Accounts and Identity
Introduction
There are lots of DID Methods see the full list here. Unfortunately they all suffer from a variety of different problems that make none of them a suitable base for the next generation of web3 applications.
Read the article below or watch the technical deep dive to learn about the key problems the Verida DID method solves.
Introducing "did:vda": A fast, cheap web3 identity solution on Polygon
Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)
Verida accounts are decentralized identities that implement the decentralized identifier (DID) standard. A DID has a unique addresses (ie: did:vda:testnet:0x6B2a1bE81ee770cbB4648801e343E135e8D2Aa6F) that is controlled by an end user with a private key or seed phrase.
In this documentation we use the terms account, identity, DID interchangeable as they are effectively the same thing.
A user can identify themselves to another user or application by sharing their unique DID address.
The Verida Wallet automatically creates a decentralized identity for new users. These identities can be exported and imported by providing the secure seed phrase and the DID string for recovery.
Private Keys
Each DID has a corresponding private key. Private keys follow the exact same format as Ethereum private keys, so you can use ethers libraries to manually create keys where required.
Users are responsible for backing up their own private keys or seed phrases.
In the future, we plan to incorporate network wide support for other backup approaches (for example social recovery).
Multiple identities
Users can have multiple identities for different purposes. For example, a user may have a personal identity and a professional identity. This is easily supported (and free) as a user can simply create a new Verida account (DID) and use that to login to any application.
It’s also entirely anonymous. No information is known about the holder of the DID and no personally identifiable information is written to a public blockchain.
DID Registry
DID's are more than just an address. The specification supports creating DID Documents that provide enhanced discovery of services being operated for that DID (ie: storage, messaging) and public keys (useful for verifying data signed by the DID).
Verida has implemented it's own DID method (did:vda) based on the VIP-2 specification. This was necessary as there is no currently available DID method that meets the performance, feature set and low cost necessary for the Verida network to be viable for mass adoption.
The Verida DID method writes a small entry on the Polygon blockchain registering a DID and provides an array of URL endpoints where the most up-to-date version of the DID document can be found. This means there is a single blockchain transaction to register a DID and make it publicly discoverable while all updates to the document can then occur via "free" HTTP requests to the DID Document endpoints.
Watch this video on the Verida DID method
Data Hosting & Control
A Verida account can control where their private data is stored, for all applications using the account. Data created by applications is encrypted with the account’s private keys and stored in off-chain private peer-to-peer databases.
The database endpoints for this application data is published in the DID Document of the account.
For simplicity, Verida provides a free testnet database that can be used by any application, however both application developers and users can take control of this data.
Applications operating on a server can specify their own storage nodes. See Authentication.
Storage nodes for users are currently managed by the Verida Wallet
In the future, we will add support for:
- Users to select their storage nodes within the Verida Wallet (including self-hosted nodes)
- Applications to provide default storage nodes for users of their application
Data stored on the Verida Acacia Testnet is deleted regularly, so don’t rely on that data persisting.
If you need help spinning up your own storage node, please reach out via Discord or Register your interest in running a Storage Node.