I stumbled upon a thoughtful article by renowned cybersecurity experts Bruce Schneier and Davi Ottenheimer.
They lament the fact that “the current state of digital identity is a mess.” Personal information is scattered across hundreds of locations and controlled by media companies, government agencies, and data brokers—entities that collect, store, and trade our data, often without our knowledge or consent. While privacy laws attempt to protect data confidentiality, they do little to safeguard data integrity. The result is a system that is “both redundant and inconsistent”, potentially leading to serious security failures.
The articles goes on to explain why we should consider adopting the Solid protocol invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a radical reimagining of how data operates online.
Solid stands for “SOcial LInked Data.” At its core, it decouples data from applications by storing personal information in user-controlled “data wallets”: secure, personal data stores that users can host anywhere they choose. Applications can access specific data within these wallets, but users maintain ownership and control.
Am I the only one who sees a lot of similarities between Nostr and Solid?
Yes, there are architectural differences (what Solid calls “pods” are not comparable to Nostr “relays”), but the spirit is the same.
Solid is basically dead, while Nostr is growing—albeit slowly. Is there any chance to join forces?
Here is the link to the article: https://www.inrupt.com/blog/return-to-identity-first-architecture-how-solid-protocol-restores-digital-agency
And here is the website for this commendable—though largely overlooked—protocol: https://solidproject.org/