GCA

Work Description:
I’m a first year PhD student, fan of decentralised applications and member of the “Development of Decentralized Integration Solutions to Enable Interoperation of Digital Services in Smart and Sustainable Cities” project.   I’m responsible for the development of a decentralized identity system (DID) for a smart city environment.   DID systems enable digital identification without relying on a central authority. This contrasts with the identity systems that prevail in the current Internet, such as Google IDs, FaceBook IDs and TLS/SSL certificates that rely on central roots of trust.   With the misuse of personal data and data breaches that have recurrently led to identity leaks and theft, DIDs are increasingly gaining interest from academia, government and industry.   Among other advantages, DIDs allow users to control their identities and the disclosure of personal data during digital interactions, which increases the level of data security and privacy.   DIDs is an emerging research topic with several challenges and practical applications; for instance, it is one of the core building blocks that can help in the re-decentralisation of the Internet.