August 28, 2019
Provo, UT, Aug. 28, 2019—The Sovrin Foundation, an international nonprofit that supports the governance of the global Sovrin Network, is pleased to welcome six new organizations into its diverse and continually expanding group of Sovrin Stewards. Axuall, Binaria, Covalent, Dyne.org Foundation, IdRamp, and Kobo.ID join more than 70 organizations that dedicate resources to the maintenance and operation of the Sovrin Network.
The Sovrin Network uses a hybrid distributed ledger as a fast, private, and secure framework to provide digital identity for all. This means that every person, organization, and connected device has access to a permanent digital identity with which to transact online and operate securely in everyday life. The Sovrin Stewards run the technology needed to validate transactions on the network, and are essential to its governance.
“It is wonderful to see the Sovrin Network expanding its global audience as the principles of self-sovereign identity are being accepted and increasingly demanded by governments, organizations, and individuals worldwide,” says Heather C. Dahl, Executive Director & CEO of the Sovrin Foundation. “Our six new Stewards are located in diverse countries all around the world, underscoring Sovrin’s global reach. We are excited to have their expertise in our community.”
Axuall is a digital network for verifying identity, credentials, and authenticity in real-time to address a multibillion-dollar need to eliminate waste, prevent fraud, manage risk, hire and deploy faster, and meet the demand for next-generation products and services in sectors with accuracy matters. Based in the United States, the company’s current focus is to address the inefficiencies that currently exist in the healthcare credentialing system by using the Sovrin Network.
“The outdated process of verifying assertions about identity and credentials represents a multi-billion-dollar problem for all types of organizations as they attempt to reduce unnecessary costs and scale their operations,” says Charlie Lougheed, CEO of Axuall. “We are excited to leverage and participate in the Sovrin Network as we develop and release new solutions to the market.”
Binaria, a business division of DocSolutions, is Sovrin’s first Steward in Mexico. The organization is focused solely on self-sovereign identity (SSI) solutions with the goal of building an SSI network in Mexico to give end users control over their identities and the possibility to use them in day-to-day transactions.
“As a business unit that emerged from the process automation industry, we can confirm that the only justifiable reason for outdated face-to-face bureaucratic procedures is the validation of an individual’s identity,” says Fredrik Nilsson Millán, CEO of Binaria. “In order to improve the lives of human beings in relation to those procedures, a self-sovereign reliable digital identity and network must be established, and being a Sovrin Steward is a cornerstone for reaching that goal in Mexico.”
Covalent, Sovrin’s first Steward from Costa Rica, builds tools and platforms for enterprises to develop a fully-featured blockchain ecosystem. The company plans to integrate Sovrin into its product suite to help end users easily manage their credentials and enable companies to effortlessly issue credentials.
“Covalent is committed to providing its customers and partners with top-notch tools to build robust, scalable, and responsible systems,” says Walter Montes Delgado, CEO of Covalent. “Identity is the glue that keeps most industries together, and a robust self-sovereign infrastructure, like the Sovrin Network, is one of the greatest public utilities for a brighter future. Because of this, we take our inclusion as Stewards with high responsibility and excitement.”
Dyne.org Foundation is a nonprofit research and development organization in Amsterdam that builds open source software for cryptography, authentication, and blockchain applications. Dyne.org is the technical coordinator of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 flagship project DECODE, that backed the development of Dyne.org’s crypto VM Zenroom.
“We are advocates of algorithmic sovereignty—digital identities and SSI are fundamental blocks in this space,” says Andrea D’Intino, Partner Manager at Dyne.org. “We’re thrilled to become a Sovrin Steward and to interact with the technology leaders in the SSI domain. This will help us push the development of our zero-knowledge proof crypto-technology beyond our current reach.”
IdRamp is a decentralized identity service. With IdRamp, you can easily add distributed ledger self-sovereign identity to any business strategy. IdRamp secures identity threat by eliminating the need for public facing network identity and access management systems. IdRamp is based in the United States and powered by the Sovrin Network.
“The Sovrin Network provides a quantum leap in the realization of commercially viable decentralized identity services,” says Mike Vesey, CEO of IdRamp. “With Sovrin, we can establish self-sovereign decentralized identity as this generation’s gold standard for identity security and user privacy. We are honored to be part of this groundbreaking community and excited to work with so many talented people focused on improving identity security.”
Kobo.ID is a cybersecurity software and social impact organization focused on revolutionizing digital identity and identification services for citizens in sub-Saharan Africa to help African citizens gain access to financial services, government services, and healthcare. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, Kobo.ID is building a decentralized blockchain platform for digital identity with a primary focus on healthcare, education, and financial services.
“The Sovrin Network community effectively gives Kobo.ID the ability to provide on-ramps to alleviate the last mile complexities with on-boarding citizens in sub-Saharan Africa,” says a Kobo.ID representative. “We believe this will provide a path to establishing self-sovereign identities, thereby facilitating access to basic needs like healthcare, education, and financial inclusion initiatives.”
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To learn more about becoming a Sovrin Steward, fill out the form at the bottom of https://sovrin.org/stewards/ for more information.
About 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 Network is an open source project operated by independent Stewards and uses the power of a distributed ledger to give every person, organization, and thing the ability to own and control their own permanent digital identity.
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