About Trusted Web

A mechanism to improve trust by expanding the area where data itself and data exchange can be verified without overly relying on a specific service.

Challenges We Face The Direction Trusted Web is Aiming For What Trusted Web Can Do Framework Approach

Challenges We Face

With the increase in
misinformation and fake videos,
it's difficult to know
what to trust.
While customer information is necessary
for service provision,
there is a fear of cyber attacks and
leaks due to mistakes,
and information management
is also difficult
It would be convenient if things like
resident registration and
personal identification documents
that are frequently used
for procedures could be
easily obtained online and
used for those procedures
We have to
provide our business partners with CO2 data
as part of our global warming countermeasures,
but we are worried that the data
may be used for other purposes
We want to contribute to the advancement of
medicine and science by using wearable data
But are not sure which sources are reliable
We want to verify
the identity of users to prevent fraud
but the cost of verification is becoming too high,
making it difficult to provide services at a low cost
There are too many
necessary IDs and passwords.
Can sign in to B's website with my A company account,
but don't want my personal life to be revealed to A company
We want to contribute to the advancement of
medicine and science
by using wearable data
But are not sure which sources are reliable
We have to provide our business partners with CO2 data as part of our global warming countermeasures,
but we are
worried that the data may be used for other purposes
There are too many necessary IDs and passwords.
Can sign in to B's website with my A company account,
but don't want my personal life to be revealed to A company
We want to verify the identity of users to prevent fraud
but the cost of verification is becoming too high,
making it difficult to provide services at a low cost

Common Challenges:

1.
Can the exchanged data be
trusted?
2.
Can the counterpart who exchanges data be
trusted?
3.
Can the handling of the provided data by the counterpart be
trusted?

"Trust" is the key

The Direction
Trusted Web is
Aiming For

What is Trust?
The degree to which one believes that the other party behaves as expected without checking supporting facts to confirm the expectation
Trusted Web's Goal
Build a new trust framework for various social activities in digital society and enable various parties to create new values
Trusted Web Aims to Achieve
Without excessively relying on certain services:
・
Enables users (individuals and organizations) to control the data related to themselves
・
Incorporates mechanisms for consensus building in data exchanges while also enabling to trace the implementation of that consensus
・
Expands the areas that can be verified, thereby increasing the level of Trust

Verifiable areas change depending on the mechanism applied

Current Internet

As the verifiable portion is so small,
decision making requires a great deal of trust in the other party.

Goal of Trusted Web

To expand the areas that can be verified,
while satisfying continuity, interoperability
and ease of upgrading

→ Increase the level of “Trust”

* Taking into account tradeoffs related to the issues such as scalability, energy consumption, and ease of upgrading without relying on a
certain technology, the circle on the topright is the goal of Trusted Web

What you can do with
Trusted Web

#01
Instead of having separate accounts for each specific service,
a user can use their own account to access various web services.

POINT

Web service providers only need to check the required attributes at login, and do not need to keep customers' personal information
(which reduces the risk of leakage and management costs)
Users can avoid having their browsing history and web service usage known to web service providers, and they may be less likely to see ads based on their browsing history
Without depending on specific service accounts, users no longer need to manage multiple IDs and passwords.
Users can choose to link their usage data from Service A to Service B at their own discretion, enabling them to receive convenient services (e.g. number of friends on SNS) without having to share their usage data with Service B

#02
Proof of trust will become diverse

POINT

Various entities outside of the government, such as those who have "x" number of listed company trading partners, hold a corporate account with a bank, have made a donation through the "Furusato nozei" system in A town, or belong to company B, can become trust anchors, which are the foundation of trust.
As various entities can easily issue VC, the cost for users to prove their trust and the verification cost for service providers will decrease (since standardized data formats eliminate the need for manual inspection of certificates to confirm their validity), which will lead to diversification of services.
Various proofs of trust are issued as "Verifiable Credentials", which users can store in their wallets on their smartphones or other devices. Users can then use these credentials as digital certificates to prove their trustworthiness.

Framework
Approach

Due to factors such as network effects, increasing revenue and decreasing costs in digital businesses, it is thought that monopolies and oligopolies are more likely to occur and lock-in effects are more likely to occur. In building a new trust framework in digital infrastructure, it is essential to avoid the recurrence of pain points currently seen and not to overly rely on certain business activities, so it is necessary to consider the governance of infrastructure as a commons to prevent it from being controlled by a few companies.
Therefore, it is necessary to apply global and technology-neutral Internet governance, and it is important to involve various stakeholders in standardization, implementation, operation, community formation, and so on.

The applications used on the Trusted Web will coordinate with the structure rooted in Trust,
which consists of existing legal systems and business customs in each country.

Issues to be solved by Trusted Web

Data itself can be verified without dependence on the place where the data is retained
Able to verify data-related interactions between locations where data may be held

In order to achieve this across target domains, we are reusing existing technologies as much as possible, while identifying and organizing technologies that can be combined, and developing new technologies that can be used in combination with existing technologies.
We are working to find models that are common to the target applications and integrate them into the architecture at a high level of abstraction.

Architecture to Realize

From a data-centric perspective, there are four components: verifiable data, identity, message, and transaction.
From the viewpoint of mainly computing resources and communication, the architecture consists of two components, node and transport, for a total of six components.
We will verify the validity of this architecture through demonstration projects and other activities, and update it.

6 Components

01
Verifiable Data
Data to be operated on Trusted Web.
By verifying the "signature itself", "the signer", and
"the intention of the signature" the entire data
containing the signature can be verified.
02
Identity
A type of verifiable data. It is composed of attributes (such as the name of the organization to which it belongs). In order to make such data, it is essential to link it to information about the signature associated with the identity, and to reference an identity graph that represents the relationships between identities. This helps to expand the verifiability of the data.
03
Node
Responsible for sending and receiving messages. Can perform calculation processing (such as consensus formation) when receiving messages. Nodes record transactions, and the records are kept linked to identities.
04
Message
One-way message transmission with certainty of delivery from source to destination. Data exchanged between nodes and implemented by nodes.
05
Transaction
A data and mechanism that enables nodes to confirm the order of message exchange between nodes. It ensures distributed storage and guarantees that all nodes retain the records. It does not depend on external records and can be shared only among the parties concerned in a confidential manner.
06
Transport
Provides a suitable means of sending messages to other nodes. A comprehensive communication model is necessary to apply various technologies such as the internet and proximity-based wireless communication.

What Trusted Web Won't Do

The Trusted Web is a mechanism that aims to achieve and sustain a state in which interoperability is achieved in a technology-neutral manner.
It is developed through an overlay approach to existing technology elements.

It does not limit the language or system in which it is implemented. You can choose according to your technical requirements and use cases.
It doesn't limit the types of applications it supports. Trusted Web may present configuration proposals to expand the verifiable area,
but it can be customized by combining existing mechanisms.

Improvement Requests and Inquiries

Trusted Web is always open to requests for improvement and inquiries about its architecture and initiatives.