[nerdponx]

Specifically, while other parties might be used to help enable the discovery of information related to a DID, the design enables the controller of a DID to prove control over it without requiring permission from any other party.

Sounds like a PGP replacement in some ways.

Also possibly an alternative to SSN (for Americans).

[dboreham]

The same as the X.501 PKI we've had for decades.

[nerdponx]

Good point. How much do the X.501 and DID use cases overlap? I always wondered why X.501 wasn't used for more things.

[bawolff]

Because all the X.500 standards are terrible designed by commitee things that try to be everything but end up doing nothing specific well.

[dboreham]

DID is pretty much the same thing re-packaged in modern buzzwords and encoding.