The Cardano Foundation Unveils Open-Source Digital Identity System: Veridian
The Cardano Foundation has unveiled a new open-source digital identity system, Veridian. It is intended to provide individuals with more control over their personal and organizational information. The rollout of the decentralized system comes amid growing cybersecurity fears and a trend of large-scale data breaches in industries.
A Look At Cardano Foundation’s Veridian
According to the latest release, Veridian is designed to operate as a replacement to conventional, centralized identity systems that tend to leave sensitive credentials within the control of third-party operators. Through using a decentralized architecture, the platform aims to cut down on dependence on intermediaries and provide customers with complete ownership of their online identities.
The first product in this effort is the Veridian Wallet, a secure management platform where users can manage digital credentials, private keys, and identifiers from a single interface. The infrastructure of the wallet is directed towards making it possible for individuals and businesses to protect their information easily without having to depend on centralized storage and verification services.
As per the Cardano Foundation’s report, today’s identity solutions are becoming more exposed. The United States alone had around 1.7 billion data records put out in breach in the last year. Most of this exposure is a result of the centralized architecture nature of conventional verification systems, whereby user data is pooled together and controlled by third parties.
Veridian suggests a transition with the rollout of a trustless, decentralized design fueled by cutting-edge protocols like Authentic Chained Data Container (ACDC) credentials and Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) identifiers, as mentioned in our last story. These technologies enable safe, verifiable sharing of identity information without centralized databases.
Other Key Features of Veridian
In addition, Veridian users have the option to anchor credentials on the Cardano blockchain. This integration provides a cryptographic trust layer that further enhances the digital identity’s authenticity and integrity while enabling transparency and auditability when required.
The wallet component acts as the direct interface for users to issue, store, and share digital credentials securely. Remote access is enabled, allowing users to have control over their identity data from any location, virtually anywhere. This is necessary for organizations that have distributed teams or people moving across different digital platforms.
This release is simultaneous with wider initiatives by the Cardano network to broaden its contribution to the decentralized finance (DeFi) environment. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently outlined plans for future work to bring Bitcoin into the DeFi environment using the Cardano network, as reported earlier.
Hoskinson’s scheme involves leveraging the Cardano Hydra protocol for scaling and collaboration with Maestro, a blockchain infrastructure company. The scheme is likely to facilitate the development of Bitcoin smart contracts using the Aiken programming language, which facilitates interoperability between Bitcoin and Cardano ecosystems. The integration approach is set to enhance Cardano’s infrastructure as well as provide new avenues for Bitcoin-based DeFi apps.