One of the most common new applications for blockchains is digital identity. Today, your passport, driver’s license, birth certificate and other forms of identity are recorded primarily on paper, kept on your person or in filing cabinets in your home or office. Although many of these documents have been scanned as digital images, the metadata associated with these documents is sparse. Over a dozen projects now underway hope to solve this problem by issuing identity credentials via blockchains such that they are highly available, decentralized and tamper-evident.
