Welcome to the Bedrock Consortium and Bedrock Business Utility (BBU) website and hub for collaboration.
The BBU is an independent and self-governed public identity utility that provides a permissioned infrastructure to foster the adoption of decentralized identity. It is the first network of its kind hosted by the Linux Foundation and is expected to deliver the infrastructure and governance necessary for a dedicated and trusted public utility based on open and decentralized identity technology.
Decentralized identity puts users in possession and control of their trusted, verifiable identity attributes so that they may selectively disclose personal information without relying on other parties to intermediate. With decentralized identity there is no centralized certification authority; instead, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is used to maintain the keys of stakeholders who are trusted to issue Verifiable Credentials (standards-based, cryptographically signed data).
As the digital trust marketplace continues to evolve, businesses will require a reliable safe-zone to begin their digital journey. Since the convening of a new independent decentralized public identity utility is time consuming and challenging, participation in existing utility projects like the BBU eliminates the need for individual organizations to “grow their own” – reducing cost and complexity while improving speed to market when implementing a solution.
The BBU joins Sovrin and IDUnion as the first three public identity utilities that will support the ToIP Saturn-V TIP. These utilities intended to reliably serve the verifiability of both physical and online digital identity interactions. More than 10 companies are already formally contributing to building the BBU and we expect more in the coming weeks and months.
The BBU will deploy a governance framework that will leverage the Hyperledger Aries and Hyperledger Indy projects to integrate and drive frictionless, trustworthy transactions online. The BBU will be an exemplar of a Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation and Layer 1 Public Identity Utility. Its governance framework will initially address goals including:
- Enforce permissioned-writes with contractual instruments that will conform to privacy regulations such as GDPR
- Maintain financial sustainability of the consortium members without the use of cryptographic tokens
- Establish a governing board so that no single organization owns the Public Identity Utility
Becoming a member of this network affords businesses a low cost option to access a trusted, decentralized ledger that enforces privacy regulation, a sustainable financial model, collective ownership and adherence to open standards and protocols as well as access to a wide range of ecosystem partners.
- Read access to the Bedrock Business Utility is open to all types of entities.
- Write access is limited to members in good standing within the Bedrock Consortium.
As contributors to the infrastructure of a public identity utility, BBU members are entitled to unlimited or limited write access rights depending on membership level. Technical and project formation work is currently underway and we invite you to contribute. For more information about how to onboard your team, please contact our onboarding team at operations@bedrockconsortium.org.