The Digital Chamber
1667 K Street NW, Suite 640
Washington, DC 20006
Recognizing the importance of furthering data privacy and user control in digital identity solutions, The Digital Chamber (TDC) has reviewed and submitted comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) during its recent public comment period for its updated publication on digital identity. This latest draft, Special Publication 800-63-4, is the most recent update to this document, which has increasingly addressed decentralized identity as a topic in this draft and the previous version of the guidelines. We applaud NIST’s inclusion of decentralized identity philosophies, including what is known in the digital assets space as account abstraction, zero-knowledge proofs, and trusted pseudonymous interactions.
What is the NIST Digital Identity Guidelines Publication?
NIST’s digital identity guidelines document serves as standards and requirements for federal agencies that leverage digital identity technologies. Federal agencies must legally follow these specifications for any digital identity systems they use, whether built in-house or purchased from a private sector provider. Since many federal agencies in fact purchase these solutions from the private sector, this publication serves as de facto product requirements for private sector identity providers.
Why does this matter to the digital assets space?
Since people are the end users of identity products and often move across borders, international standards bodies like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) have aligned their standards closely with those of NIST, and vice versa. Web3 identity companies are increasingly building decentralized identity solutions that adhere to these shared specifications and actively contributing to discussions about future standards. Concepts well known to the digital assets space have increasingly gained visibility and support in these standards bodies, and this publication from NIST is the latest example.
“We commend NIST for placing privacy, user consent, data minimization, and account abstraction—all concepts enthusiastically supported by the digital assets space—as requirements in this latest version of the Digital Identity Guidelines,” says Jonathan Rufrano, Policy Director at The Digital Chamber. “Having contributed comments to the previous version of this publication, it is inspiring to see the NIST digital identity team of experts increasingly include industry feedback and recognize the critical importance of preserving privacy and user control over their digital lives. We hope to see comments from TDC included in the final version of this publication.”