W3C releases updated decentralized identifiers spec for comment

Decentralized identifiers (DID), which enable verifiable, decentralized digital identity, are seeing significant global development and related standards are also advancing.

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has published a Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.1, signaling that the standard is technically sound and complete and inviting implementations to test its stability in practice.

The DIDs v1.1 is an update to v1.0, released in 2022, and specifies the DID syntax, a common data model, core properties, serialized representations, DID operations, and an explanation of the process of resolving DIDs to the resources they represent. The specification was published by the W3C Decentralized Identifier Working Group, which has invited stakeholders to submit comments via GitHub by April 5th, 2026.

The international non-profit, focused on technical specifications and guidelines, also offers a list of known DID methods.

The specification has seen steady, if unspectacular adoption. DIDs were added to Entra Verified ID by Microsoft back in 2022, and Nuggets built its AI agent authentication product around DIDs. Dock uses DIDs, and so does Vouched.

Aside from W3C, another organization playing a role in DID development is the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), which is working on complementary specs and interoperability standards.

Article Topics

decentralized identifiers (DIDs)  |  digital identity  |  verifiable credentials  |  W3C  |  W3C standards