Swisscom Blockchain launches self-sovereign identity solution Seraph ID on NEO

Swisscom Blockchain, a subsidiary of Swiss state-owned telecom firm Swisscom, has unveiled a launch of the first part of Seraph ID, a self-sovereign identity (SSI) solution built on the NEO blockchain.

Seraph ID aims to offer users full control of their data and allow dApps to verify specific data without giving the data to store – a feature that will significantly improve data security and minimize theft. Users can also decide what data to share and to whom.

The framework offers tools to create SSI networks with three key participant types, namely, identity issuers, verifiers, and claim holders. Any entity is allowed to deploy an issuer contract to the NEO blockchain to make their own unique SSI network that will suit their specific use case.

For instance, they can define their own attribute types, including name, age, and nationality. The schemas containing these attributes are kept in the smart contract storage of the issuing authority.

In addition, SSI networks can be expanded optionally by designating one or more Root of Trust (ROT) managers. These govern the business, technical, or legal rules that credential issuers in the network need to follow and enable to whitelist new issuers.

As per its whitepaper, Swisscom Blockchain also plans to integrate an agent-to-agent communication layer, make an offline wallet for identity owners such as chrome extension, and develop a universal resolver for decentralized identifiers that will use NEO.

The company has also released an interactive demo to show the functionality and usage of Seraph ID in an example use case. The demo allows users to play the different roles of network participants, in a bid to exhibit the use of digital identity system in various points of view.

The team has also released its TypeScript SDK and smart contract templates, which will help NEO dApp developers to use the tools needed to start incorporating Seraph ID into their projects. The Seraph ID SDK aims to be lightweight and helps create and use Seraph ID wallets and instances for issuers, verifiers, and ROT.

Two smart contract templates were also provided. One helps create issuer contracts to enable on-chain claim registry, while the ROT contracts allow hierarchical trust topologies.

Swisscom also recently revealed its plan to distribute tokenized artwork through its Swisscom TV television network. The product called NOOW, developed by Dloop that is a spun out of the company’s accelerator Kickbox, will utilize ethereum blockchain-based ERC-721 smart contracts to showcase and certify artworks.