Aggregating Digital Identities through Bridging. An Integration of Open Authentication Protocols for Web3 Identifiers

TL;DR

This paper proposes a privacy-preserving digital identity bridge integrating Web2 and Web3 authentication protocols to reduce fragmentation and improve user experience, while discussing inherent limitations and trust issues.

Contribution

It introduces a novel digital identity bridge that connects Web2 and Web3 protocols, addressing interoperability and privacy concerns in decentralized digital identities.

Findings

The bridge can mitigate identity fragmentation across platforms.

It demonstrates improved user experience through identity aggregation.

The approach highlights limitations related to trust and centralisation in the bridging process.

Abstract

Web3's decentralised infrastructure has upended the standardised approach to digital identity established by protocols like OpenID Connect. Web2 and Web3 currently operate in silos, with Web2 leveraging selective disclosure JSON web tokens (SD-JWTs) and Web3 dApps being reliant on on-chain data and sometimes clinging to centralised system data. This fragmentation hinders user experience and the interconnectedness of the digital world. This paper explores the integration of Web3 within the OpenID Connect framework, scrutinising established authentication protocols for their adaptability to decentralised identities. The research examines the interplay between OpenID Connect and decentralised identity concepts, the limitations of existing protocols like OpenID Connect for verifiable credential issuance, OpenID Connect framework for verifiable presentations, and self-issued OpenID provider. As a result, a novel privacy-preserving digital identity bridge is proposed, which aims to answer the research question of whether authentication protocols should inherently support Web3 functionalities and the mechanisms for their integration. Through a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) use case, the findings indicate that a privacy-centric bridge can mitigate existing fragmentation by aggregating different identities to provide a better user experience. While the digital identity bridge demonstrates a possible approach to harmonise digital identity across platforms for their use in Web3, the bridging is unidirectional and limits root trust of credentials. The bridge's dependence on centralised systems may further fuel the debate on (de-)centralised identities.