How to build a self-sovereign identity system that is beneficial to both the individual and business

• Main Author: Moodley, Jothi
• Other Authors: Georg, Co-Pierre
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Commerce 2020
• Subjects: Financial Technology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31820

Self-sovereign identity defines a system in which an entity can generate and maintain their own proof of identity. There are several solutions aimed at providing this service and storing the relevant information on a blockchain. We describe how to develop such a system using Ethereum’s smart contract platform and a browser-based application, and we demonstrate its use in a corporate that sells more than one funeral insurance product. Individuals and organizations should be able to create claims on their identities, however, only reputable organizations can verify these claims. These operations are executed by functions contained in the smart contracts and the transactions can be stored on a blockchain. A major benefit of this innovation is that an identity can be easily re-used and we show how an insurance department can do this using credentials already requested by another department. This method allows for much needed efficiency over the current system.