Think for a moment about how many online accounts are associated with your work email address. Next, think about how many passwords you’ve stored in your browser.

Guess who is storing all that data? A big tech company.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a level of convenience we get from having tech companies store our information and retrieve it right when we need it.

On the other hand, having a single point of failure presents a lot of risk. And for some non-profits, taking that risk could mean leaking extremely sensitive data, from voter sentiment to medical information to union membership.

The good news is that new technology is supporting identity management in ways that take out the middleman — tech companies — and give control back to organizations and individuals: decentralized identifiers (DIDs).

In this post, we’ll explain what DIDs are, how they work, and why they should matter to everyone, especially non-profit leaders.

What Are Decentralized Identifiers?

Decentralized identifiers are a new way of managing identities online. Unlike conventional identifiers, like your email address, DIDs are not controlled by centralized entities like Google or Microsoft.

Instead, DIDs are self-sovereign, meaning they are:

• Self-owned: Individuals or organizations control their own DIDs, without needing
• permission from any central authority.
• Portable: You can use the same DID across different platforms and services.
• Secure and Private: They use cryptographic techniques, like the blockchain, to ensure security and privacy.

Not only does this shift enhance security — eliminating that single point of failure — it also fosters greater trust and transparency in digital interactions. People are sharing their data on their own terms, with the people and organizations they want to share it with, when they want to share it.

For example, if a non-profit uses DIDs, each member can have their own unique identifier that they control. They can use it to:

• Interact securely with others
• Sign documents
• Access services

…all without relying on a central registry or database.

How Do DIDs Work?

DIDs are constructed using blockchain and distributed ledger technology. While that may sound like a lot of jargon, it’s actually a revolutionary way of creating a highly secure, transparent, and immutable identity management system.

In this system, each digital identity comes with a pair of cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. The public key is associated with the DID and is used to verify the identity, while the private key is kept secure by the owner and is used to sign digital interactions, ensuring authenticity and integrity.

Think of it like a lockbox for an Airbnb. On the outside, it lists the home’s address — that way, you know that it contains the key to the house (public key). But only you have the passcode to open it (private key).

With DIDs, this analogy goes even further. There’s a record of every time you’ve locked and unlocked that box and who you’ve shared the key with.

Why Should Non-Profits Care About DIDs?

Trust is the cornerstone of nonprofits' relationships with donors, beneficiaries, and partners. And DIDs can significantly enhance trust and transparency by enabling secure and verifiable interactions. For example, a non-profit could:

• Issue a verifiable credential to a volunteer, confirming their role and credentials. These credentials can be shared and verified without needing to contact the issuer directly, streamlining verification processes and enhancing privacy.
• Issue a verifiable credential to a member, showing that they are part of an organization and are eligible for specific benefits. Entidad recently developed a desktop and mobile application to qualify hundreds of thousands of farmworkers applying for emergency relief post-COVID.
• Use DIDs to authenticate the identities of donors, ensuring that contributions come from legitimate sources. This level of verification builds confidence among stakeholders, leading to increased engagement and support.

The data security that comes with DIDs builds trust as well. Traditional identity management systems, which rely on centralized databases, are vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches. DIDs mitigate these risks by decentralizing identity data, making it significantly harder for malicious actors to compromise.

DIDs are also registered on decentralized registries, no single entity has control over the registry. This makes it resistant to tampering and censorship and ensures that DIDs are always accessible and verifiable, even if individual nodes or services go offline.

The Time to Embrace DIDs is Now

As the world moves in a more decentralized direction, non-profits that embrace DIDs are in a better position to help their members navigate the transition. Why?

Because DIDs are designed to be interoperable across different platforms and systems.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed DID standards for consistent and reliable use across various applications. This interoperability is crucial for non-profits that collaborate with multiple partners and need a unified system for identity verification. Encouraging members to use this technology early on will support greater adoption down the line.

Thankfully, several platforms and technologies are already available to support the use of DIDs. Non-profits can leverage these existing solutions to facilitate the adoption of DIDs, reducing the need for extensive in-house development.

Partner With Experts to Preserve Trust and Maintain Security

Non-profit leaders can’t afford to take valuable time away from their day-to-day activities to learn about new technology, let alone develop and execute a DID strategy. The solution? 

Partnering with experts that know, live, and breathe decentralized identity. Ideally, these folks will have experience implementing DIDs and apps that use them on a large scale. Even better, they’ll have experience working directly with non-profit organizations, deeply understanding the problems they face and the level of service their members expect.

Entidad is one of those partners. We’ve already developed close relationships with multiple farmworker-serving organizations and are on a mission to use modern technology to serve other underserved communities.

We’re eager to discuss the latest and greatest decentralized apps we’ve built, hear about the great work you’re doing, and develop a customized solution to maximize your organization’s reach.

‍Reach out to us to learn more about what we do and how we’re helping non-profits keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape.