Building identity-enabled data infrastructures & dApps.
How deltaDAO and walt.id used Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) to enable the trust and identity layer of Gaia-X - the European data infrastructure.
About deltaDAO
deltaDAO AG is the first Ocean Protocol engineering, integration and consulting company founded by Ocean Protocol community members. Their mission is to kickstart the European Data Economy. Active in several Gaia-X working groups and initiatives, deltaDAO is a co-organiser of the Gaia-X Hackathons and responsible for the “Compute-to-Data and Distributed Ledger Technology” tracks. As Web 3.0 specialists and integrators, they build towards a Minimal Viable Gaia-X.
The Challenge.
deltaDAO is building solutions for the new European data economy by combining new technologies like Compute-to-Data, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), smart contracts and decentralized applications with evolving standards for the European data infrastructure that is Gaia-X.
As one of the leading integrators of Ocean Protocol and contributor to the Gaia-X community, deltaDAO’s goal was to build the first demonstrator for a European data infrastructure that utilizes both new paradigms: Compute-to-Data and decentralization.
The underlying idea was to build a platform that enables businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Europe to collaborate and facilitate data-driven business and research by allowing them to find, publish, combine and consume data service offerings in a secure and privacy-preserving manner (via the Gaia-X test network).
One of the biggest challenges was to bring identity and trust services, compliant with eIDAS and ESSIF (see Gaia-X Federation Services) to the network, as well as to enable so-called Gaia-X Labels (see Gaia-X Labelling Framework). This is relevant for a number of use cases and core services of Gaia-X, such as:
To bridge today’s trust gap, participants use Gaia-X federation services to build up tailored services that authenticate and authorise participants in a federation, e.g. via credential validation and the use of SSI.
Identity and Trust based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) enables Gaia-X Participants to keep control over their digital identities. Individuals and organisations can use their digital identities to securely and seamlessly sign up for services (onboarding, identity proofing), access services (authentication, access) and provide any other relevant information about themselves in a privacy-respecting fashion (risk and compliance assessments).
In addition, legacy platforms with centralised architectures should not be used to prevent known issues (e.g. lock-in, dependency, complexity, privacy, bad user experience, …).
SSI is at the very core of Gaia-X and as it quickly became clear that this new technology is the perfect identity infrastructure for a new European data economy and well in line with the vision and strategy of Gaia-X and Ocean Protocol. (see Gaia-X Vision and Strategy)
The Solution.
Considering the complexity of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), deltaDAO screened the market for vendors that could help them to get started. The following criteria where central for vendor and technology selection:
open-source, Apache 2.0 License, no lock-in effects
eIDAS, ESSIF and GDPR-compliance
full-stack solution for issuance, verification and storage
access to an experienced developer team and high quality documentation
strong understanding of decentralized infrastructures and privacy
These requirements have been met by walt.id and deltaDAO chose to work with walt.id and their open source product portfolio, which should serve as identity infrastructure for deltaDAO’s (decentralized) Minimal Viable Gaia-X (see Minimal Viable Gaia-X).
The Results.
The first major milestone was the shipping of the Minimal Viable Gaia-X (MVG) Demonstrator which uses walt.id’s SSI Kit and Wallet to solve various identity-related challenges such as to onboard and authenticate verified data sources and publishers as members of Gaia-X.
Screenshot of the Gaia-X demonstrator platform after a user logged in with their wallet.
Screenshot of a data publisher’s profile showing a status as “Verified Publisher”. This badge is displayed only after a publisher goes through a verification process on which basis re-usable digital credentials (Verifiable Credentials; incl. “Verified Publisher”) are being issued.
Supported by the OceanDAO, walt.id set up a managed cloud service dedicated specifically for deltaDAO. This way deltaDAO did not need to deploy or maintain their own instance of walt.id’s products, but could simply use them via high-level interfaces (APIs). In addition, walt.id extended their products with new features aligned with deltaDAO’s individual requirements.
All of this allowed deltaDAO to focus their resources on the development of the Minimal Viable Gaia-X as the identity layer was almost completely abstracted by walt.id.
As a result, deltaDAO was able to integrate the first iteration of the Gaia-X Trust & Identity Service within the Minimal Viable Gaia-X infrastructure within just a few weeks and to onboard members of the Gaia-X community to these services, which has not been possible before.
During the second Gaia-X Hackathon the SSI Kit, provided by walt.id has been used by several participants and the first Gaia-X credentials have been issued, anchored and verified. On top of that, walt.id's experts coached deltaDAO’s team along the way and helped them understand SSI, its underlying technologies and its impact on decentralised applications.
Finally, the project turned into a long-term partnership in which deltaDAO is contributing to walt.id’s open source libraries with their extensive knowledge about the Ocean Protocol and Gaia-X while walt.id contributes to the realisation of Gaia-X compliant Trust & Identity services with the SSI Kit.
" A great product and a great team. We use walt.id’s SSI Kit and it has been a great stride forward to enabling the Trust & Identity layer of Gaia-X, the European Data Infrastructure. We very much look forward to continuing the development towards European identity standards in the data economy. "
Kai Meinke
Member of the Board
deltaDAO AG
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About the companies.
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Walt.id develops Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) solutions for businesses and governments across industries.
Developers and organisations rely on our open source products as an easy and fast way to use Self-Sovereign Identity - including Europe’s new digital identity ecosystem based on the EU Blockchain and the EU SSI Framework (ESSIF).
To ensure client’s success, our industry-leading experts provide holistic services including from conception over the implementation of pilots and production system to enterprise support and managed cloud services.
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deltaDAO AG is the first Ocean Protocol engineering, integration and consulting company founded by Ocean Protocol community members.
Our mission is to kickstart the European Data Economy. Active in several Gaia-X working groups and initiatives, deltaDAO is a co-organizer of the Gaia-X Hackathons and responsible for the “Compute-to-Data and Distributed Ledger Technology” tracks.
As Web 3.0 specialists and integrators, we build towards a Minimal Viable Gaia-X.
deltaDAO – data economy solutions. GDPR compliant.
Visit us at https://www.delta-dao.com or contact us via contact@delta-dao.com