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Digital Identity
Definition #1
Digital Identity is an online or networked identity adopted or claimed in cyberspace by an individual, organization, or electronic device.
Source: https://hackernoon.com/blockchain-dictionary-f4d098c9ef89
Definition #2
Digital Identity, also known as Identity, is what binds an entity (or a Person) to his or her reputation, and reputation is what earns that person trust within the community, which in turn facilitates or inhibits that individual’s actions depending on his or her level of trust.
The cycle of identification does not end. As we conduct more actions, the volume of our Reputation System data increases and our trust level is continually adjusted through the judgment of the prevailing social, moral, and legal codes.
It can be argued that the role of identity has not changed since the beginning of civilization. Humans use identification to determine in which type of interactions to engage with other people. More specifically, we use identity to facilitate the actions of those we know and trust, and to protect us from those we do not trust or from those we do not know.
This same Reputation System is used with IoT devices as with other Entities
You will not find a simple, single definition on Identity or Digital Identity. Here are some that we have run across that we think are best:
- Digital Identity is a set of attributes related to an Entity. ISO 29115
- Digital Identity is a representation of a set of Claims made by one Party about itself or another Entity.
- Identity is how we keep track of people and things and, in turn, how they keep track of us.
Digital Identity implies that Identification (i.e. that the Entity has been separated from the Anonymity Set) has been performed, and the Digital Identity is NOT Anonymous.
Digital Identity has one or more Identifiers which MAY be referred to as Identity Attributes
Interestingly, we tend to call these devices until a Digital Identity Authenticates and then THAT SAME Device is now considered a “Person”. Reality is you will never find a Person on the network or ever seen a Person that has a MAC Address.
