{"id":18616,"date":"2020-06-10T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe65d00426c3"},"modified":"2025-01-27T20:26:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T20:26:34","slug":"ion-microsofts-decentralized-identity-system-launches-beta-on-bitcoin-mainnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/ion-microsofts-decentralized-identity-system-launches-beta-on-bitcoin-mainnet","title":{"rendered":"ION, Microsoft\u2019s Decentralized Identity System, Launches Beta On Bitcoin Mainnet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ION, a Microsoft-led decentralized identity system built on top of Bitcoin, has officially been moved to beta on Bitcoin\u2019s mainnet today. The news was shared in a release by Casa, a Bitcoin self-custody provider and project collaborator.<\/p>\n

First announced in May 2019, the Layer 2 network features its own node structure and is being built as an open-source project. As described to Bitcoin Magazine <\/em>then, the overarching vision for ION is to furnish users with a decentralized identifier (DID) that could replace the need for usernames.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis DID, like a private key when signing a transaction to the Bitcoin network, proves ownership,\u201d Colin Harper reported<\/a>. \u201cIndividual ION nodes on the secondary network will be responsible for keeping track of these DIDs and timestamping them onto the Bitcoin blockchain for reference and attestation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mainnet launch is the latest step in turning the concept into a reality and building a solution that is becoming all the more critical to those who want to protect their identities online.<\/p>\n

\u201cION is one of the foundational components of the next generation of trust online,\u201d the announcement reads. \u201cUsing the Bitcoin blockchain, ION will decentralize the way that messages and application data is encrypted and exchanged. Decentralizing identities brings enhanced security while also, for the first time, giving consumers the ability to own their identifiers such as user or login credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the mainnet beta, Microsoft, Casa and other project collaborators will be continuing their work to advance ION, focusing on a seamless user experience for creating and managing DIDs to help onboard new users.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnline identity has barely evolved since the early days of the web, with ordinary users still relying on username and password combinations which are easily forgotten and highly vulnerable to hacking or phishing,\u201d said Nick Neuman, the CEO of Casa, per the release. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to help ION take full advantage of technology like Bitcoin to vastly improve authentication, security and privacy on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February 2020, Daniel Buchner, ION\u2019s project lead at Microsoft, suggested that DIDs would be minted via an authenticator app comparable to Google Authenticator. 
\u201cWe have gotten some interest from folks who want to run the network,\u201d Buchner told Bitcoin Magazine<\/em><\/a>. \u201cYou could run it yourself \u2014 it\u2019s just Bitcoin plus IPFS and some processing. But to start, we will be driving credentials traffic through our servers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ION, a Microsoft-led decentralized identity system built on top of Bitcoin, has officially been moved to beta on Bitcoin\u2019s mainnet today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2705,"featured_media":17187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[453,2942,2220,3083],"class_list":["post-18616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-culture","tag-casa","tag-digital-identity","tag-ion","tag-microsoft"],"author_data":{"id":2705,"name":"Peter Chawaga","nicename":"peter-chawaga","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/peterc-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ion-microsofts-digital-ids-on-bitcoin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}