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Decentralized IDentifier (DID) is a globally unique persistent identifier that does not require a centralized registration authority and is often generated and/or registered cryptographically. The generic format of a DID is defined in § 3.1 DID Syntax. A specific DID scheme is defined in a DID method specification. Many—but not all—DID methods make use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) or some other form of decentralized network.

A DID is a simple text string consisting of three parts:

1. the did Uniform Resource Locator (URL) / Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme identifier (i.e., HTTP, HTTPS). See: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) https://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes/uri-schemes.xhtml
2. the identifier for the DID method
3. the DID method-specific identifier.

Figure 1: A simple example of a decentralized identifier (DID) (Derived from the W3C)

See:

• W3C: Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) 1.0
• RFC7595 - Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes

Source: https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/