Microsoft is thinking big when it comes to protecting its users’ identity data. The software giant is looking to launch a decentralized identity (DID) tool built on the blockchain of Bitcoin to offer its users a new and innovative way to protect their identity.
The infrastructure for the project known as the Identity Overlay Network, or ION, will be built on the blockchain of Bitcoin. According to Forbes Magazine, the ION is developed in partnership with the Decentralized Identity Foundation.
The project is undeniably a huge step in revolutionising the way people perceive their online identities and their protection. The identity will be essentially owned and controlled by the user, just as he or she controls and owns their Facebook password, for example.
The efficiency of DID requires the seamless operation of tens of thousands of transactions per second – an issue that most public blockchain cannot solve, as they are considered “too slow” for the mission.
Microsoft believes that they can improve the mechanism of how the blockchain will work and the speed and volume of transactions that it will execute for each and every user.
While Microsoft has chosen the blockchain of bitcoin, the more interesting point is how the company will improve it. According to press, Microsoft is looking to resolve the speed of the bitcoin blockchain by integrating the so-called “layer-two” solution that stores and accesses the user’s data off the blockchain through using the InterPlanetary File System or IPFS.
The project is soon to go underway, as Microsoft is looking to launch it in the next few months.