Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) is an umbrella term well-detailed by Christopher Allen, and inspired by many in the Identity community before him, in his 2016 blog post: The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity, which identifies Ten Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity:

When you hear the term 'credential', what comes to mind? Is it a driver's license, passport, birth certificate, college degree, state ID? The common thread of these forms of credentials is that they are physical items, verified by recognized centralized bodies like a government agency or accredited university.

So how do credentials translate into the digital world where within a few clicks someone can make a fictitious identity? Introducing... verifiable credentials (VCs), a digitally signed electronic credential that follows an open standard that lets you create, own, and manage your credentials across a variety of platforms.

At TBD, we believe in a decentralized future that returns ownership and control over your finances, data, and identity. Decentralized Identity is critical to our mission. It’s what puts people in control of their own data. It is the most private, secure, and user-centric way to facilitate information exchange and verification online.

We’re committed to an open software delivery model and therefore want to share our roadmap to Web 5.

Web 5 is a decentralized platform that provides a new identity layer for the web to enable decentralized apps and protocols.

In the current web model, users do not own their data or identity. They are given accounts by companies and their data is held captive in app silos. To create a new class of decentralized apps and protocols that put individuals at the center, we must empower them with self-owned identity and restore control over their data.