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# #RevisitingSSI

## Table of Contents

- [Overview](#overview)
- [Phase 1 Kickoff Meetings](#phase-1-kickoff-meetings)
- [Meeting Structure](#meeting-structure)
- [Infrastructure & Accessibility](#infrastructure--accessibility)
- [Phase 1 Timeline & Milestones](#phase-1-timeline--milestones)
- [Looking Ahead: Multi-Phase Structure & April Anniversary](#looking-ahead-multi-phase-structure--april-anniversary)
- [Phase 1 Topics](#phase-1-topics)
- [Who Are We?](#who-are-we)
- [Participation Expectations](#participation-expectations)
- [Who Should Participate?](#who-should-participate)
- [Who Is Christopher Allen?](#who-is-christopher-allen)
- [Recommended Reading](#recommended-reading)
- [Open Outputs & Licensing](#open-outputs--licensing)
- [Authorship & Attribution](#authorship--attribution)
- [Initial Code of Conduct](#initial-code-of-conduct)
- [Working Circles: Purpose & Expectations](#working-circles-purpose--expectations)
- [Lens Exploration Briefs — Instructions for Working Circles](#lens-exploration-briefs--instructions-for-working-circles)
- [Lens Exploration Brief - Requirements & Scope](#lens-exploration-brief---requirements--scope)
- [Example Lens Exploration Brief](#example-lens-exploration-brief)
- [Supporting the Host & Sustaining the #RevisitingSSI Workshops](#supporting-the-host--sustaining-the-revisitingssi-workshops)

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## Overview

Welcome to the **Revisiting Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) Principles** series of online workshops.

This initiative marks the ten-year anniversary of the original SSI principles in 2016. In the decade since their publication, SSI has evolved from a provocative idea into infrastructure deployed by governments, companies, communities, and open protocols. At the same time, the sociotechnical environment around identity has been transformed by new technologies and new platform models that challenge the assumptions of 2016.

The moment is right for us to ask:

* **What has worked?**
* **What has drifted?**
* **What harms or risks have emerged?**
* **And what must evolve for SSI’s next decade?**

This project is a **multi-phase, 1-year-long effort** to reassess, update, and strengthen the [Ten Principles of SSI](https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity/#ten-principles-of-self-sovereign-identity).

Our goals in Phase 1 are to:

- **Map the problem space** through interdisciplinary perspectives
- **Surface emerging harms, risks, and tensions** in digital identity systems
- **Explore new lenses** that reveal blind spots or opportunities
- **Build shared understanding** across diverse backgrounds
- **Develop brief scoping papers** (which we call [Lens Exploration Briefs](#lens-exploration-briefs--instructions-for-working-circles)) that seed deeper research and technical work
- **Move toward rough consensus** on worthy insights about the principles
- **Inform** both an updated set of SSI principles *and* other high-level strategies for reducing societal harms from digital identity systems

We are **not** writing standards, specifications, protocols, or product designs at this stage. We are instead engaging in *high-level conceptual, ethical, and strategic inquiry*, the groundwork on which principled SSI work must rest.

### Phase 1 Kickoff Meetings

To accommodate global participation, Phase 1 begins with two Zoom kickoff meetings:

**Kickoff Meeting 1 — EU/US time compromise**
- **Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025**
- **10:00am PT / 7:00pm CET**

**Kickoff Meeting 2 — EU/Tokyo time compromise**
- **Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 (Tokyo local)**
- **3:00pm Tokyo / 7:00am CET / (10:00pm PT Monday for the host)**

Participants are encouraged to read the [**Recommended Reading**](#recommended-reading) listed below. These provide shared grounding in SSI's history, current debates, and the broader sociotechnical risks surrounding digital identity.

Zoom links will be shared **only** through the following channels:

- **Private Signal group:** https://signal.group/#CjQKIGvXAxLVq2z08-ckRWSlUIdRvX95lFh2APQaE0Oh_KFvEhB1R_7kkWDa9Oi3fh7R_I-a
- **Email announcement list:** https://www.blockchaincommons.com/subscribe/#ssi-tenth-anniversary

New participants must join one of these channels to receive meeting invitations. If you cannot attend either kickoff meeting, join the Signal group to connect with Working Circles forming after the meeting.

**Meeting Structure:**

Beyond the kickoff, we will hold regular community meetings throughout Phase 1:
- **Frequency**: Biweekly (every two weeks)
- **Tentative dates**: December 16th, January 6th, January 20th (times alternating between EU/US and EU/Tokyo to accommodate global participation)
- **Format**: Working sessions focused on cross-Circle dialogue, feedback on emerging briefs, and collaborative problem-solving
- **Duration**: 90 minutes

Final dates and Zoom links will be shared through Signal and email channels. Working Circles will also meet independently on schedules they determine.

Community meetings will use Zoom with accessibility features available on request. **Transcripts and video recordings** will be provided within a few days after each meeting for those who cannot attend synchronously or need to review discussions.

**Infrastructure & Accessibility:**

All participants will need a **GitHub account** (no git expertise required). GitHub will be used for discussions, issue tracking, and some collaborative activities. Working Circles may choose their preferred platforms for document collaboration.

**Phase 1 Timeline & Milestones:**

- **December 2nd, 2025**: Kickoff meetings and Working Circle formation
- **Week of December 16th**: Working Circles finalize focus and begin drafting
- **Week of January 6th, 2026**: Draft Lens Exploration Briefs submitted for peer feedback
- **Week of January 20th**: Revised briefs submitted
- **Week of January 27th**: Synthesis and identification of papers for development

We recognize the December 23 - January 1 holiday period; Working Circles should plan accordingly. Specific dates for community meetings will be communicated through Signal and email channels.

### Looking Ahead: Multi-Phase Structure & April Anniversary

This initiative unfolds across multiple phases, culminating in publication of revised SSI principles for the **ten-year anniversary** of the original principles (April 26th, 2016):

**Phase 1 (Dec 2025 - Jan 2026)**: Lens Exploration Briefs mapping the problem space and surfacing strategic directions

**Phase 2 (Feb - Mar 2026)**: Development of selected briefs into full papers; deeper research and cross-lens synthesis

**Phase 3 (Apr 2026)**: Drafting revised SSI principles informed by Phase 1-2 work; preparation for **April 28th, 2026 publication** (targeting CoinDesk and other venues)

**Ongoing (May - Dec 2026)**: Finalizing papers for peer review, conference presentations, and broader community engagement

Details about Phase 2 participation will be shared in late January based on Phase 1 outputs.

## Phase 1 Topics

In 2016, the original *Ten Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI)* provided a foundation for decentralized, privacy-respecting identity. A decade later, digital identity operates within a transformed landscape containing: AI inference, behavioral design, biometric systems, platform governance, global data markets, and widening social inequalities.

Meanwhile, SSI itself has grown in influence, but different interpretations and implementations have drifted in divergent directions. Some of these evolutions have advanced the original vision, while others raise new concerns or reflect misunderstandings of the foundational principles. Revisiting the principles now allows us to realign around shared values, to address gaps, and to anchor the next decade of SSI work in clear, human-centered commitments.

The primary goal of this initiative is to **revisit and refresh the SSI principles for 2026**, grounding them in contemporary sociotechnical realities.

At the same time, we welcome contributions that explore **high-level, strategic approaches for reducing the societal harms and risks created by digital identity systems**, whether SSI-based or not. These should remain conceptual, normative, and strategic (not specifications or protocol design).

**Outputs from these workshops are artifact-driven**: They may inform revised SSI principles, surface strategic solutions to identity harms, or both. Working Circles will develop these outputs into full papers and articles that provide guidance for policymakers, implementers, and advocates. Our goal is not conversation for its own sake, but concrete deliverables that influence how identity systems evolve.

## Who Are We?

This workshop brings together people committed to improving how digital identity systems serve human dignity, autonomy, and societal well-being, with our work informed by human-centric design, civic responsibility, and critical perspectives on technology.

We are here because the original SSI principles, while visionary, were shaped in a different era. The technologies, incentives, institutions, and harms surrounding digital identity have changed dramatically. Revisiting these principles now requires thoughtful inquiry, interdisciplinary dialogue, and a willingness to challenge assumptions across diverse backgrounds.

We represent a wide range of disciplines including technology, law, policy, design, social sciences, community work, and lived experience.
Some participants develop new architectures and open standards. Others work within institutions to evolve policy, governance, and practice. Many engage in both. In these workshops, these approaches are treated not as competing ideologies but as complementary ways of understanding and addressing complex societal challenges.

Though we come from many different places, we are united in the recognition that identity systems shape power, agency, and opportunity, and that their impacts reach far beyond technical implementation. We share a common North Star: human dignity over system efficiency, autonomy over control, and meaningful choice over hidden coercion.

This project is a space to think together, to learn from each other, and to help shape the intellectual foundations for the next chapter of SSI, whatever form it ultimately takes. It may generate refined principles, new conceptual frameworks, or strategic insights into societal risks, but its exact outcomes will arise through collective inquiry.

These workshops are intentionally structured for collaborative exploration rather than adversarial debate. Christopher Allen, as the initial host, facilitator, and academic referee, will help to guide the process, ensuring rigor and supporting constructive engagement. He will provide context from prior efforts while creating room for new perspectives to emerge.

## Participation Expectations

These workshops are structured around Working Circles: collaborative groups doing real intellectual work together. Participants are expected to join a Working Circle, engage in collaborative writing, and participate in dialogue at meetings.

**Time Commitment:**

Active participation in Phase 1 will require
- Attendance at initial meetings, then two to three 90-minute Working Circle break-outs, during which the Lens Exploration Brief for your Working Circle will be created.

This is a working commitment, not an observation commitment. Those who wish to follow without active contribution are welcome to join the announcement list and read outputs as they're released. Workshop meetings are working sessions for active contributors.

Phase 2 will require a greater time commitment for anyone interested in writing full papers based on our topics. We encourage this; we would like as much collaborative work as possible, to create new ideasl for self-sovereign identity that reflect a good cross-section of our community. But it is not a requirement: your active participation in Phase 1 only would represent a well-appreciated contribution of ideas and content!

See the [Recommended Reading](#recommended-reading), [Code of Conduct](#initial-code-of-conduct), and [Working Circles](#working-circles-purpose--expectations) sections below for details.

## Who Should Participate?

This initiative needs diverse perspectives working together. We explicitly seek participants from different disciplines, backgrounds, and roles—each bringing knowledge others cannot provide.

**Academic & Research Participants:** All outputs are designed as citable scholarly contributions with clear authorship. Briefs may be developed into full academic papers for peer-reviewed venues, and Christopher can facilitate connections to relevant conferences and journals.

Your participation ensures principles reflect current intellectual discourse while remaining accessible to practitioners and community voices.

**Developer & Builder Participants:** Your implementation experience grounds principles in reality. The strategic requirements emerging from this work are intended to inform future specifications and protocol designs across the SSI ecosystem.

If your Working Circle identifies directions worth prototyping, we can connect you to appropriate technical venues (W3C, DIF, IETF). Your knowledge ensures principles remain actionable, not just aspirational.

**Policy, Regulatory & Legal Participants:** You bring essential perspectives on feasibility, enforceability, and institutional adoption. Outputs are intended to inform policy development, regulatory frameworks, and institutional decision-making.

Your participation ensures principles remain grounded in democratic governance, public accountability, and rule of law—not just technical possibility.

**Advocacy, Community & Lived-Experience Participants:** You bring irreplaceable knowledge about how identity systems function in practice—especially for marginalized or excluded communities. This workshop explicitly values experiential knowledge alongside technical credentials and academic expertise.

Your participation ensures principles advance justice and genuine autonomy, not just innovation or institutional convenience.

**Early-Career Researchers & Students:** These workshops offer both learning and contribution opportunities. You bring fresh perspectives and often bridge gaps between academic and practice communities. Your participation can inform dissertation research, seed publications, or shape your scholarly trajectory.

## Who Is Christopher Allen?

Christopher Allen is an Internet trust architect, entrepreneur, and long-time advocate for human dignity and autonomy online. He co-authored the IETF **Transport Layer Security (TLS)** standard, helped shape early decentralized identity ecosystems, and authored the first articulation of the *Ten Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity* in 2016.

As the founder and moderator of the **Rebooting the Web of Trust** workshops and the Principal Architect at **Blockchain Commons**, Christopher has spent decades convening interdisciplinary communities to explore decentralized identity, human-centered digital wallets, governance models, rights-preserving infrastructure, and open research. His work consistently seeks to ensure that technology treats people as **peers rather than petitioners**, protects them from coercion, and expands their agency rather than extracting it.

## Recommended Reading

To help ensure a shared foundation for the #RevisitingSSI workshops, we recommend that participants read a small set of materials that provide essential context for SSI, its origins, and the conceptual questions we will be revisiting. These works offer background on the historical development of SSI, the principles that shaped its early design, and key debates around autonomy, agency, and digital identity.

**Estimated total reading time: ~90 minutes**

* _**The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity**_ (2016). [article]. _Allen, Christopher._ Life With Alacrity [blog], April 26, 2016, updated 2020. Retrieved 2025-11-12 from: <https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/the-path-to-self-soverereign-identity/>. _The foundational article that traces the pre-history of SSI and introduces the ten principles that define SSI and affirm individual authority._
* _**Musings of a Trust Architect: The Origins of Self-Sovereign Identity**_ (2023). [article]. _Allen, Christopher._ Life with Alacrity [blog]. Retrieved 2025-11-14 from: <https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/origins-SSI/>. _The philosophical and political roots of SSI, including its lineage from sovereignty, living systems, commons governance, feminist theory, and human rights frameworks._
* _**Principal Authority: A New Perspective on Self-Sovereign Identity**_ (2021). [article]. _Allen, Christopher._ Life With Alacrity [blog], 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2025-11-18 from: <https://www.lifewithalacrity.com/article/Principal-Authority/>. _How identity should not be framed as property, but as a domain of agency governed by fiduciary duty and inalienable rights._
* _**Five Mental Models of Identity**_ (2020). [white paper]. _Andrieu, Joe; George, Nathan; Hughes, Andrew; MacIntosh, Christophe; Rondelet, Antoine._ Rebooting the Web of Trust VII [workshop], published 2020-03-19. Retrieved 2025-11-18 from: <https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rwot7-toronto/blob/master/final-documents/mental-models.pdf>. _Five mental models whose confusion causes miscommunication in discourse about identity: space-time, presentation, attribute, relationship, capability. Understanding all five enables better stakeholder collaboration and comprehensive system design._

## Open Outputs & Licensing

This initiative is committed to openness and accessibility. All materials produced, including Lens Exploration Briefs, working papers, final documents, and code contributions, are released under open licenses:

- **Written works** (papers, briefs, syntheses): [CC-BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- **Code contributions**: Appropriate open source licenses (MIT, Apache 2.0, etc.)

This ensures the work remains in the commons, accessible to researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communities worldwide. It reflects our commitment to shared knowledge and collaborative advancement of SSI principles.

### Authorship & Attribution

Contributors to papers and briefs will be credited according to their level of participation, inspired by [AMA guidelines for determining authorship](https://www.google.com/books/edition/AMA_Manual_of_Style/Dy3JDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22All+authors+should+have+participated+sufficiently+in+the+work+to+take+public+responsibility%22&pg=PT205&printsec=frontcover) (see [Working Circles](#working-circles-purpose--expectations) for details on collaborative credit):

- **Authors**: Those who substantially contribute to conception, drafting, revision, and can take public responsibility for the work
- **Contributors**: Those who provide input, feedback, or support but at a lesser level of engagement

Working Circles determine authorship collectively, ensuring credit reflects actual contribution rather than organizational affiliation or seniority.

## Supporting the Host & Sustaining the #RevisitingSSI Workshops

For nearly three decades, Christopher Allen has helped steward community-run security and identity work, including open standards, human-centered research, and decentralized digital trust. This work has created lasting impact: the TLS standard securing internet communications, the original SSI principles shaping a global ecosystem, and the Rebooting the Web of Trust workshops that have produced dozens of papers and specifications.

The #RevisitingSSI workshops continue this tradition of independent, community-driven inquiry. Your support enables:

- **Rigorous facilitation**: Moderating nuanced conversations, guiding Working Circles, and synthesizing diverse insights into coherent principles
- **Scholarly stewardship**: Preparing materials, curating readings, and connecting outputs to academic and policy venues
- **Neutral governance**: Maintaining community-first independence without commercial or institutional capture
- **Sustained availability**: Providing ongoing support to Working Circles and participants throughout the year-long initiative
- **Strategic impact**: Shaping the next generation of SSI principles that will influence policymakers, implementers, and advocates worldwide

This is not a commercial program; the work is open, collaborative, and principles-driven. Sponsorship enables Christopher to dedicate focused attention to guiding this initiative with the rigor, continuity, and care it requires to achieve meaningful impact.

If you or your organization value this effort—its independence, its integrity, and its commitment to human dignity—please consider supporting it.

### Gold SSI Patron — $5,000

Gold SSI Patrons recognize the importance of shaping the next decade of SSI and wish to be publicly associated with this work.

Patrons receive:

- Inclusion on the SSI Patron Slide at meetings
- Logo on Blockchain Commons versions of papers
- Text-name acknowledgment in papers published elsewhere
- Invitation to all meetings
- One 15-minute presentation at one meeting (to inform a lens or working group paper)

👉 **Gold SSI Patrons:** Please contact Christopher directly.

### Individual Sponsorship

Individual supporters are welcome through **GitHub Sponsors**, either as a one-time gift or a recurring monthly contribution:

👉 **https://github.com/sponsors/ChristopherA**

## Initial Code of Conduct

Creating the future of human identity requires more than shared principles, it demands a culture of collaboration that embodies those principles. As we navigate different approaches to transformation, from building alternatives to reforming institutions, we need common ground for how we engage with each other.

This code isn't about enforcing uniformity or stifling debate. It's about maintaining a space where diverse tactics can be discussed productively, where vulnerability in admitting uncertainty is met with support rather than attack, and where the work can progress despite (and because of) our differences.

We explicitly reject communication styles that undermine collaborative work: the adversarial posturing common in tech, the dominance games of legal debate, the point-scoring that passes for discourse in too many spaces. These patterns of treating conversation as combat, using intelligence as a weapon, and mistaking aggression for rigor destroy the trust required for revolutionary work.

We've chosen minimal, trust-based norms over legalistic rules because we believe in treating each other as capable collaborators rather than problems to be managed. The following guidelines foster the conditions for real collaboration: where people can propose bold ideas without defensive armor, admit ignorance without losing face, and change their minds without shame.

### Respect

* Treat all members with dignity and respect, regardless of background, identity, or beliefs.
* Communicate with care. Styles that are aggressive, adversarial, or overly critical, even if common in some professional or cultural contexts, can undermine trust and collaboration here.
* Respect the privacy of others, both personal and digital.
* What's shared here stays here. Don't quote members elsewhere without permission. You may discuss ideas from the group, but keep them anonymous: members have different risk profiles, and careless attribution could cause real harm.

### Constructive Communication

* Be open to new ideas and willing to learn from each other.
* In moments of disagreement, aim to stay focused on shared goals and values. It's okay to "agree to disagree."
* Avoid inflammatory language, personal attacks, or behavior that disrupts the group's purpose.

### Inclusion

* Everyone should feel welcome to participate. Be mindful of different backgrounds and communication styles.
* Avoid unnecessary jargon or acronyms: clarity helps everyone stay on the same page.
* Practice balance in conversation: contribute without dominating.
* Let others speak and listen actively.

### Scope & Moderation

* Free expression is welcome, but it doesn't override group norms.
* If behavior in the group troubles you, you have options: address it directly with the person involved, bring it to the host privately, or if appropriate, raise it for group discussion.
* The host will consider concerns in context and aim to keep the group functional, not to run trials.
* Concerns are about public behavior in this space, not private conversations elsewhere.

## Working Circles: Purpose & Expectations

Working Circles are the vehicle for the early-phase work of #RevisitingSSI. Their Lens Exploration Briefs will help us map the problem space, build shared understanding, and seed the deeper work ahead.

A **Working Circle** is a small, self-organized group focused on a shared lens, theme, or concern. Its purpose is to explore, not to advocate, finalize, or specify.

Working Circles help us surface areas where the SSI ecosystem has become fragmented, misunderstood, or misaligned with its foundational goals, offering space to collaboratively clarify, refine, or redirect these trajectories at a principle level.

Working Circles should aim to be:

- **Interdisciplinary and inclusive**
- **Constructive and curious**
- **High-level and strategic**, not technical
- **Grounded in references or lived experience**

**Working Circle Composition:**

Effective Working Circles typically include 3-7 members bringing diverse perspectives. We encourage circles to include participants from different:
- Disciplines (technical, policy, advocacy, academic, etc.)
- Organizational backgrounds (to avoid groupthink)
- Geographic or cultural contexts (when possible)

Circles with 2 or fewer members may struggle with perspective diversity; circles with 8+ may benefit from splitting into focused sub-groups. The goal is rich dialogue without unwieldy coordination.

**Forming and Joining Working Circles:**

At the [December 2nd kickoff meetings](#phase-1-kickoff-meetings), we will:
1. **Surface initial topics and lenses** through open discussion
2. **Self-organize into circles** based on shared interests
3. **Exchange contact information** for coordination
4. **Establish meeting schedules** within each circle

Late joiners can connect with existing circles through the Signal group or propose new circles if they identify uncovered territory.

Each Circle will produce a short **Lens Exploration Brief** (1–3 pages) that:

- Defines a meaningful territory or lens
- Suggests **strategic, high-level directions or requirements**
- Helps other participants understand and engage with the topic
- Provides insight into how this lens may inform the 2026 SSI Principles
- and/or surfaces potential strategic solutions to societal harms, risks, or tensions of digital identity systems
- Identifies open questions the Circle is working through
- Poses questions that require dialogue beyond the Working Circle

**From Briefs to Papers:**

Lens Exploration Briefs are designed as initial scoping documents. Working Circles may choose to develop their briefs into full papers for broader publication. This requires:
- Limiting scope to what's achievable with available time
- Assigning specific sections or tasks to members
- Setting internal deadlines for drafts and revisions
- Maintaining momentum through regular check-ins
- Communicating openly about availability and capacity

Not all briefs will become full papers, and that's expected. A well-scoped brief that clearly articulates a lens and its implications is valuable even if not developed further. Incomplete work can inform future efforts or seed other projects. Those circles that do pursue full papers typically designate a lead author to coordinate final editing and publication after collaborative drafting is complete.

## Lens Exploration Briefs — Instructions for Working Circles

Each Working Circle will produce a **1–3 page** Lens Exploration Brief using the [template below](#lens-exploration-brief---requirements--scope).

### What These Briefs ARE:

- Exploratory and conceptual
- High-level frames or strategic orientations
- Contributions to revising the SSI principles
- Or contributions toward reducing societal harms of digital identity systems
- Useful for conversation and shared understanding

### What These Briefs ARE NOT:

- Protocols, specifications, or code
- Detailed product designs
- Advocacy positions for one ideology
- Complaint documents
- Academic surveys or exhaustive literature reviews

## Lens Exploration Brief - Requirements & Scope

Your **Lens Exploration Brief** should address the following:

### **1. A clear territory or lens**

Describe the area you want to explore and why it matters now.

This may relate to:
- updating or expanding SSI principles
- identifying systemic risks or harms
- proposing strategic, high-level approaches to reduce those harms

### **2. Why this lens matters for SSI**

Explain how your lens reveals blind spots, tensions, or emerging realities.

### **3. Key harms, risks, or questions**

List 3–6 high-level concerns, such as:
- interface manipulation
- inference/profiling harms
- structural inequality or dependency
- governance imbalance
- cognitive autonomy or mental integrity

### **4. Constructive directions, requirements, or mitigations**

Provide 3–6 **strategic**, **non-technical** pathways forward.
These may be values, rights, governance patterns, high-level requirements, or conceptual frameworks.

### **5. How this lens might inform the 2026 SSI Principles**

Describe how your lens might:
- refine or reinterpret existing principles
- add new commitments or constraints
- introduce new principle-level rights or responsibilities
- articulate guardrails for harmful practices

**Include an example draft principle (recommended).** See the [Example Lens Exploration Brief](#example-lens-exploration-brief) below for reference.

### **6. Selected resources (3–8)**

Provide links or citations.

### **7. Open Questions**

List 2–5 unresolved conceptual or strategic questions your Working Circle is grappling with.

These should be questions that arise within the scope of your lens—boundaries you're uncertain about, tensions you're working through, or areas where your Circle needs deeper exploration.

These questions help other participants understand what you're wrestling with and where your thinking is still evolving.

### **8. Questions for the Broader Community**

List 2–4 questions that require dialogue beyond your Working Circle.

These are questions your Circle feels cannot be adequately answered within your lens alone. They may involve:
- boundaries between different lenses
- questions requiring cross-Working Circle dialogue
- issues needing community-wide consensus
- tensions between different approaches or principles

These questions invite the broader community to engage with challenges that transcend individual lenses.

## Example Lens Exploration Brief

### **Lens Exploration Brief**

#### Coercion & Autonomy Working Circle

**Lens Title:**
**Anti-Coercion as a Foundational Orientation for SSI**

**Working Circle Members:**
*Example names*

#### **1. Territory / Focus Summary**

This lens explores coercion in digital identity. This is not only overt coercion, but subtle pressures and constraints created by interfaces, governance, inference systems, and structural conditions.

A central insight frames this work: **Privacy is the shield; coercion resistance is the goal.**

This lens supports both revisiting SSI principles and understanding high-level pathways to reduce sociotechnical harms.

#### **2. Why This Lens Matters for SSI**

Identity systems shape the conditions of human autonomy. Coercion arises within identity systems when people face limited alternatives, manipulative defaults, opaque governance, or inferences about their inner state.

SSI must now recognize coercion as **technical, behavioral, structural, and cognitive**, and treat coercion resistance as an **ongoing practice** rather than a one-time design claim.

#### **3. Key Harms, Risks, or Questions**

- Interface coercion (dark patterns, urgency prompts)
- Inference coercion (AI predicting mood, behavior, or identity)
- Structural coercion (dependency for services, exclusion, bureaucracy)
- Governance coercion (centralized trust registries or wallet providers)
- Cognitive coercion (erosion of mental privacy or psychological continuity)
- Key question: How might SSI protect intentional **illegibility**: the ability *not* to be categorized or predicted?

#### **4. Constructive Directions, Requirements, or Mitigations**

- Define **coercive design elements**
- Establish **non-coercive design norms** for SSI tools
- Require **transparent choice architectures** (defaults, incentives, trust anchors)
- Use **polycentric and contestable governance** to avoid gatekeeping
- Support **identity pluralism**, including non-binary and “none of the above” schemas
- Create **inference guardrails** limiting behavioral/emotional profiling
- Treat coercion resistance as a **continuous governance and audit responsibility**

#### **5. How This Lens Might Inform the 2026 SSI Principles**

- Redefine consent as ongoing, reversible, legible, and manipulation-resistant
- Incorporate **cognitive freedom** (mental privacy, integrity, continuity, self-determination)
- Set boundaries on inference-based pressure or profiling in identity interactions
- Require distributed, contestable governance to prevent authority consolidation
- Recognize a right to **illegibility** within SSI ecosystems

**Example Draft Principle**

**New Principle: Coercion Resistance**

> *SSI systems must be designed and governed to protect individuals from coercion in all its forms: technical, behavioral, structural, and cognitive. Identity interactions must avoid manipulative interfaces, coercive defaults, inference-based pressure, or dependency structures that restrict meaningful choice. Consent must be ongoing and reversible. SSI must foster environments where people can act and choose without hidden constraints or undue influence.*

**New Principle: Cognitive Freedom**

> *Digital identity must uphold cognitive liberty, including mental privacy, integrity, continuity, and self-determination. Individuals have the right to remain illegible where appropriate.*

#### **6. Selected Resources**

* _**Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor**_ (2018). [book]. _Eubanks, Virginia._ St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN: 978-1250074317. 260 pages. Author's website: <https://virginia-eubanks.com/automating-inequality/>. Publisher: <https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250074317/automatinginequality/>. Available from: <https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250074312/>.

> **BRIEF**: Automated social services create a "digital poorhouse" that profiles and punishes poor people via algorithmic surveillance and risk prediction.

> **SHORT ABSTRACT**: Eubanks examines how automated systems in social services create a "digital poorhouse" that profiles and punishes poor Americans. Through case studies of Indiana's automated welfare eligibility, Los Angeles' homeless services triage, and Allegheny County's child welfare risk scoring, she shows high-tech tools intensify historical patterns of discrimination through speed, scale, and an appearance of objectivity.

* _**Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code**_ (2019). [book]. _Benjamin, Ruha._ Polity Press. ISBN: 978-1509526406.

* _**The Coercion Problem in Digital Identity**_ (article). _Renieris, Elizabeth M._

* _**Towards New Human Rights in the Age of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology**_ (2017). [article]. _Ienca, Marcello & Andorno, Roberto._ Life Sciences, Society and Policy.

* _**The Age of Surveillance Capitalism**_ (2019). [book]. _Zuboff, Shoshana._ PublicAffairs. ISBN: 978-1610395694.

* _**Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed**_ (1998). [book]. _Scott, James C._ Yale University Press. ISBN: 978-0300078152.

* _**Dark Patterns**_ (research). _Brignull, Harry._ Available at: <https://www.deceptive.design/>

#### **7. Open Questions**

- Where are the ethical boundaries between acceptable constraint (rules, duties, social commitments) and unacceptable coercion (manipulation, dependency, psychological pressure)?
- How do we recognize when voluntary structure becomes exploitative, when choice becomes nominal, or when self-coercion reflects systemic design rather than true autonomy?
- How can we detect subtle or emergent coercive patterns in identity ecosystems?
- How can anti-coercion safeguards avoid becoming paternalistic?
- Can SSI principles or decisions explicitly support or encode cognitive liberty?

#### **8. Questions for the Broader Community**

- How do we distinguish legitimate *influence* from coercive *manipulation*?
- To what extent can SSI's anti-correlation protections constrain inference (e.g., conclusions deduced from psychographic, emotional, behavioral patterns), especially when inference can occur independently of SSI systems?
- Should **cognitive liberty** be its own lens to update SSI principles, or is a fundamental dimension of the coercion lens?