Work

Are We There Yet? A Study of Decentralized Identity Applications

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The development of Decentralized Identities (DI) and Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI) has seen significant growth in recent years. This is accompanied by a numerous academic and commercial contributions to the development of principles, standards, and systems. While several comprehensive reviews have been produced, they predominantly focus on academic literature, with few considering grey literature to provide a holistic view of technological advancements. Furthermore, no existing surveys have thoroughly analyzed real-world deployments to understand the barriers to the widespread adoption of decentralized identity models. This paper addresses the gap by exploring both academic and grey literature and examining commercial and governmental initiatives, to present a comprehensive landscape of decentralized identity technologies and their adoption in real-world. Additionally, it identifies the practical challenges and limitations that slowdown the transition from centralized to decentralized identity management systems. By shifting the focus from purely technological constraints to real-world deployment issues, this survey identifies the underlying reasons preventing the adoption of decentralized identities despite their evident benefits to the data owner.

Source: IEEE Access

DOI: 10.1109/access.2025.3588170

Authors: Daria Schumm, Katharina O. E. Müller, Burkhard Stiller

Institution: University of Zurich

Language: English

Topic: Blockchain Technology Applications and Security

Subfield: Information Systems

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,075