"Sustainment often means ruin", the classic words in Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" are exactly the portrayal of the Web2.0 era.
Recently, station B’s activity of “answering questions and receiving cards to exchange for big members” was pointed out by netizens as suspected of betraying users’ personal privacy. Although station B responded that the page was misunderstood due to improper wording of the copywriting, the page has been taken offline and rectified, but the disturbance did not Without stopping, the dispute over data sovereignty has once again been pulled into the "center of public opinion". Internet citizens, deeply disturbed by Web2.0 privacy, once again unanimously proposed and expected the arrival of the Web3.0 era.
Why is Web3.0 expected to be so high?
As early as 2006, "Internet World" published an article entitled "The Coming of the Web 3.0 Era", which stated that "initiative", "digital maximization" and "multi-dimensionality" are the main features of Web 3.0. After that, Web 3.0 has been constantly redefined by people.
In 2014, Gavin Wood expounded his vision for "Web 3.0" in his paper: he hopes to reshape the Internet from the software level based on the P2P protocol, and create a network service with decentralization and privacy as the main features.
In 2022, Brian Brook, CEO of Bitfury Group, pointed out again at the hearing in the United States that the characteristic of Web1.0 is read-only, that is, users can only read information but not edit it; the characteristic of Web2.0 is readable and writable , that is, users can edit information while reading information, and become content creators; the characteristics of Web3.0 are readable and writable, and users can also own content ownership at the same time.
Although there is no consensus on the definition of Web 3.0, the obvious consensus is that Web 3.0, which has the characteristics of "decentralization, privacy first, and users control data ownership", is expected to become the era of Web 2.0. Monopoly” is a life-saving recipe.
But so far, the ideal of Web3.0 does not seem to have achieved actual breakthroughs. In this long-awaited "data revolution", some key puzzles have yet to be found, and the solution of digital identity is the first step.
Why is DID needed in the Web3.0 era?
As a data entry point, digital identity is the unique identifier linking users and platforms.
Looking back, the way Internet users' digital identities are created has also changed. For example, in the Web 1.0 stage, users create digital identities through account registration + password; in the Web 2.0 stage, users can not only create digital identities through account registration + password, but also choose one-click login to create digital identities. No matter which of the above methods is used, the user is required to submit information such as user name (real name), mobile phone number or email address, or even residential address and ID card. However, the above information is the most important personal privacy of each user in real life, and it is related to all aspects of life.
More importantly, users have no control over the digital identity information they provide and the data generated during use. On the contrary, providers (major platforms) that do not produce data own the data and can profile users through big data. Most users not only produce data for free, but also pay for the advertisements pushed by the platform.
To sum up, it can be seen that the user's digital identity is not only a data entry point, but also a window for data security governance. Therefore, changing the way digital identities are created will become one of the effective ways to govern personal privacy data. This change depends on the development of technological innovation.
DID's decentralized identity has become the most valuable innovation of Web3.0.
At present, based on the immutable and hash-encrypted features of blockchain technology, a different way of creating digital identities has been realized. That is, users identify each other's digital identities through the signature and verification mechanism of public and private keys, and access various applications through this identity. This identity is called Decentralized ID (DID for short).
Different from centralized identities, DID returns the control of identity information to users, allowing users to generate unique identities through trusted systems, and use cryptographic means such as electronic signatures to verify identities, so that individual users Both institutions and institutions that provide services can enjoy a credible and privacy-safe identity information use and management process based on the blockchain.
In this way, DID allows users to fully own the ownership, management and control of their digital identity data, which protects personal privacy and information security well, instead of having multiple centralized providers manage multiple digital identities. This digital identity has been applied in blockchain projects such as Ethereum and Wallet.
However, the large-scale application of DID still faces many tests and challenges.
What stuck DID?
The DID digital identity system based on the blockchain has the characteristics of ensuring the authenticity and credibility of data, protecting user privacy and security, and strong portability. Its advantages lie in:
Decentralization: Based on the blockchain, identity data is prevented from being controlled by a single centralized authority.
Independent and controllable identity: Based on DPKI (Distributed Public Key Infrastructure), the identity of each user is not controlled by a trusted third party, but by its owner, and individuals can independently manage their own identities.
Trusted data exchange: identity-related data is anchored on the blockchain, and the authentication process does not need to rely on the application that provides the identity.
However, limited by the requirements and restrictions of technology, application and supervision, DID still faces many bottlenecks in its application.
On the one hand, technological development has encountered a bottleneck. Decentralization, security and high performance constitute the "impossible triangle" of blockchain, which has become the biggest bottleneck encountered by technological innovation. Therefore, blockchain technology, DID, or Web 3.0 itself is still in its early stages, and technology needs to be improved and innovated.
On the other hand, the application scenarios are single. As one of the blockchain technologies, DID has only been applied in a few projects at present, and there is still a long way to go before the large-scale application of blockchain projects. At present, the blockchain project of DID application is not completely decentralized. For example, the wallet is still managed by an organization, and the user's asset and data security issues still exist; in addition, compared with the decentralized nature of the blockchain, traditional applications in Under the background of centralization, can they accept and use DID if they are fighting independently and relying on traffic for profit?
The centralized platform uses the data produced by users to convert it into traffic, so as to realize huge profits. DID's decentralized digital identity makes the platform no longer control all data information when obtaining authorization. The "usable and invisible" security model makes the platform no longer able to let the data belong to itself, and the monetization profit model brought by traffic will no longer exist. exist.
In the face of huge interests, can these Internet giants put aside their interests, accept innovation, and welcome the arrival of Web 3.0?
In addition, if DID wants to obtain large-scale application, it also needs to solve regulatory problems.
As we all know, under the requirements of the real-name system on the current Internet, users must use real-name information such as mobile phone numbers or ID cards or bank cards to create identities. The advantage of this is of course that it is conducive to supervision, but it also causes the platform to illegally collect and abuse users' personal privacy data to the greatest extent.
Under the premise of facilitating supervision, whether decentralized DID can be accepted by regulators is also one of the challenges.
DID breaks the game, where is the way out?
Mature applications require continuous innovation and optimization in practice. As the infrastructure of Web 3.0, DID can only rise to the challenge.
After DID based on blockchain technology becomes the infrastructure of Web 3.0, user data can be easily "available and invisible" through cross-chain and smart contracts with just a few lines of code, and has the characteristics of high security, autonomy and efficiency. . For example, when trading on the chain, the operation is convenient and simple, there is no third-party intervention, and there is no need to worry about information leakage; point-to-point direct interaction makes high-efficiency, non-centralized agent, and large-scale information interaction a reality.
However, the degree of realization of the above assumptions depends on the development of blockchain technology.
At present, the application of blockchain technology is facing the fact of "impossible triangle". The market is facing a dilemma of "no governance" or "no cost-effectiveness". The only way to break the situation is to find the answer from technological improvement.
Professor Cai Hengjin from the School of Computer Science of Wuhan University mentioned in an interview with a reporter from the computing power think tank that based on the Web 3.0 architecture, interactive hashing between user nodes can convert bilateral trust into a collective time sequence, which is the most important in realizing the blockchain. At the same time, there is no need for a proof-of-work mechanism that wastes resources, and a proof-of-stake mechanism that is suspected of monopoly.
"The greatest value of blockchain technology lies in the preservation of evidence, and the greatest innovation lies in the establishment of time order." Professor Cai Hengjin believes that time order, as the most important attribute of blockchain network, provides traceability, verifiability and value transfer. The foundation makes the value exchange network possible. It also provides new solutions for social governance, privacy protection and individual needs.
The value of technology lies in its application. With the development of blockchain technology, there are more and more DID solutions on the market, and well-known companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook have successively devoted themselves to research and development. Behind these solutions, there is still: using DID, is the problem of users controlling their own accounts solved? Is the information and data provided by users a centralized institution? Do users need to provide personal information including mobile phone number and ID card to log in to the application? When authorizing between different applications, who sets the permissions? A series of puzzles that seem to be solved but are not completely solved.
The original intention of DID is to protect the security of users' personal privacy data. Therefore, all applications that violate this original intention are not DID in the true sense.
According to the reporter of the computing power think tank, the current application of DID is mainly concentrated in the blockchain industry. Although traditional industries are also involved, they are not accepted by users or institutions. The main reason is that the data provided by users is still controlled by the platform, and "whether you can see it" or "will you see it" depends on the original intention of the platform.
As the most basic and core technology, DID was born to completely ignite the revolution of Web3.0, but more energy needs to be invested in optimization and innovation, so as to take over the torch and continue running.