New Technologies for Gaia-X: Consortium Announces Project Start
The open source companies Vereign and DAASI International will lay the cornerstone for the use of state-of-the-art SSI technology in the Gaia-X sub-project GXFS.
Gaia-x seeks to create an infrastructure ecosystem according to European standards. The goal is to make the big data industries less dependent on American major corporations, and thus strengthen the digital sovereignty of European users. In order to advance this endeavour, different initiatives within Gaia-X have published tenders for the necessary technology; one of these tenders was published by the eco association for the Gaia-X Federation Services (GXFS)
As a result, DAASI International started a bidding consortium together with the Swiss software visionaries of Vereign AG. As soon as February the three projects for the consortium are set to launch: basic code for a personal credential manager, an organisational credential manager, and a trust services API.
The Project
Once the milestones have been defined in cooperation with the Gaia-X management, development will already begin. Within the ambitious time frame of only six months the basic codes are expected to be available to the community. Any progress made in these projects will also be publicly available in a GitLab. Moreover, it is strongly encouraged for the community to engage and contribute already during the development phase. Once the projects are concluded the codes will remain in the already mentioned GitLab and be officially handed back over to the Gaia-X community.
The SSI Technology
For the realisation of the three projects, Self-Sovereign Identity will be a quintessential technology. A decentralised identity is supposed to allow users more self-determination in regards to identity data by putting the user in charge of the storage and transfer of their data. The data is only stored in a so-called wallet which belongs to the user. The wallet also contains digital keys for the authentication with services – making individual profiles for each service obsolete. State-of-the-art Blockchain technology ensures the reliability of the used data. Vereign AG, the head of the consortium, has been working with and on this technology for quite a while already. DAASI International will lend their expertise in the development of innovative open source software, as well as in classic identity management authentication technologies, and help with the development and overall realisation of the project.
About Vereign
„Verified & Sovereign – Vereign“ – the name reflects the philosophy of Vereign AG, which was founded in Zug in 2017. The Swiss company is among the most innovative start-ups in recent years and was nominated for an audience award in 2019 at the Digital Economy Award of the industry association swissICT.
Besides self-sovereign identity solution Vereign offers verifiable proof security and trustworthiness for emails and documents using innovative Blockchain technology. Everything is designed based on the principle Privacy-by-Design, and, of course, open source. For more information: www.vereign.com
About DAASI International
DAASI International is an expert in (federated) identity and access management, using open source technology exclusively. Since it was founded in 2000, the IT service provider from Tübingen, Germany deals with identity management, access control and directory service technologies for universities, public authorities and companies. Additionally, DAASI International is actively involved in the field of digital humanities and participates in national and international research projects, including the digital research infrastructure DARIAH-DE. DAASI International’s range of services covers consulting, support, hosting, and software development, as well as various trainings.