A broad coalition of non-profits and private companies - including Mastercard, R3 and IBM - have gathered under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation to foster a standard for decentralised digital identity exchange over the Internet.
The Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation is bidding to provide a common standard that gives people and businesses the confidence that data is coming from a trusted source, using a combination of interoperable digital wallets and credentials and the new W3C Verifiable Credentials standard.
Founding steering members of the group include Accenture, BrightHive, Cloudocracy, Continuum Loop, CULedger, Dhiway, esatus, Evernym, Finicity, Futurewei Technologies, IBM Security, IdRamp, Lumedic, Mastercard, MITRE, the Province of British Columbia and SICPA. Contributing members include DIDx, GLEIF, The Human Colossus Foundation, iRespond, kiva.org, Marist College, Northern Block, R3, Secours.io, TNO and University of Arkansas.
“The ToIP Foundation has the promise to provide the digital trust layer that was missing in the original design of the Internet,” says Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “The combination of open standards and protocols, pan-industry collaboration and our neutral governance structure will support this new category of digital identity and verifiable data exchange.”
The ToIP Foundation will initially host four Working Groups focusing on tech standards, governance, utilities and ecosystem building.
Charles Walton, senior vice president, digital identity, Mastercard, comments: “We are building a bridge to a world where a person’s identity can be verified immediately, safely and securely for use in the digital world - where now, more than ever, identity is essential for delivery of digital health, education and government services. This cannot be accomplished in isolation. We are collaborating and innovating with governments, technology companies, financial institutions and industry sectors to make this a reality."