ICON DID Method Specification

ICON[1,2,3] is a decentralized network that connects various independent communities to enable interoperability between them. ICON DID is a decentralized identifier devised to provide a way to uniquely identify a person, an organization, or a digital device across the communities connected to the ICON network. ICON DID method specification conforms to the DID and the DID Documents Spec[4]. This document describes how ICON blockchain manages the DIDs and the DID documents, and specifies a set of rules for how a DID is created, queried, updated, and revoked.

1. ICON DID

1.1 ICON DID Method Name

The namestring that shall identify this DID method is: icon.

A DID that uses this method MUST begin with the following prefix: did:icon. Per the DID specification, this string MUST be in lowercase. The remainder of the DID, after the prefix, is specified below.

1.2 ICON DID Method Specific Identifier

The decentralized identifiers(DID) on ICON blockchain is of the following format:

icon-did = “did:icon:” + network-id + “:” + specific-idstring
network-id = (2*i)*HEXDIG, (i>0)
specific-idstring = idstring + checksum
  idstring = 40*HEXDIG
  checksum = 8*HEXDIG

1.2.1 Network-ID

The network-id is a identifier of network where the DID is stored.

The network-id must be represented by an even number of hex-digits (at least 2 hex-digits) and configured according to the policies of the ICON network.
Network-id of the ICON “mainnet” is defined as “01”.
Other values can be assigned to different networks in the future.

1.2.2 Specific-idstring Generation Method

ICON DID should be created by each entity, and the DID must be unique within the ICON network. Specific-idstring is a hex encoded string and composed of the concatenation of idstring and checksum.

idstring should be defined by the first 20 bytes in the 32-byte transaction hash of the transaction that was submitted to register the DID on the blockchain.
- idstring = TX_HASH[0:19]
checksum is a 4-byte string used to prevent human typing errors.
- checksum = SHA3-256(network-id | idstring)[0:3]

2. DID Document

2.1 DID Document Example

ICON DID Document includes following objects.

id : ICON DID.
publicKey : public key information that will be used to authenticate an entity.
authentication : a mechanism that proves the DID owner’s possession of the matching private key that corresponds to the public key registered in the DID Document.
created : height of the block in which the DID Document was created.
updated : height of the block in which the DID Document was last updated.
revoked : height of the block in which the public key was revoked.

Example

{
    "id" : "did:icon:01:c76647ac2855a7ed4a8305ae7eb9d6872f9525d92254fcb9",
    "created" : 7601096,
    "updated" : 7603193,
    "publicKey" : [
        {
            "id" : "keys-1",
            "type" : ["Secp256k1VerificationKey"],
            "publicKeyBase64" : "BL/7/V2XDpRal6r6numtIuthW74Y8hzaDnU0pCPxDX54YcioWBgmW0L51ZclGRw9ekIhGDsLb/5947DdYrWYREg=",
            "created" : 7601096,
            "revoked" : 7603193,
        },
        {
            "id" : "keys-2",
            "type" : ["Secp256k1VerificationKey"],
            "publicKeyBase64" : "BA3rGUbQyZkLYyPAbISMq1yxWr1i//tWwGk6B44bmfMMNzxuMe5P6p9JVrn8s3zgeQegFKLNy4OJobeMTb73i4A=",
            "created" : 7602175
        }
    ],
    "authentication": [
        {
            "publicKey" : "keys-2"
        }
    ]
}

2.2 CRUD Operations

ICON DID is managed by a dedicated Smart Contract on the blockchain. The owner of the ICON DID can manage the DID Document by sending a transaction to the ICON Smart Contract.

2.2.1 Create (Register)

Entity must submit a transaction to register a new DID Document to the ICON blockchain. The transaction must contain following elements.

{
    "method" : "create",
    "params" : {
        "publicKey" : [
            {
                "id" : <Key-Identifier>,
                "type" : [ <PublicKey-Type> ],
                "publicKeyBase64" : <Base64-Encoded-PublicKey>
            }
        ]
    }
}

Example

{
    "method" : "create",
    "params" : {
        "publicKey" : [
            {
                "id" : "keys-1",
                "type" : ["Secp256k1VerificationKey"],
                "publicKeyBase64" : "BL/7/V2XDpRal6r6numtIuthW74Y8hzaDnU0pCPxDX54YcioWBgmW0L51ZclGRw9ekIhGDsLb/5947DdYrWYREg="
            }
        ]
    }
}

2.2.2 Read (Resolve)

Anyone can look up the DID Document registered in the ICON blockchain. The DID Document query must contain following objects.

{
    "method" : "read",
    "params" : {
        "did" : <DID to Query>
    }
}

2.2.3 Update (Replace)

The DID owner can update the DID Document to add new keys("addKey") or revoke existing key("revokeKey"). To update the DID Document registered in the ICON blockchain, entity must send a transaction. DID document will be replaced by the new transaction. Only the DID owner is permitted to update, and the requesting entity must prove its identity using the authentication mechanism defined in the DID Document. Transactions should include the Json Web Signature(JWS) to verify the authorization of DID owner.

Algorithm name "ES256K" means ECDSA over Secp256k1 Curve.

{
    "method" : "update",
    "params" : <JSON Web Signature>
}

* JWS Input(Add Key) :
    - Header
      {
          "alg" : <Algorithm>,
          "kid" : <Key-Identifier>
      },
    - payload
      {
        "method" : "addKey",
        "param" : {
            "id" : <DID to update>, 
            "publicKey" : {
                "id" : [ <Key-Identifier for add> ],
                "type" : <PublicKey-Type>,
                "publicKeyBase64" : <Base64-Encoded-PublicKey>
            }
        }
      }
        
* JWS Input(Revoke Key) :
    - Header
      {
          "alg" : <Algorithm>,
          "kid" : <Key-Identifier>
      },
    - payload
      {
        "method" : "revokeKey",
        "param" : {
            "id" : <DID to update>, 
            "publicKey" : <Key-Identifier for revoke>
        }
      }

Example

* JWS Input(Add Key) :
    - Header
      {
          "alg" : "ES256K",
          "kid" : "did:icon:01:c76647ac2855a7ed4a8305ae7eb9d6872f9525d92254fcb9#keys-1"
      },
    - payload
      {
        "method" : "addKey",
        "param" : {
            "id" : "did:icon:01:c76647ac2855a7ed4a8305ae7eb9d6872f9525d92254fcb9", 
            "publicKey" : {
                "id" : "keys-2",
                "type" : ["Secp256k1VerificationKey"],
                "publicKeyBase64" : BA3rGUbQyZkLYyPAbISMq1yxWr1i//tWwGk6B44bmfMMNzxuMe5P6p9JVrn8s3zgeQegFKLNy4OJobeMTb73i4A="
            }
        }
      }
        
* JWS Input(Revoke Key) :
    - Header
      {
          "alg" : "ES256K",
          "kid" : "did:icon:01:c76647ac2855a7ed4a8305ae7eb9d6872f9525d92254fcb9#keys-2"
      },
    - payload
      {
        "method" : "revokeKey",
        "param" : {
            "id" : "did:icon:01:c76647ac2855a7ed4a8305ae7eb9d6872f9525d92254fcb9", 
            "publicKey" : "keys-1"
        }
      }

2.2.4 Delete

To delete the DID Document registered in the ICON blockchain, revoke all public keys in DID Document. If all public keys are revoked, the DID is no longer available because there is no public key to authenticate the DID owner.

3. Security Considerations

TODO

4. Privacy Considerations

TODO

References

[1]. ICON foundation, https://icon.foundation

[2]. ICON developers portal, https://icondev.io

[3]. ICON project github, https://github.com/icon-project

[4]. W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v0.11, https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-spec

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