Microsoft Deploys V1 of Decentralized Identity Platform ‘ION’ on Bitcoin Network

Microsoft has deployed the v1 of its decentralized identity platform “ION” on top of the Bitcoin Network.

Four years in the making, the first pre-release of ION was made in 2019, with an initial beta release last June. Finally, a “significant milestone” has been achieved. But Daniel Buchner, Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), Microsoft says, they are still in the early phases of this journey.

“We have a lot left to do before we can fully realize a better, more trustworthy, more decentralized Web that empowers every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

ION basically provides “decentralized identifiers” or “DIDs” that include usernames, email addresses, or anything online that aren't owned or controlled by anyone but the entity itself.

According to the release, DIDs are identifiers used to secure access to resources, sign and verify credentials, and facilitate application data exchange.

ION, an open, permissionless system, doesn’t rely on centralized entities, trusted validators, or special protocol tokens. Anyone can run an ION node, “the more nodes in operation, the stronger the network becomes.”

Casa, Gemini, BitPay, Consensys, Spruce, Cloudflare, Transmute (Element), SecureKey (Orb), Mattr, Workday, Protocol Labs (IPFS), and NCR were the contributors to the project.

Now that the company has created a public DID implementation that runs at a massive scale, thousands of operations per second, while maintaining decentralization and security, it will start working on its adoption.

“Our goal is to put individuals, organizations, and other entities at the center of the apps, services, and digital exchanges that increasingly play a pivotal role in our lives.”