January 28, 2020
Provo, UT, Jan. 28, 2020—The Sovrin Foundation, an international nonprofit dedicated to building a global digital identity platform, is pleased to announce that Medici Ventures and Vibranium ID have been approved as the newest Stewards of the Sovrin Network.
The Sovrin Network enables people and organizations to take control of their data, privacy, and security online through self-sovereign identity (SSI), a decentralized system for digital identity using distributed ledger technology. This means it cannot be controlled by any third-party or central authority.
Sovrin Stewards donate time, resources, and computing power to maintain this network, while agreeing to abide by the principles of the network’s governance. Medici Ventures and Vibranium ID join 79 other organizations supporting the Sovrin Network and making it available to use on every continent except Antarctica.
“When reviewing Steward applications, the Sovrin Foundation looks to approve organizations that come from varying geographic locations, sizes, and industries in order to strengthen the network’s diversity and security,” says Heather C. Dahl, Executive Director & CEO of the Sovrin Foundation. “Both of our newest Stewards reflect that goal. Medici Ventures is the first blockchain accelerator to be a Sovrin Steward, and Vibranium ID is our first Steward located in Kenya. We are thankful for their support of the Sovrin Network in helping us bring self-sovereign identity to all.”
Medici Ventures is the wholly-owned blockchain accelerator of Overstock.com, Inc (NASDAQ:OSTK). The company focuses on advancing blockchain technology with ‘identity’ being one of its core areas of focus. In addition to being a Sovrin Steward, the company is a Sovrin Foundation Donor, supporting the mission of the Foundation through financial contribution.
“Medici Ventures is a proud Steward of the Sovrin Network, as we believe self-sovereign identity is the next killer app on blockchain,” says Joel Weight, COO of Medici Ventures. “We look forward to supporting the infrastructure of the Sovrin distributed ledger to promote the global adoption of self-sovereign identity, bringing digital identity to all.”
Vibranium ID provides portable identity for African based companies to enable management of entity identity credentials. As the first Sovrin Steward in Kenya, Vibranium ID plans to champion the adoption of SSI within Eastern and Central Africa and contribute to the effort of making SSI possible on low-end devices.
“Being a Sovrin Steward is an exciting step for Vibranium ID as we build practical SSI applications,” says Eddie Kago, CEO of Vibranium ID. “A reliable identity ledger network opens up multiple possibilities of applying decentralized identity to use cases specific to our users’ contexts. As the first Steward in Kenya, Vibranium ID continues championing the adoption of decentralized identity to enable entrepreneurs in East Africa and greater Africa to innovate in SSI. This is evident with Kweli, the first Pan-African SSI solution we built on the African Digital Asset Framework with support from leaders of the African Union and Binance X.”
To see the complete list of Sovrin Stewards and the rest of the Sovrin Foundation members, please visit https://sovrin.org/membership/.
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About the Sovrin Foundation
The Sovrin Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to administer the Governance Framework governing the Sovrin Network, a decentralized global public network enabling self-sovereign identity on the internet. The Sovrin Foundation is an independent organization that is responsible for ensuring the Sovrin identity system is public and globally accessible.
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