GAIN claims early successes, sets next steps towards digital ID interoperability

Technical and policy standards for digital identity are emerging and evolving, boosting the prospects for interoperable digital IDs, and correspondingly drawing in more organizations that see a benefit from that interoperability to encourage its development.

The vision for a “Global Assured Identity Network” shared by six digital identity organizations is presented in the new “GAIN in 2023” white paper.

The Cloud Signature Consortium, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), OpenID, Open Identity Exchange and Secure Identity Alliance collectively represent many of the largest and most influential businesses and stakeholders in the ID market. These organizations have agreed to provide guidance and spaces for community collaboration.

There are an increasing number of organizations, including banks, governments, and wallet providers, that can make use of interoperable policy and technical standards for digital identity, according to the paper. At the same time, those standards have matured, making room for more interoperability testing.

That is the context in which the 30-page paper, edited by IDPartner Co-founder and CPO Elizabeth Garber, OIX Chief Identity Strategist Nick Mothershaw, SIA Marketing and Communication Director Stephanie Labriolle and Thales Standardization Expert Deborah Comparin, has been released.

A proof-of-concepts working group has over 40 participants, trust frameworks have been analyzed, and tools to establish stronger trust between entities have been developed over the past two years by GAIN.

Major contributions reviewed in the paper include a demonstration of cross-border data transfers, progress towards the development of identities for organizations that deliver high trust and can be used beyond financial services, and work on how trust frameworks in different countries can provide a basis for trusted interactions.

The paper focusses on how to bridge “islands of trust,” trusting counterparties, smart policy interoperability and open collaboration and governance.

The GAIN POC Community Group has tested a working prototype connecting digital ID systems in Germany, Italy and Japan. It will work on operationalizing the PoC, bridging the emerging “islands,” including digital wallets, and look into other trust establishment models.

OIX is examining trust frameworks in Canada, the EU, Singapore, UK and U.S. to assess the potential for an “Open Policy Rules Exchange Framework.”

The paper concludes with an invitation to non-profits in the field of identity to participate in GAIN’s collaborations.

Article Topics

digital identity  |  Global Assured Identity Network (GAIN)  |  interoperability  |  standards  |  trust framework