China is actively pursuing its interest in blockchain technology, as 17 tech firms, banks and other state institutions collaborate on a digital identity project called DIDA(distributed digital identity industry alliance). The project which was launched on June 24 aims to enable individuals to complete and authenticate their documentation online via their smartphones.
Digital identity is one of the most important and far-reaching applications of blockchain technology. DIDA is led by China Banknote Blockchain Technology Research Institute. Other notable companies participating in this project are Feitian Integrity Technology Co., Ltd. (, Baidu, National Financial IC Card Security Testing Center, Hangzhou City Brain Co., Ltd., Bank of Hangzhou, JD.com, Tencent Cloud, Xita Technology, Xi'an Big Data and other state institutions.
At the inaugural meeting of DIDA, Cai Jiren, an expert in information and network security stated that the digitisation process would not be completed without a decentralised digital identity framework. He noted that the current identity framework would eventually be replaced with decentralised digital identities, to actualise the digitisation process fully.
The "DIDA White Paper" framework was also released at the meeting. According to the whitepaper, the mission of DIDA is "building a distributed digital identity infrastructure and creating a credible and open digital ecology", while the vision of DIDA is "connecting the digital world with mutual trust". It is reported that the final white paper will be officially released in the third quarter of this year.
China may be the biggest country that has taken notable steps in creating a decentralised digital identity framework, but they are certainly not the first. The City of Zug in Switzerland has also undertaken a pilot decentralised identity system, using uPort to create the world's first live implementation of decentralised digital identities.
Source: Cryptonews
