- Standard UNE 71307-1 defines a reference framework for the management of the identification of individuals and organisations, allowing them to create and self-manage their own digital identity without the need to resort to centralised authorities.
- Standardised decentralised identity information management models ensure that organisations maintain the security of their processes andthat individuals protect their privacy and avoid identity theft, in contrast to traditional centralised models.
- The standard, which has begun the process to become a European standard, has been developed as part of UNE's CTN 71/SC 307, with the participation and consensus of all parties involved.
21 December 2020. The Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) has published the Standard UNE 71307-1 Digital Enabling Technologies. Decentralised Identity Management Model on Blockchain and Other Distributed Ledger Technologies. Part 1: Reference Framework. This is the first global standard on decentralised digital identity management, based on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). Blockchain is a revolutionary technology based on an information coding system.
Standard UNE 71307-1 defines a generic reference framework for the issuance, administration and decentralised use of attributes that facilitate characterisation (identification) of individuals or organisations, allowing the latter to create and self-manage their own digital identity without the need for centralised authorities.
Standardised decentralised identity information management models are the ideal way to ensure that organisations can maintain the security of their processes and that individuals can protect their privacy while maintaining absolute control over their individual identity, in contrast to traditional centralised models. Among other advantages, it allows users to avoid possible digital identity theft.
The Spanish Standard UNE 71307-1 covers a series of basic concepts and processes for decentralised identity management, with the aim of enabling the technological systems that support them to comply with relevant business, contractual and regulatory requirements.
This standard has been developed in the UNE Technical Committee for Standardisation CTN 71/SC 307, with the participation and consensus of all parties involved. The CTN 71 on digital enabling technologies was established at the behest of the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence. Technical standards establish a common language, providing security and confidence in new technologies, and are thus a pillar for the success of digital transformation.
The publication of the standard is the culmination of an intense project that began in July 2019 with the creation of the GT1 Working Group of CTN 71/SC 307, which has been in charge of the preparation of the standard. This joint effort by a group of Spanish experts to draw up the standard represents a major milestone. Indeed, more than 30 meetings have been held for its development, both in person and online. The principle of technological neutrality requires experts to go to extra lengths to provide a neutral and holistic view of self-managed digital identity processing commonly known as Self Sovereign Identity (SSI).
UNE 71307-1 is a milestone, not only as the first standard of this UNE standardisation working group, but as the first global standard in the field of decentralised identity management based on distributed registration technologies.
This standard will serve as the basis for the future development of other regulatory references in the field of decentralised identity information processing. The Spanish standards body has proposed that this standard become a European standard before the European standards bodies CEN and CENELEC, work which began with the establishment of a standards group.
CTN 71 is Spain's way of influencing and leading international and European forums in which key ICT standards are developed for the competitiveness of Spanish companies.
Decentralised technologies
The emergence at the beginning of the 21st century of decentralised technologies based on distributed records and Blockchain represents a true paradigm shift.
The possibilities offered by this new technology open the door to a scenario in which traditional centralised organisational and computational approaches become obsolete, giving rise to a new climate of decentralisation and disintermediation.
Digital identification processes are not unrelated in this context, making decentralised identity one of the most obvious applications of these technologies and a tool capable of giving people control over their own individual digital identity.
