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Leadership Brief

Blockchain ID & Self Sovereign Identity

May 09, 2019

Martin Kuppinger

As the hype around Blockchain is slowing down, the market is moving into a phase of maturity, focusing on business cases where Blockchain technology delivers concrete value, in combination with other types of technologies. Blockchain ID and the related concept of Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) are gaining momentum, in areas such as KYC (Know Your Customer), Consumer Authentication, and Consumer ID management. While most solutions are still in their early stages, they show the potential of Blockchain ID.

1 Executive Summary

Blockchain is still a hype technology, even while there is some disillusion. One of the most interesting areas of Blockchain use cases is Blockchain ID, with a significant number of start-ups. These start-ups cover various types of use cases, such as KYC (Know Your Customer), Authentication, and delivering universal IDs.

While there are still various challenges to solve, we see a good potential in such solutions, specifically around the controlled use of personal data and, mid-term, in the evolution of universally applicable IDs.

As with every emerging technology, Blockchain ID solutions must be carefully evaluated, with respect to their maturity, their business model, the stability of vendors, and whether they deliver a benefit when being compared to established technologies. There is a strong potential for solving certain business challenges better by using Blockchain technology as part of solutions, but there is no value in itself by relying on Blockchains.