Please describe your proposed solution.
Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) is the first truly fully decentralized identity system. Based on a log of self-certifying cryptographic key events it produces a decentralized secure root-of-trust that doesn't need a ledger, or, moreover, is ledger-portable which means that its identifiers are not locked to any given blockchain and may switch as needed. In other words KERI identifiers are truly portable.
For that reason it is considered a breakthrough technology that is being adopted in major projects such as Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), that works with partners to issue millions of unique identification to legal entities participating in financial transactions around the globe.
One of KERI’s primary innovations is that parties other than the controller of the identifier can also sign the events as Witnesses, just as someone would witness a person’s physical signature on a paper document (as it’s often legally required for high value documents like wills and mortgages).
A blockchain is the perfect technology to act as a witness providing an independent root of trust besides the controller. This feature is highly appreciated and the first to implement it will become a de facto trustee to anyone implementing KERI.
This project is about implementing the bridge between KERI event logs and Cardano to act as a Witness on each transaction. The activities required two main activities:
- understand the technology (withpaper)
- familiarize the available implementations
- develop a Proof of Concept bridge component into Cardano blockchain. The code will be Open Source
RootsID team is participating in the KERI working group that meets every Tuesday. We have mentioned the possibility of this project and the working team offered its commitment to provide support in that endeavor.
More information about KERI at <https://keri.one>
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
As indicated by this article from the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), KERI could become the foundation of massive interoperability and portability at the infrastructure layer (the blockchain). In other worlds, the technology provides a way to move identifiers from one chain to another with cryptographic guarantee.
KERI bridges and backers, as this project is about, is enabling the portability of Identifiers between blockchains with a guarantee of ownership (private public keys and their updates events). And since data written in a blockchain is guaranteed by cryptographic signatures by their owners, KERI is also allowing the portability of trusted data.
That portability is a big step for cross-chain collaboration and the reason why we think is important for this Challenge goal.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
KERI is a complex cryptographic protocol and ecosystem of service roles. Just the whitepaper lasts 140 pages. Our main concerns and risk is tackling that complexity, even though our work may not require the full understanding of the protocol. Our mitigation plan, and confidence, comes from our regular participation in the KERI working group that meets every Tuesday. That meeting is led by the creator of KERI, Sam Smith, Ph.D. who personally offered all the help needed to cope with this task.