Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft: We're Developing Blockchain ID System Starting With Our Authenticator App (zdnet.com)
Microsoft has revealed its plans to use blockchain distributed-ledger technologies to securely store and manage digital identities, starting with an experiment using the Microsoft Authenticator app. From a report: Microsoft reckons the technology holds promise as a superior alternative to people granting consent to dozens of apps and services and having their identity data spread across multiple providers. It highlights that with the existing model people don't have control over their identity data and are left exposed to data breaches and identity theft. Instead, people could store, control and access their identity in an encrypted digital hub, Microsoft explained. To achieve this goal, Microsoft has for the past year been incubating ideas for using blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies to create new types of decentralized digital identities.
From TFA: "Microsoft reckons the technology holds promise as a superior alternative to people granting consent to dozens of apps [...]"
I believe the intend is more related to authorization (knowing the user has given or been granted access to X resource) than authentication (identifying the user) in this case. Instead of querying some local database or black box API, a public ledger is shared and can be queried by anyone.
Storing identity information in a blockchain seems to be the hype in many sectors ... I find it kind of scary. Who validates the new data that comes in? Does past records every get erased? If entries prove to be erroneous after a few weeks after being added to the chain, how easily can you fix the mistake? How fast and reliably can you update data (revoke access for instance)?
Also, I think most implementation of such blockhain protocols do not store data directly in the public ledger but simply store hashes to external data entries, for which it's not clear who has the ownership and if they are publicly available or not.
It's essentially Microsoft Passport 2.0, is it not?
Life is not for the lazy.