Most systems identify people via identity providers. Another entity gives a person an identity. That identity is now used by others. For example, the government provides us with a many identities and we use them with others. This approach applies to any identified thing. So we identify houses, dogs, companies, etc. We give them an identity that others use.
With Welcomer the control of the identity is with the identified entity. It happens through mutual identification. Two entities connect and in connecting they identify each other. Neither know what identity token the other gave them. One of these persons now connects to another person. They identify themselves with mutual identification. Welcomer connects the two identities and remembers the connection. A person now says their identity is the set of links of their individual identities with other entities. The details of their identity remain with them and with the other entities. A person or a thing can have many different graphs where there are no common links between things.
This approach is low cost because each entity identity is independent. Here is an explanation. https://kevinrosscox.me/2016/06/06/low-cost-identity-systems/
Identity systems using identity providers are costly. In Australia we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a Health ID system and it still does not work well. We have spent hundreds of millions on passports, Licences, MyGov's, Single SigOns at all levels of government trying to provide people with identities. The costs are escalating with the DTO and their equivalents in the States. There is a better way.
Using the Welcomer approach the cost of an identity is low. It is less than 1% of the cost of using an identity provider. The cost of an application or service using an identity can include the identity cost.
The Internet of Things can use the same identity system. This gives a common way for all things including people to interlink and identify themselves.
This increases the value because it allows the easy integration of things with people. A car has an identity and its identity, with all its history, can be passed on to a new owner with the same identity system.