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Decentralized Identity DID Standard Ratified: Digital Identity Unshackled from Platforms

W3C has officially released the DID 2.0 standard, enabling users to create platform-independent self-sovereign identities. The EU has incorporated it into the eIDAS 2.0 framework, with full rollout expected by 2028.

On December 12, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) officially released the Decentralized Identifier (DID) 2.0 standard. This standard allows users to create and manage fully self-sovereign digital identities that no longer depend on any platform or government agency.

DID's core mechanism anchors identity information on a blockchain or distributed ledger, with users controlling their identity credentials through private keys. Unlike traditional username-password systems, DID enables "selective disclosure" — for example, proving you are over 18 without revealing your exact date of birth.

The European Commission has announced that DID 2.0 will be incorporated into the eIDAS 2.0 electronic identity framework, with plans to provide all EU citizens with DID-based digital identity wallets by the end of 2028. This means 500 million EU citizens will have self-sovereign digital identities independent of Google, Apple, or any social platform.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented: "DID is the most critical piece of the Web3 puzzle. Without self-sovereign identity, the so-called decentralized internet is a castle in the air."

However, DID's large-scale adoption faces challenges. Key management has too high a barrier for ordinary users — once a private key is lost, the identity cannot be recovered. Additionally, the storage costs and performance of distributed ledgers are bottlenecks in actual deployment.

Currently, Microsoft's ION network, Ethereum's ERC-7527 standard, and China's BSN (Blockchain Service Network) are all building their own DID infrastructure.