Editing Openai/692bdce6-1b24-8008-812d-d9e55bae0f2c (section)

==== ➕ New / Expanded Principles for SSI 2.0 ====

Based on developments over the past decade — from academic critiques, real-world SSI schemes, regulatory pressures, and evolving threat models — I propose adding the following principles to make SSI more robust, practical, and trustworthy in modern contexts.
# Accountability & Auditability While decentralization and user control are central, identity systems must also provide mechanisms for accountability — for misuse, fraud, or disputes. This may include revocation registries, audit logs, and cryptographic or institutional mechanisms that allow for tracking misuse without compromising user privacy. This balances user sovereignty with real-world responsibilities. For example, a recent SSI scheme augments privacy with joint accountability using threshold-based methods to prevent attacks while preserving user control. arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.04911|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Security & Resilience by Design SSI should rely on strong cryptographic foundations, resistance to key-compromise, replay or correlation attacks, and design for long-term resilience (including key recovery, revocation, migration, and backup). Academic surveys highlight that trust in SSI is still “complex and fragmented,” and robust security architecture is essential. arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.06729|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Privacy by Default & Contextual Confidentiality Beyond minimal disclosure, SSI systems should default to maximum privacy: user wallets, metadata protection, unlinkability across contexts, selective disclosure by default, and privacy-preserving authentication (e.g. zero-knowledge proofs, anonymous credentials). This becomes more critical especially with cross-platform and cross-jurisdiction use (e.g. in the context of the metaverse, or global Web3). arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.00422|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Usability & Accessibility SSI must be practical for real people — across digital-literacy levels, devices, geographies — and not just for technologists. Identity wallets and management tools should be easy to use, resilient to device loss, data corruption, or jurisdictional changes. Also, cost and usability barriers must be minimized so that SSI remains inclusive (“available to all”). This is especially important for global adoption (e.g. for refugees, under-served populations). Sovereign Cities<ref>{{cite web|title=Sovereign Cities|url=https://www.sovereigncities.org/p/identity|publisher=Sovereign Cities|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Governance & Community Stewardship Given SSI’s public-good dimensions (interoperability, privacy, security), there needs to be governance mechanisms — community, standard-bodies or decentralized governance — to steward protocols, resolve disputes, evolve standards, and ensure accountability. This ensures that identity systems remain aligned with human rights, collective interest, and social norms. Some proponents argue turning original principles into legally or socially codified “duties” rather than just “best practices.” Life with Alacrity<ref>{{cite web|title=Life with Alacrity|url=https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/Principal-Authority/|publisher=Life with Alacrity|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Compliance & Ethical Legality SSI systems should respect applicable laws, human rights, data-protection regulations (e.g. privacy laws, nondiscrimination), and ethical norms — especially when deployed globally across jurisdictions. This principle helps bridge SSI with regulatory realities (e.g. GDPR) while preserving user sovereignty. Indeed, recent literature critiques SSI schemes on GDPR compliance. arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03624|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2025-12-03}}</ref>
# Recoverability & Continuity (Key/Access Loss Handling) Real people lose devices, forget credentials, or face emergencies. SSI must support mechanisms for recovery, transfer, or delegation — e.g. social recovery, multi-party escrow, recovery tokens — so that a user’s identity does not become irretrievably lost. This ensures persistence doesn’t become fragility.
# Minimal Trust Assumptions (Decentralization of Trust) SSI should minimize reliance on central trusted parties; trust should be distributed, protocol-based, cryptographically verifiable, and avoid single points of failure (or control). This strengthens autonomy and reduces governance risk.
# Transparency of Governance & Policy (Beyond Implementation) Not just open code, but also open governance: decisions, upgrades, policies for revocation, dispute resolution, credential issuance — should be transparent, documented, and participatory (ideally community-driven).
# Inter-Community and Social Interoperability (Normalization of Claims & Contexts) Beyond technical interoperability, identity systems should support semantic and social interoperability: standard vocabularies, claim schemas, norms for credential issuance and verification, recognition across communities/jurisdictions. This avoids fragmentation even in decentralized ecosystems.