong points, as well as encountered challenges. The contribution of this paper is threefold: First, we enhanced existing taxonomies based on the literature for further evaluations. Second, we analyzed eID solutions for lessons learned. Third, we evaluated more recently started SSI projects in different states of their lifecycle. This led to a comprehensive discussion of the lessons learned and challenges to address, as well as further findings.

Post-Pandemic Follow-Up Audit of Security Checkpoints

“…[62], [78], [80]. They are reviewed in [93]. The core of SSI is distributed ledgers --a type of database that is spread across multiple sites, countries or institutions, and is commonly public [82].…”

“…This direction in checkpoint evolution is predetermined by breakthrough research such as blockchain technology [82], along with the distributed nature of some databases used in checkpoints [5]. Secondly, despite significant progress in transferring checkpoint biometrics to a distributed platform [60], [90], [93], biometric-enabled SSI still requires more broad vision and R&D.…”

Notarial practice of will declaration in civil transactions in the countries of the European Union

“…The issues of the justification and proportionality of the requirement of physical presence when drawing up wills at notaries and the impact of this necessity on the restriction of freedom of services were raised. The article by Pöhn et al (2021) on the introduction of self-sovereign identity (SSI), which can strengthen the privacy of citizens and provide the necessary identification, is worthy of note. In turn, Schwalm and Alamillo-Domingo (2021) examine the revised eIDAS Regulation in their article.…”

“…The European countries had to urgently search for a reliable solution for secure remote carrying out of transactions. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed countries to expand the use of electronic identification (Pöhn et al, 2021).…”

eIDAS Interoperability and Cross-Border Compliance Issues

“…The transactions in the eIDAS network were analyzed in [18]. The eID and Self-Sovereign Identity overview of the existing solutions and current projects developing and implementing the solutions are presented in [19]. Although the paper contains information from around the world, a large portion of the collected data is from Europe (14 countries).…”