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Blockchain LabTHE VENTURE STUDIO

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Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0

Decentralized identifiers. W3C.

A DID is an identifier whose document, including keys, can be resolved by a method. The method says where the document lives. The standard does not pick one blockchain.

A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.

A product that says 'we use DIDs' should name the method and what a verifier does when resolution and the key the user just used disagree.

The five-minute read

The defect

A username lives on a server. When the server dies or turns hostile, the name dies with it.

The rule

A DID is an identifier whose document, including keys, can be resolved by a method. The method says where the document lives. The standard does not pick one blockchain.

How it is put together

The identifier and the document are different. A method is a scheme, like a registry on a particular ledger. Control is proved by keys in the document, not by an account at a website.

Where the claim stops

The standard does not put personal data on a chain.

One action, walked through

  1. Create a DID using a method.
  2. Resolve it to a document.
  3. Authenticate by proving control of a key the document lists.
  4. Which method resolves this identifier?

The argument, unpacked

Why it is still on the desk

A product that says 'we use DIDs' should name the method and what a verifier does when resolution and the key the user just used disagree.

After the text

Many ledgers defined methods. The useful question is the method, not the acronym.

What has to be true

  • The standard does not put personal data on a chain.
  • A method can be centralised and still speak DID.
  • Resolution can fail, or return a document the subject no longer controls, if the method allows it.

What happened after the paper

Many ledgers defined methods. The useful question is the method, not the acronym.

What to check before you use the idea

  • Which method resolves this identifier?
  • Who can rotate the keys?
  • What is stored in the document, and what must stay off it?

Terms

DID
An identifier resolved by a named method to a document.
DID document
The keys and endpoints a verifier is told to use.

The problem the paper names

A username lives on a server. When the server dies or turns hostile, the name dies with it.

What the design proposes

  • The identifier and the document are different.
  • A method is a scheme, like a registry on a particular ledger.
  • Control is proved by keys in the document, not by an account at a website.

How the mechanism is specified

  • Create a DID using a method.
  • Resolve it to a document.
  • Authenticate by proving control of a key the document lists.

What this page does not treat as proven

  • The standard does not put personal data on a chain.
  • A method can be centralised and still speak DID.
  • Resolution can fail, or return a document the subject no longer controls, if the method allows it.

Why a venture studio still reads it

A product that says 'we use DIDs' should name the method and what a verifier does when resolution and the key the user just used disagree.

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.