OpenWallet Foundation hosts MOSIP for guide through its Inji credentialing stack

The OpenWallet Foundation Interoperability SIG hosted a presentation by MOSIP with Vibha Menon, Product Owner – Partner Management System, and Head of Engineering Sasikumar Ganesan talking through Inji, MOSIP’s credentialing stack.

Ganesan began with an introduction to MOSIP, its background and context. “Over time most of our work has been around central ID because national ID is all about bringing in people at the national scale,” he said.

“But as we proceeded into that space there were a few challenges which were very difficult to achieve in centralized ID.”

“And one of the biggest challenges that we think that we were facing when we worked with the centralized ID was the fact that a lot of the transactions that we do at the government and the people level is very, very decentralized,” Ganesan said.

The MOSIP engineering lead gave a vivid example. In some developing countries there are discounted food or grains programs. To access the said items, in a “fair price shop,” the individual has to prove citizenship, especially if it’s their first time.

“So when the person goes in there, the person who has to give you the goods is right in front of you. The good are right next to you, the person to whom you have to provide [ID] is also in front of you.

“But yes, central server down or a network being down essentially means nobody gets the food. The grains are sitting right there in the store and nothing moves ahead.”

A part of MOSIP’s work is finding the opportunity in decentralization and verifiable credentials to make the life of this individual easier, Ganesan explained.

MOSIP wants to be the backbone for government – to expedite such services – with an open source solution that governments can pick up and use, and adapt where needed.

As Helen Raamat, an eID expert at Estonia’s Information System Authority, recently advised, it can be better to retain existing technology and procedures that are trusted and secure. And so MOSIP still finds in the market a prevalence in paper usage in government processes, and people who use feature phones or do not own phones. “So our support for USSD; our support for paper-based credentials is a very, very important support,” Ganesan said.

Vibha Menon outlined Inji, the verifiable credentialing solution designed to power the entire lifecycle — from issuance to secure storage to verification, and ensuring digital transactions are secure across sectors.

There are three main Inji tools: Inji Certify, Inji Wallet and Inji Verify. The first converts data to trustworthy credentials, the second makes data trustworthy and portable, and the third exchanges trusted data with service providers.

Menon mentioned those who do not have a smartphone can still get a verifiable credential which they can print on paper. This is important for inclusivity. Through Inji they can get cryptographically secure credentials to combat forgery. The key to the verifiable credential is via a QR code which can be downloaded and printed onto paper or ID card.

Inji Verify currently supports three modes of verification, Menon explained. One being scanning a QR code, another by uploading a QR code or a file which contains the QR code within it, and lastly the OpenID for VP-based verification flows. The relying party can pick and choose which method they would require. It can be one or more and the Inji Verify SDK can be integrated into the relying party’s portal.

Inji Verify handles the verification logic, the transformation of data, so that the relying party does not have to worry what format or validation logic is being performed.

Menon emphasized that Inji is modular so components of the stack, whether it’s Inji Wallet or Verify, can be chosen and adopted. This gives flexibility for adoption of the Inji stack entirely or for one or more components of the stack.

The presentation then moved onto a question and answer session with questions around key rotation support, wallet support, privacy and where the stack has been implemented. On this latter question, Ganesan highlighted the Philippines, Morocco and Ethiopia as implementers although each country has its own specific story.

The full presentation is available on the OpenWallet Foundation’s YouTube channel here. In the video are links for Inji documentation, sandbox environment and more with a QR code provided (from 38 minute mark).

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  Inji digital wallet  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  open source  |  OpenWallet Foundation (OWF)  |  verifiable credentials