Canada’s Role in Digital Identity
The purpose of this article is to examine why we think the Canadian Government will win if they create trustworthy digital identities
Why is trustworthy digital identity critical?
Creating trusted ways of managing identities is just as important in existing markets as it is in emerging ones. With everything in people’s lives gone or going digital, it’s important that standards and mechanisms be put in place to empower people, organizations and things.
For people, owning your digital identity empowers you to be in the driver’s seat for who accesses and controls your information. For organizations, trustworthy identities can significantly lower operating costs and facilitate global growth. For things, we can have assurance that our devices don’t spy on us and aren’t subject to misaligned incentives.
Overall, trusted digital identities will be an enabler for enforced accountability in all markets.
How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy?
Digital identities will help the Canadian economy in many facets, enhancing activities related to Immigration and Citizenship, Global Affairs and Innovation.
Today, many Canadian organizations don’t recognize foreign institutions because there’s no way of checking the legitimacy of credentials. With digital identity, a person can use indirect reputations, such as using credentials from a Canadian institution vouching that a foreign credential is equivalent or of certain standards. This breakthrough would create fair opportunities for immigrants, while ensuring the Canadian economy can maximize its workforce potential.
For Global Affairs, how can you trust a company from another country that you haven’t dealt with beforehand? Just like with individuals, digital identities can enable reliable foreign company reputations, while promoting safe and sustainable globalization for Canadian institutions.
Digital identities will enable new types of businesses and allow enterprises and start-ups to innovate. While some benefits from digital identities are clear, we don’t yet know the extent of new business models that become possible because of it. Just like when big technological advancements such as the Internet or Blockchain came along, it took time for new opportunities to be identified.
What role does Canada have to play as a leader in the space?
Canada needs to lead by example in the digital identity space. Interestingly enough, Canada is behind many other countries on this, as there are quite a few countries with existing private key infrastructures run by the Government — think of India, Dubai, Estonia, etc.
Because the Canadian ministries are already decentralized, digital identity solutions are even more valuable to our Government.
With a trustworthy digital identities, instead of the Canadian Government coordinating touch points, the citizens can coordinate themselves with Governments. Especially since it’s difficult today for Government organizations to create interoperability between themselves.
About Northern Block, Inc. — Northern Block is a blockchain consulting and venture creation firm. We create elegant, production-grade software using cutting-edge blockchain technology. Northern Block has been building enterprise software solutions that use blockchain for the past three years. For every solution to be truly decentralized, decentralized digital identities are necessary. For that reason, we have ongoing projects that use digital identities. We gained our initial experience by developing an identity project for the Ontario Government.
Northern Block runs the #SSIToronto meetup group, where we help educate the community about the many benefits of self-sovereign identity and how to implement the technology. To learn more about us, visit https://northernblock.io
