ONT ID 2.0: Take Charge of Your Identity With Customized Data Control and Disclosure Features
Having recently unveiled exclusive details of Ontology 2.0, we are pleased to announce new updates pertaining to ONT ID 2.0, Ontology’s digital identity framework. Accelerating digital identity solutions has been a central pillar of our work since day one, and we’re excited to have reached this important milestone on our journey.
Digital identity represents a core strand of the digital world. As the data economy continues to swell, so have concerns over data privacy, particularly in relation to digital identity solutions.
These growing privacy concerns have been amplified by a number of high profile privacy scandals, with Facebook, for example, suffering several major breaches in the second half of last year alone. In September 2019, a server containing over 4 million user records was exposed online, totally undermining the individuals’ privacy. . In December of the same year Facebook’s privacy issues were highlighted once again with 267 million Facebook users’ information being exposed.
The prevalence of data breaches continues to be a major issue among tech giants, with Zoom becoming the latest platform on the end of a cyber attack targeting over 500,000 user accounts.
The recurring nature of data breaches at the highest level of industry leads us to one simple question: How can we protect our data properly?
To answer that question, we must consider the types of reliable technology that can shield identity data from attack and misuse. Ontology believes that individuals and enterprises alike should have the right to take control of their proprietary identity data along with the right to authorize access to trusted third parties where necessary.
Features of ONT ID 2.0
ONT ID is a decentralized identity framework following the W3C DID Standard, using blockchain and cryptographic technology that can quickly identify and connect identities and enterprise assets. It is decentralized, self-sovereign, safe, and easy to use, enabling users to fully control their own data and identities.
As the latest updated version of ONT ID, ONT ID 2.0 is implemented through native smart contracts on the Ontology public chain. We encourage developers and users to check the ONT ID standards and relevant API documentation.
Please refer to https://docs.ont.io/
Here is a brief summary of several notable features of ONT ID 2.0:
1. Compliance with W3C Definitions and Standards
ONT ID 2.0 is fully compliant with the definitions and requirements specified in Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 in W3C Standard Protocol. ONT ID 2.0 supports all operations defined in W3C, and can intercommunicate with DIDs that follow the same standard irrespective of the blockchain or system they are registered in.
2. ONT ID 2.0 Authentication and Control
At present, like most DIDs, ONT ID only accepts a user’s “signature” as its authentication mechanism. In addition, by modifying an ONT ID’s “controller attribute”, the owner of an ONT ID can authorize another ONT ID to exercise management rights over their own ONT ID. A controller attribute can be one ONT ID or a group of ONT IDs. More complex control mechanisms can be implemented through a series of logical expressions in order to adapt to different application scenarios.
For example, you can set the controller attribute of “ONT ID E” to [ONT ID A] or {[ONT ID B] and [ONT ID C]} to make “A” or “B and C together” able to control E.
3. Custom Recovery Mechanism
If the authentication key of an ONT ID is lost or stolen, users can reset the authentication key through an individual with set recovery rights. A recovery person can be set in the “recovery attribute” of an ONT ID. Similarly to the controller attribute, the recovery attribute can also be one or a group of ONT IDs, allowing for complex mechanisms implemented through logical expressions to fit various application scenarios.
4. Custom Attribute Setting
ONT ID supports the on-chain binding of custom attributes. Users can modify the “attribute” of an ONT ID to set this. Each attribute is a <key, type, value> triple, where users can store information according to their needs. For the restrictions on the number of entries in the “attribute” property, users can check the corresponding description in the ONT ID specifications.
The protocol and the procedure of ONT ID verifiable credentials are designed based on W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0 Standard. ONT ID verifiable credentials support various types of credentials including normal credentials and selective disclosure credentials, with the latter enabling users to selectively disclose the information in different scenarios. Additionally, on the basis of ONT ID, Ontology has designed and implemented a distributed data exchange protocol that is compatible with DID, which makes distributed data exchange possible. Relevant design documents will be released soon.
ONT ID v2.0 vs ONT ID v1.0
ONT ID Application Scenarios
By using ONT ID, any entity can take full control of their own identities and data, and authorize applications or other individuals to access their own data as required. We present below two such scenarios:
1. ONT ID as a“unified account” to make single sign-on possible
Currently, the username/password system is commonly used to log into and avail of web applications. The username/password combo and the associated user data is also usually stored on the web application’s server. This login method is antiquated, with users having to remember several username/password combinations in order to log into multiple web applications. As a result, they tend to set simpler passwords to avoid forgetting them. As well as this, many web applications fail to implement appropriate security measures when saving users’ login information on their servers, which has led to frequent password security issues.
Now using ONT ID as their unified account, users can keep their data in their own hands. Moreover, compared with “challenge/response” and other authentication methods, the ONT ID-binding key can completely obviate password login methods that have high-security risks and thus can largely ensure the security of the user’s identity and associated data.
2. Graduation certificates and academic transcripts issued on ONT ID
In scholarship and internship applications, candidates are usually required to provide a graduation certificate and a transcript in order to prove their qualifications. With selective disclosure technology, ONT ID verifiable credentials will enable students to prove that they meet the entry requirements without disclosing their actual transcript. For example, perhaps a scholarship only needs to know the number of course credits completed, not the grades earned. Or perhaps a potential employer is only interested in a candidate’s computer science-related qualifications. With ONT ID, students have the ability to selectively disclose only what is necessary for each specific application.
Contact Us
Stay tuned for more details in our follow-up announcement. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at contact@ont.io.
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