For identifiers, you may be interested in the work being done at the W3C on Decentralized Identifiers [1] (DIDs, an acronym that is coincidentally humorous in relation to your question). Essentially, DIDs provide a scheme for describing identifiers. IIRC, control over the identifier is asserted by publishing a public key and providing a proof involving the identifier and the private key. There are many methods described right now for creating and managing these DIDs, with many utilizing blockchains for publishing these DIDs, though publishing isn't a requirement for them to work (see the peer method). I feel the system is somewhat analog to DNS.
I, myself, have had some interest in either adapting existing protocols to use DIDs or developing new protocols to use them while also incorporating currently emerging security work like what is going on the mls working group. That being said, there is such incredible momentum around DNS and certificate authorities that I wonder if a general transition to something truly decentralized is possible. In my opinion, DNS has enabled so much but has ultimately led us to a centralized internet. As you allude to, the email address has become the common ID for the internet, email addresses are tied to domains, and (most) domains are owned by corporations, and because of that we don't own our identity on the internet. Log in with Google/Apple/Facebook etc has only made things worse from a centralization standpoint.
I, myself, have had some interest in either adapting existing protocols to use DIDs or developing new protocols to use them while also incorporating currently emerging security work like what is going on the mls working group. That being said, there is such incredible momentum around DNS and certificate authorities that I wonder if a general transition to something truly decentralized is possible. In my opinion, DNS has enabled so much but has ultimately led us to a centralized internet. As you allude to, the email address has become the common ID for the internet, email addresses are tied to domains, and (most) domains are owned by corporations, and because of that we don't own our identity on the internet. Log in with Google/Apple/Facebook etc has only made things worse from a centralization standpoint.
DID isn't the only attempt—there's been a number over the last couple decades. Blockchain has enabled some new ideas—hopefully we're getting closer to a workable solution that can become as universal as the email address.
Steve
[1] https://www.w3.org/2019/did-wg/
Steve
[1] https://www.w3.org/2019/did-wg/
On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 8:06 PM Randy Bush <randy@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 1. I would like my Chats eg. Telegram,Facebook, WhatsApp etc to be
> identified via an Independently generated and held identifier that
> is not a Phone Number which is transferable and/or held by a
> Company.
have you looked at keybase, which zoom is acquiring?
randy
