# DIF APAC Regional SIG (2024)

[](https://hackmd.io/udPQuNxUT--56dCdRUthIQ)

## :triangular_flag_on_post: April Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

Date: 25 April 2024
Time: 2 pm GMT+7 (Bangkok)
Place: Zoom

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor |5 mins
Digital Document Verification with Open Attestation|Barry Lim/Seth Low, GOVTECH SG|30 mins
The Next Generation of ToIP Diagrams. |John Phillips|20 mins
2024 Speaker line up |Catherine|2 mins

## :triangular_flag_on_post: March Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

Date: 28 March 2024
Time: 2 pm GMT+7 (Bangkok)
Place: Zoom

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor |5 mins
Identity Theft, the Growing Epidemic: The time has come for a new treatment|Joanne Knight-Identification Consultant-The Department of Internal Affairs- New Zealand|30 mins
The Next Generation of ToIP Diagrams. |John Phillips|20 mins
2024 Speaker line up |Catherine|5 mins

Attendees
1. Catherine Nabbala
2. Victor R. Ocampo
3. Sankarshan
4. Seth
5. Michael Shea
6. Christina Tubb
7. Joanne Knight
9. Wint Hmone Thant
10. Jo
11. John Phillips
12. Aniket
13. Takumi Aoki
14. Barry
15. Carmen Lam
16. Hakim
17. Rapha

**Minutes**

**Identity Theft**
* 463 Identitfication standards
* 22 Idnetity standards
* Need to apply Identification Management to solve Identity Theft.
* Identity theft is not theft of information but it is about impersonation.
* More Info about Identity Management https://www.digital.govt.nz/standards-and-guidance/identification-management/

**Next Gen ToIP Diagram**: https://trustoverip.org/
To be discussed further in April.

**2024 Speaker Lineup**

| Topic| Speaker | Month |
| -------- | -------- | -------- |
| vLEI Ecosystem |Nuttawut Kongsuwan|February
Identity Theft, the Growing Epidemic|Joanne Knight|March
Open Attestation|Barry|April
Digital Identity in Japan|Takumi Aoki|May (TBC)
Verifiable Credentials standards & established use cases Singapore.|Raphael|June
Thai Health Pass & ETA|Chatchai|July
TBA|Christina|August
-|-|September
-|-|October
Myanmar's landscape of digital identification|Wint Hmone Thant and Andreas|November
Holiday|Holiday|December

## :triangular_flag_on_post: February Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

Date: 22 February 2024
Time: 2pm GMT+7 (Bangkok)
Place:Zoom

In this month's session, we will provide an overview of the emerging ecosystems of KERI and vLEI. KERI is a ledger-agnostic protocol for decentralized identity management that provides a more scalable alternative to blockchain-based identity systems. The verifiable legal entity identifier (vLEI) is a globally interoperable framework for decentralized organization identity. We will delve into the intricate details of what makes the KERI and vLEI ecosystems special and how they can potentially revolutionize organizational transactions worldwide.

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor R. Ocampo |5 mins
Overview of KERI and vLEI ecosystems|Nuttawut Kongsuwan, Innovation Manager, Finema Lab. Yanisa Sunanchaiyakarn, Associate Product Manager, Finema Lab|20 mins
Seamless Asia 2024 |Victor R. Ocampo|5 mins
DIF Updates| Catherine Nabbala|5 mins
TOIP Updates|Eric Drury|5mins

Attendees
1. Catherine Nabbala
2. Victor R. Ocampo
3. Sankarshan
4. Nuttawut Kongsuwan
5. Michael Shea
6. Yanisa Sunanchaiyakarn
7. Joanne Knight
8. Andreas Sigurdsson
9. Wint Hmone Thant
10. Geun-Hyung Peter Kim
11. Aniket
12. Takumi

Links shared during the meeting
https://www.ldc.govt.nz/public-service-core-learning-hub/system-capability -Joanne Knight's Identification Essentials

Interesting work at ToIP. We saw the 2 column, 4 layer ToIP “stack” diagram. This is now being improved to better manage emerging concerns and also allow for additional need based contexts to come about. The Governance Stack Architecture work led by John Philips at Sezoo is doing this. The WIP diagram and design thinking is here - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aWdHX4BxGWwpaJPtw96Oeg5jknMF7-rXWHq3cUIly7Y/

There is also some good work to create the specification for Trust Registry Protocol which handles the “registry of registry” concepts. The TR Protocol TF along with the Trust Spanning work is focused on this.

Some of the other (interesting for me) TF work is the GenAI and Authenticity related work as well as the work around Attraction Passes (essentially Event passes) and the Travel and Hospitality work along with the DIF group

Trust Registry Task Force: https://wiki.trustoverip.org/display/HOME/Trust+Registry+Task+Force

Trust Spanning Protocol: https://wiki.trustoverip.org/display/HOME/Trust+Spanning+Protocol+Task+Force

Attraction Pass TF: https://wiki.trustoverip.org/display/HOME/Attraction+Pass+Task+Force

Recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/q8Qb34bHP9ZmDl-7rABa26fhqt-nrELvcbE7INWDC7zHuTguJ7FP_KC_34rfVzKNICc4G_ekAIiZxjK-.H78PQVzREx8jGeku?canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fus02web.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FDYGT9KvcgJLAEVJ30zyKFGuJiVJ3hpKq-OsIqFqWB3BKthQmfFZpEzOkkcaGgU0.18KD1_VDuswOEyi4

---

## :triangular_flag_on_post: November Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

Date: 23 November 2023
Time: 2pm GMT+7 (Bangkok)
Place:Zoom

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Catherine |5 mins
Identity Theft, the Growing Epidemic: The time has come for a new treatment|Joanne Knight-Identification Consultant-The Department of Internal Affairs- New Zealand|30 mins
Barriers to Decentralized Identity Adoption |Victor|10 mins

## :triangular_flag_on_post: October Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor |5 mins
Introduction to Verida.io|Nick Lothian-Head of Product|20 mins
ToIP Updates |Eric|10 mins
DIF & Regional Updates |Catherine|15 mins

**Attendees**:
1. Catherine Nabbala
2. Victor R. Ocampo
3. Eric Drury
4. Nick Lothian
5. Norrasaet Manourat
6. Yanisa Sunanchaiyakarn
7. Joanne Knight
8. Andreas Sigurdsson
9. Wint Hmone Thant

**DIF & Regional updates**
1. **DIF & ToIP Merger**: Final Stages.Plan to merge within the next Quarter.

3. **BBS+ Singatures becoming a standard at IETF**: If you are familiar with privacy-preserving concepts such as selective disclosure and unlinkability, perhaps you have heard of Zero-Knowledge Proofs, and the BBS+ Signatures work that was incubated at DIF, and is now becoming a standard at IETF.
A link to the demo: https://www.grotto-networking.com/BBSDemo/

3. **DIF is the new home for the Veramo project**, which has been donated to DIF by ConsenSys Mesh. Veramo, developed by VeramoLabs, a Mesh R&D team, is a modular framework for decentralized identity and verifiable data. It has garnered recognition for its capacity to facilitate secure and user-centric identity solutions. “This donation represents a significant milestone in our mission to advance decentralized identity standards and technologies. We believe that Veramo's capabilities will complement our existing projects and further accelerate the adoption of decentralized identity solutions worldwide." Clare Executive Director DIF.
More info: https://www.mesh.xyz/insights/the-veramo-project-donated-to-the-decentralized-identity-foundation
5. **DIF Hackathon** Oct 26 - Dec 1, 2023
Join our decentralized identity hackathon. Learn about the technology and build apps that shape the future of identity. **$21,000 in prizes**
Opening Session: October 26 · 11pm - October 27 · 12am GMT+07.
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decentralized-identity-foundation-dif-hackathon-tickets-727930769527?aff=oddtdtcreator

#### GET STARTED

To get started review the hackathon details and register here: https://difhackathon.devpost.com/

If you are new to decentralized identity review our resources page where you’ll find suggested developer tools and tutorials.

Head over to Discord and introduce yourself and let us know if you have any questions. If you are looking for teamates, you can find them on Devpost or in the Discord community.

Get hacking! Submissions open on October 26th and also check out our sponsor prize pool challenges.

5. **An Intro to Decentralized Identity**
This session will be featuring Brian Richter, founder of Aviary Tech and co-organizer of the did:hack hackathon. Brian is an active member of the DIF community and hackathon participant who offered to give those new to decentralized identity an overview of the concepts and some useful tools to get you started.
https://aviary.tech/
Event date: October 27, 11 pm GMT+7.
Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-intro-to-decentralized-identity-tickets-727986506237?aff=erelpanelorg

9. **Identity Week Asia**-Singapore. November 11 - 12, 2023. Victor Ocampo Co-Chair, APAC SIG DIF Speaker at Digital ID, Cloud, and Privacy Panel
Discount code: https://secure.terrapinn.com/V5/guest-of-speaker/10700/a0AN2000000zbM2MAI

11. **Bhutan National Digital Identity application** launched in Thimphu
Bhutan NDI is the first ever digital identity system based on the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) system.
Through the app, individuals can avail of 12 government-to-citizen (G2C) services including passport services, birth and death registration, and land taxes, among others. The Bhutan NDI has also links to Bank of Bhutan, Tashicell, and the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). It is an ongoing process of onboarding more agencies.
An NDI official said to make NDI a mega wallet, with which an individual can sign in using a cryptographic key —to digitally sign documents. NDI is also looking into digital currencies like NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
NDI is also working with Bhutan Telecom. Once the integration of Bhutan Telecom is complete, Bhutan Telecom can also issue mobile numbers as verified credentials as Tashicell.
More info: [https://kuenselonline.com/bhutan-national-digital-identity-application-launched-in-thimphu/](https://)

14. **Australia buries Digital Identity**
It appears that Australia has killed off “digital identity”. Australia’s proposed Digital ID legislation is actually not about digital identity — it’s about proving you have been identified. The term “digital identity” is no longer used in the draft Digital ID Bill 2023 (PDF) or explanatory materials.More info [https://lockstep.com.au/rip-trusted-digital-identity-but-whither-australias-tdif/](https://)
11. **Japanese-based Firms Liaise to Explore Decentralized Identity Innovation**
Together, MUFG, Anderson Mori and Tomotsune, Fujitsu, and a few other Japanese-based firms have begun to explore decentralized identities. These private firms have launched a Decentralized Identity (DID) and verifiable credential (VC) co-creation consortium (DVCC). Other members of the group are Hitachi, NTT Data, TOPPAN Digital, ITOCHU Tecno, and Hakuhodo Key.
The consortium is planning on jointly experimenting with several use cases including ensuring the interoperability of certain solutions that were developed by the participants. It is likely that they may choose to share infrastructure in the process. The DID project would also look at use cases in local economy like streamlining Know Your Customer (KYC) processes in finance, Metaverse where users would be able to come up with “genuine societies” etc.
Read more: [https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/652c0ed4ffdf061be6ae34ad/](https://)

12. **ToIP Glossary Workspace:**
ALL VIEWERS HAVE COMMENT PERMISSION. IF YOU WISH TO REQUEST EDIT PERMISSION, please email ToIP Concepts and Terminology Working Group Co-Chair [e-mail] to request permission. Be sure to share the email address you use to access Google docs.
Google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fZByfuSOwszDRkE7ARQLeElSYmVznoOyJK4sxRvJpyM/edit#heading=h.xq6siiu0ex25
Published list: https://trustoverip.github.io/toip/glossary

14. **Identification terminology- New Zealand**
[https://www.digital.govt.nz/standards-and-guidance/identification-management/identification-terminology/](https://)

[](https://hackmd.io/udPQuNxUT--56dCdRUthIQ)

## :triangular_flag_on_post: August Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

Date:24 August 2023
Time: 3pm GMT+8 (Singapore)
Place: Zoom
Number of participants:13

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor |5 mins
Bhutan NDI Project, an update|Jacques von Benecke https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquesvonbenecke/|55 mins

1. Bhutan NDI updat2
* Timeline
* Launched Feb 2023 with the Crown Prince receiving 1st Digital ID
* open to the general Bhutanese Public later in 2023
* Costs – Free to all Bhutanese Citizens
* Some highlights
* Edge Wallet using Fundational ID created by Bhutan gvernment
* Use cases presented (UPI, Digital Yatra, GSMI)
* Publicly available specs for interoperating with Bhutan not yet released
2. ToIP Updates Eric Drury Moved to next meeting (Sep 2023)

Links shared during the meeting

1. NATIONAL DIGITAL IDENTITY ACT OF BHUTAN 2023 -
https://www.nab.gov.bt/assets/uploads/docs/acts/2023/National_Digital_Identity_Act_of_Bhutan_2023F.pdf
2. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Product Overview - https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/product-overview
3. DIGI YATRA FOUNDATION - https://digiyatrafoundation.com/
4. Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI) - https://gbbcouncil.org/gsmi/

Attendees:
1. Catherine Nabbala
2. Victor R. Ocampo
3. Eric Drury
4. Paul Grehan
5. Jean F. Queralt
6. Joanne Knight
7. Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
8. Niranjan
9. Adi Bhagawan from Dhiway Networks, Bangalore
10. Neung Chatuporn from Finema
11. Bharat
12. Aniket
13. (Guest) Jacques von Benecke, CTO, Druk Holdings

For Next Meeting

1. Upcoming Events
a. The Internet Identity Workshop XXXVII FALL 2023 is coming up. There is a special discount for DIF-APAC members. Please reach out to Catherine for more information
b. Identity Week Asia. 7-8th Nov 2023
2. Research
a. Survey on Digital Sovereignty and Identity: From Digitization to Digitalization (2023-08-26) by Kheng Leong Tan, Chi-hung Chi, Kwok-yan Lam; Digital Trust Centre, Nanyang Technological University
The review covers existing SSI solutions and points out that an efficient key management system, the scalability and interoperability of the solution, and a well-established standard are some of the challenges for SSI deployment. Finally, the paper concludes with open issues about digital identity, including dynamic attributes, persona, and attribute ownership, that challenge the current reference architecture of SSI as well as its implementation.
https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/0d5b7851-d59a-49ce-a931-453935b2a09a?j=eyJ1IjoiZ3Y3dyJ9.9sUDEFJLVWQ2LYP4aoTcHgyH1_9YWya2Oc2nvpHK6uA

## :triangular_flag_on_post: July Meeting
This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Victor |5 mins
Reshaping the future of Decentralized Identity Management-Affinidi|Michael |20 mins
Updates: Regional Digital Identity Initiatives, DIF Hackathon & IIWXXXVII FALL 2023 |Catherine|15 mins

Are you ready to make a significant impact on the future of decentralised identity management? Calling all Developers! Affinidi is thrilled to invite you to join our exclusive beta trial and be at the forefront of shaping secure, user-centric software solutions.

At Affinidi, we are changing data ownership for good, by building capabilities that empower everyone to own, protect, and share universally-accepted data and digital assets. Come join us on July 27th to learn more about our Early Access Programme.

Attendees:
1. Catherine Nabbala
2. Victor R Ocampo
3. Paul Grehan
4. Joanne Knight
5. Sankarshan
6. Michael She
7. Michael Yih
8. Aniket
9. Ashish Tripathi
10. Adam Bradley
11. Carmen

Links shared during the meeting

Affinidi's Early Access Program launching on 3rd August: https://events.affinidi.com/eap

Recent work out of ToIP around harms and digital ID https://trustoverip.org/blog/2023/07/12/what-is-the-business-value-of-harms-countermeasures-in-digital-identity-systems/

There’s a recent white paper from OpenID Foundation which is available for comments until mid Aug https://openid.net/open-for-comment-human-centric-identity-a-primer-for-government-officials/

https://restofworld.org/2023/japan-my-number-card/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

Australia next year apparently ?!? https://ia.acs.org.au/content/ia/article/2023/national-digital-id-on-the-horizon.html?ref=newsletter&deliveryName=DM18788

Here is a recording of the last Digital Identity from Vienna with Jacques van Benecke https://vimeo.com/823723520

Identity Week Asia. 7-8th Nov: https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/identity-week-asia/index.stm

Internet Identity Week 20%: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/640919837487/?discount=DIF_XXXVII_20

Japan’s digital ID program is a complicated mess: https://restofworld.org/2023/japan-my-number-card/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feeds

## :triangular_flag_on_post: May Meeting

This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

## 💬 Agenda Items

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Sandeep |5mins
Intro to DCDR|Jean F. Queralt |40 mins
Updates from IIW & Upcoming Events/Regional Updates|Catherine | 10 mins

## :triangular_flag_on_post: April Meeting

This call is a collaborative effort between DIF and ToIP Communities and interested parties involved with Decentralized Identity in the Asia Pacific region

## 💬 Agenda Items

agenda items to discuss in this meeting.

| **Item** | **Presenter** | **Pass Time** |
|---------- |----------------- |-------------- |
| New Member Introductions | Eric |5mins
Recap of the APAC Digital Identity Unconference (https://www.apacdigitalid.org/en)|Ashish|10 mins
[e-Estonia](https://e-estonia.com/)'s Digital Transformation using [X-Road](https://x-road.global/) |Eric| 20 mins
Recap of the Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop (https://www.thoughtfulbiometrics.org/2023) |Eric|10mins
Upcoming Events/Regional Updates|Catherine|5 mins

### About [e-Estonia](https://e-estonia.com/) Digital Transformation and [X-Road](https://x-road.global/)

The [e-Estonia](https://e-estonia.com/) home page says it all:
>We have built a digital society and we can show you how

In our presentation we will briefly explore the [e-Estonia](https://e-estonia.com/) online resources and historical timeline. This sets the stage for addressing some of the misconceptions about the Estonian Digital Transformation - specifically in the areas of scalability, decentralization, privacy, and deployment maturity.

We will pay special attention to [X-Road](https://x-road.global/), a key driving force behind Estonia's Digital Transformation.

>X-Road supports various implementation models. Whether implementing a national, regional, or domain-specific data exchange solution, X-Road is scalable and adapts to the needs.
>
>To ensure secure data exchange, all outgoing data is digitally signed and encrypted, and all incoming data is authenticated and logged.
>
>The X-Road core is published under the MIT open source licence, and the source code is publicly available on GitHub. Support is available through X-Road Community and X-Road Technology Partners.

A particuarly useful started video on X-Road is:

{%youtube 9PaHinkJlvA %}

The architecture itself is well summarized on the [X-Road Architecture Page](https://x-road.global/architecture):


**Regional updates**

AyanWorks won “FIDO Developer Challenge 2022 - India: Go Passwordless with FIDO Authentication”https://ayanworks.medium.com/ayanworks-won-fido-developer-challenge-2022-india-go-passwordless-with-fido-authentication-79667f1ac34d

UIDAI, NPCI to set up eKYC aggregator, fin entities to gain
Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/99717229.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

#36 - Thinking Locally and Globally for Digital Wallets and Identification.
Link to the Event: https://www.meetup.com/digital-identity-from-vienna/events/292993136/ May 3, 12:00 AM to 1:30 AM ICT

## :heavy_check_mark: Meeting Summary

**Members present**
* Ashish Tripathi
* Eric Drury
* Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
* Ajay Jadhav
* Carmen Lam
* Catherine Nabbala
* Dasun Hegosa
* Michael Shea
* Sammotic Switchyarn
* Eric Welton
* Richard Tung
* Jo Spencer

Links shared during the meeting
* https://github.com/JanssenProject/jans
* https://agama-lab.gluu.org
* https://gluu.org
* https://www.apacdigitalid.org/en/content/past-events?iw_mailid=55fa9ee0-19d5-ed11-9f74-000d3a2dcd55&iw_scope=Event
* https://www.theiofoundation.org/
* https://docs.theiofoundation.org/the-io-foundation/v/data-centric-digital-rights/research/dcdr-principles
* https://docs.theiofoundation.org/the-io-foundation/v/data-centric-digital-rights/research/dcdr-principles
* https://www.mdes.go.th/law/download/1289

APAC Digital Identity Unconference. Book of Proceedings
:https://cdn-assets.inwink.com/5b73d46b-329d-44a2-a4b7-eb92bf54c4c1/e6c2bcca-c933-4663-86b8-42ed0fe05e6f

e-Estonia / X-Road
* https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/18LUO4q3D_3sZE1K2fSApRvNoIXSrfa-NYYQBXLB0yYY/edit#slide=id.p
* https://www.mdes.go.th/law/download/1289
* https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/02-Final-_-Report-Blockchain-for-digital-government.pdf
* https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2021-10/enabling-cross-border-data-flow-asean-and-beyond-report.pdf

Thoughtful Biometrics
* https://www.thoughtfulbiometrics.org/