0:00 – – – –
0:04 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:11 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:18 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:18 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:21 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:26 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
0:27 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – I don't mean privacy. I mean it's private to
0:29 Amazon. They own it. We call these administrative identity systems because
0:35 they're designed to administer identity for a specific purpose in a specific
0:39 domain. In this case, it's Amazon, but you know, there are millions of them. The
0:46 system, the identifiers, how they work are owned and controlled by Amazon. They're
0:52 the subject of Amazon's terms and conditions. They're useful for
0:57 establishing trust within a domain, but they're not useful for establishing trust
1:03 across domains. People are party to dozens, hundreds, thousands of these
1:11 things. I have over a thousand entries in my one password.
1:17 In contrast, decentralized identity flips that model. The person becomes the center
1:24 of trust and credentials about that trust flow through protocols rather than
1:29 platforms. Unlike the decentralized identity model, decentralized identity
1:36 provides a consistent experience for interacting with all of the relationships
1:40 in your digital life. But decentralization alone isn't enough. What we really need is
1:46 what I think is called first-person identity, a way for people to act as
1:52 themselves online, not as managed account. I like the term first person identity
1:57 better than decentralized because it's more clearly distinguishes that identity
2:02 is based on the individual, the first party in a relationship. First person
2:08 describes an idea that most people understand naturally. We're taught about
2:12 we're taught this in grade school. First person is I, me, myself, mine. First
2:20 person describes precisely the kind of thinking that will allow people to create
2:24 their own online relationships without an intermediating administrator like a social
2:30 network. In first-person identity, you might have relationships and credentials
2:35 from your employer, from your bank, from your school, from the driver's license
2:39 bureau, and so on. You can use these alone or in combination to prove things about
2:45 yourself. In first-person identity, people are the integration point for information
2:51 about themselves. ourselves. Now, why does this matter so much? It matters because
2:58 something essential is missing in our digital lives. Maybe.
3:16 There we go. The real challenge online isn't utility or convenience. its
3:22 proximity. In the physical world, we're next to each other. We rely on tacit
3:28 knowledge that we gain from our senses to see when we see and speak with people. We
3:36 use this tacit information to establish trust. We don't have that online. Online,
3:44 we interact at a distance through screens and systems and platforms that usually are
3:50 not controlled by us. Our relationships are mediated by companies rather than
3:56 being direct. Let's talk about what that distance costs us and how endorsement
4:03 rather than control can close it. Descartes didn't say, I have a Google
4:09 login, therefore I am. He said, I think, therefore I am. We exist independent of
4:18 anything else around us. Now, that's where endorsement comes in. It bridges the gap
4:29 of distance. It allows people or anything half a world away to trust who you are
4:38 because your own state endorses what you're saying, your assertions that you're
4:45 making. SEDI, State Endorsed Digital Identity, doesn't give you an identity.
4:50 You already have one. Rather, SEDI endorses it. It provides the assurance we
4:56 need to act confidently across digital distances. So the problem isn't that we
5:02 lack digital IDs. We've got plenty of those. I've got a thousand. It's that we
5:07 lack standing in the online world. We are ghosts existing only through the grace of
5:14 some company. We are not embodied autonomous agents. SEDI changes that.
5:23 Again, it doesn't create your identity. It endorses it and gives you the ability to
5:29 act across distance that can lead to something much bigger. A chance to reclaim
5:35 our digital freedom. First-person identity represents a chance for us to declare our
5:42 independence in the digital realm. to regain the freedom to act as ourselves.
5:49 SEDI enables that by supporting the individual and giving each of us a place
5:55 to stand online. Freedom in a digital world begins when we act from our own
6:01 identity, not one assigned to us and mediated by someone else. This is our
6:09 moment to build a digital world that honors human dignity. A world where we are
6:16 free to live and act as ourselves, as digital citizens rather than digital
6:24 subjects. If we don't build it, someone else will. And it will reflect their
6:30 goals, goals that probably don't align with the ones we think they should have.
6:38 For Utah, this is a chance to lead by example, demonstrating that trust in
6:45 identity can scale without surveillance. Across the US, SEDI can mark a shift from
6:53 digital subjects to digital citizens, people who live effective online lives
6:58 with agency and respect. We have the opportunity to build a digital world that
7:04 respects human dignity, a world where people are free to live and act for
7:10 themselves. Let's not squander that opportunity. community.