Wipro Lab45, the innovation lab of technology services and consulting firm Wipro Ltd., today announced the launch of its newly minted Decentralized Identity and Credential Exchange service that taps blockchain technology to provide users full control of their private information.
The new service, known as DICE ID, allows credentials to be issued and verified using tamper-proof, self-verified digital certificates. The platform stores personal information from certificate issuers in an “identity wallet” that is controlled by users and all data is encrypted so they can be certain their privacy is preserved.
“Current online identification relies on the use of single sign-on services, requiring users to share personal data with multiple third parties,” said Subha Tatavarti, chief technology officer at Wipro. “DICE ID gives the power back to the individual, making it easier and safer than ever to manage sharing of personal data on digital platforms.”
Blockchain technology works by distributing multiple copies of a single ledger across numerous nodes to spread cryptographically secured transactions across multiple copies. That creates a tamper-proof historical record of each transaction that happened on the blockchain network.
By combining blockchain technology with an encrypted wallet that secures private personal user information, DICE allows users to decide what type of information they want to reveal in their digital settings. They can also cut off that information anytime they want.
Wipro piloted the solution for select clients in September and it is already being applied in a number of different use cases, including in education, financial technology, healthcare, government and metaverse applications.
Colleges and crowdsourcing communities have used it to create talent exchanges through portable skill credentials for both students and freelancers. Financial institutions have used DICE to handle user consent to share data for compliance and regulation while preserving privacy and confidentiality on their platforms. Metaverse platforms have been using the platform in order to create communities through pseudonymous identities and avatars.
All of this is made possible because DICE is built to be compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s verifiable open data model, which is designed to make credentials machine-readable and interoperable. As a result, businesses, communities and protocols can securely exchange DICE credentials as long as they hold to the standard.
Decentralized identity management using blockchain technology has been explored for years by a number of companies, such as Microsoft, which announced plans for its solution in 2018. Other solutions include Jolocom’s identity solution, which is compliant with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation; ShoCard, which was acquired by Ping Identity; and Dragon Factor, a spinoff from the Walt Disney Co.-incubated blockchain Dragonchain Inc.
“We believe decentralized identity and verifiable credentials technology will become a game-changer resulting in a metamorphosis of the identity space,” said Tatavarti.
