Each time we establish a relationship with an organisation with the use of a usercode/password we create a permanent electronic identity. This works well when there are few relationships. It does not work well when we have many relationships and when we need to coordinate activities across relationships. In other words usercode/passwords are not scalable.
The use of standards such as OpenID are used to give a common method of connecting. OpenID remembers logons and allows them to be reused across relationships. With Permanent Electronic Identities we extend the idea of OpenID to remember our interactions and to make this history available across all relationships.
Welcomer Permanent Electronic Identities achieves the objective of remembering all the interactions we have with each relationship and making the history available for future interactions. This totality of the history of our interactions becomes our electronic identity.
We interact with other people, with organisations, and with things. The totality of all our interactions can be included in our electronic identity. On the other side of an interaction is another person, organisation or thing. The history of our interactions is our electronic identity and the history of the interactions of organisation and things with other entities gives those entities an electronic identity. Abstracting the concept of identity so that it encompasses all Things leads to operational efficiencies and to simpler interactions.
The history of our electronic actions is the raw material on which our permanent electronic identities are constructed. These actions are represented as data held in databases. Most of this data is held in indexed databases where the index represents the entity and the data associated with the index are the attributes that describe the action or transaction.
This approach to identity and to the linking of data is superior to other existing methods for the following reasons.
- Distributed Ledgers are created automatically
- Fast Identification via the devices we use are automatic (FIDO)
- Privacy is built into the operation of the system
- Existing and Future Transactional Systems (applications) are independent of Welcomer.
Distributed Ledgers
Definition of ledger: Collection of an entire group of similar accounts in double-entry bookkeeping.
Double Entry Book-keeping is a method of ensuring transactions can be proven to be true. This is achieved by having two records of each transaction. A distributed ledger is one where the ledger containing the transactions is held across many different databases. The issue with distributed ledgers is being able to quickly and easily get the other double entry of the transaction held in a different database on a different machine with a different index. Welcomer links both records of a transaction automatically so that the transaction double entry is automatic and easily confirmed.
FIDO - Fast ID Online
Fast ID Online is where a person identifies themselves to a device and the device now becomes the person's proxy. Devices are one of the factors that can be used to identify a person. With Welcomer systems the use of the device is automatic. This means that FIDO is the default factor used for identification because it is fast and non intrusive and because people are able to control the use of devices.
Confidentiality by Design
Welcomer requires both parties to a transaction to have access to the transaction and both parties to give permission for the transaction to be shown to others. These are the cornerstones of privacy and this permissioning is built into Welcomer. (See Chain Link Confidentiality by Woodrow Hartzog)
Independence of Applications
Transactional systems built on top of Welcomer are independent of the databases and applications that create the data. This means Welcomer can change and not affect the operation of the transactional systems on which Welcomer, and applications that use Welcomer, depend. It means the transactional systems whether or not they depend on Welcomer are decoupled from Welcomer.