Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 18 November 2021.
The NGI eSSIF-Lab program has selected Bloqzone’s project “Adding SSI to Internet Communications” as part of its third infrastructure-oriented open call. The project, SSIComms for short, allows users to communicate and identify each other effortlessly over the internet. SSiComms combines SSI (self-Sovereign Identity) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), adding an SSI wallet to the SYLK Suite.
Communicating and sharing information over the internet is easy and almost free. But not knowing for sure who is “at the other end” prevents people and businesses from using realtime communication applications to their full potential. Fear of phishing, hacking and identity abuse often leads to added cumbersome safety and identification procedures. The end user experience is poor, the identification procedure too complicated and often the leaves the “business” unfinished.
Mixing two protocols
Dedicated to identified communications, Dutch startup and initiator of SSIComms Bloqzone (bloqzone.com) has built several solutions to this problem in the past using standard communications and identity protocols as well as solutions.
With SSIComms, Bloqzone follows a new and much more drastic approach by extending and mixing the two protocols. This allows for all functionalities to be merged into one application, resulting in an optimal user experience.
The project is modular and will also provide a solution to the SSI use-case where holder and verifier both check each others credentials.
The SSIComms project
The project SSIComms adds SSI to internet communications by adding SSI wallets to SIP based SYLK Suite, an ensemble of communications solutions. In terms of protocols, SSIComms connects the open standard SIP on the internet communications side to the open standard DIDComm messaging on the SSI side. This enables users to respond to presentation requests for credentials according to SSI principles during internet communications sessions.
SSIComms differs from existing applications in that it focuses on peer2peer internet communications sessions, where DIDComm by itself does not suffice to add an identity layer.
The use cases include:
The resulting source code will be available open source and shall offer developers the opportunity to integrate their own wallets with the enhanced Sylk Suite react native client.
Project funding This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme within the ESSIF-Lab Project funded under grant agreement No 871932.
Project runtime: January – August 2022.
Project lead: Alexander Blom alexander.blom(at)bloqzone.com
SSIComms adds SSI to internet communications by using the open standard SIP on the internet communications side and the open standard DIDComm messaging on the SSI side.
SIP: The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating real-time sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications
SSI: Self-Sovereign Identity is an approach to digital identity that gives individuals control of their digital identities
DIDComm messaging aims to provide a secure, private communication methodology built atop the decentralized design of DIDs.
About SYLK Suite
Sylk Suite allows the creation and delivery of rich multimedia applications accessed by SIP Clients, XMPP endpoints and WebRTC applications.
SYLK server
About Bloqzone
Bloqzone merges identity concepts with a variety of secure communications protocols, see ID-Call.
The company is 100% owned by co-founders Alexander Blom and Line Kofoed, both with 20+ years experience in telecommunications and 5 years development in SSI. Bloqzone is a Sovrin steward and a staunch supporter of blockchain based identity frameworks.
Bloqzone
Stationsplein 45, A4.004
3013 AK Rotterdam
The Netherlands
