On October 30, the XRP Ledger's XLS-40 revision went live, bringing a new standard for Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). The change was made live yesterday after being approved by 28 out of 35 validators, or 85.71%.

With the following announcement: "The XRPL DID amendment goes live today!," Mayukha Vadari, a Senior Software Engineer at RippleX, made the announcement via X (previously Twitter). Investigating the inner workings of DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers) in web3 may be a bit of a mystery. Check out this XRPL tutorial on XLS-40 and DID!

New Decentralized Identifiers for the XRP Ledger
Distinct identifiers (DIDs) are not controlled by any one entity and are instead held by the users. "A DID is about like a fingerprint in the real world," Vadari added. Although it isn't very practical when used alone, everyone has one. For instance, it may link to data that proves your identity independently of a central authority, such as Verifiable Credentials (VCs).

In accordance with the standards set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), these IDs are intended to be "persistent, globally resolvable, cryptographically verifiable," and they should function with any network or distributed ledger.

Aanchal Malhotra and Vadari created the XLS-40 DID standard. "A DID is represented on-chain via a series of two-way links (bidirectional pointers)" she said in more detail, providing an overview of the technology. A user's on-chain DID object on the XRPL is linked to a DID document that the user generates. No one else can impersonate you since the DID document also makes reference to the on-chain DID object. That is to say, both the document and the account claim that the other is an integral component of their respective identities.

"Creates when and how?" was one of the questions customers asked when they wanted to know more about the mechanics. Vadari said, "DIDSet is the name of a new transaction." With the introduction of this new transaction type, users may now create and associate DIDs with XRPL accounts on the XRP Ledger.

"Ok, so what is preventing me from copying someone else's document and assigning that to my new DID identity?" a user asked in response to worries about possible identity fraud. "Their document won't point back to your identity, so it won't be valid," Vadari said. To avoid unauthorized duplication, the DID document and the on-chain DID object are bidirectionally linked, which guarantees the validity and integrity of the identity.

"What stops someone with multiple accounts from creating a DID for each of them, making that person a different person each time they use one of those accounts?" said BitCrypto, another user who has questions on handling multiple identities. If that's what you want to do, then that's just great with Vadari. Such as how your actual identity isn't necessarily associated with all of your social media profiles.

Information retrieved from xrpl.org indicates that the W3C has created a new kind of identification called a Decentralized identification (DID) that allows for verified digital identities. Unlike centralized registries, identity providers, or certificate authorities, DIDs are entirely in the control of the DID owner.

The decentralization, verifiability, and interoperability of a DID are its guiding principles. The owner is able to unilaterally update, resolve, or deactivate the DID since decentralization assures that no central issuing agency controls it. Since DIDs are often maintained on a blockchain, they are constantly accessible for verification, which further improves availability.

Although anybody may generate a DID and perhaps alter the data, a cryptographically secure and tamper-evident VC establishes the authenticity, making them vital. The three main players in the DID ecosystem are the user, who has ownership over the DID, the issuer, who is a trusted third party that does offline verification and issues the VC, and the verifier, who must authenticate the user's identity.

To authenticate and build confidence in a variety of digital transactions and interactions, DIDs may be utilized since they are open to any solution that recognizes the W3C DID standard, which is known as interoperability.


When it comes to DIDs, the XRP Ledger follows the rules laid down in the DID v1.0 standard. One step in the process is for an XRPL account holder to create a DID that their account controls. A DID document, as specified by W3C requirements, is linked to the DID. Once a user submits their DID and VC to a digital task verifier, the verifier will utilize the VC to confirm the document's validity and resolve the DID to its document.

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