Christopher Allen
- Co-author of the IETF TLS 1.0 specification
- Co-author of the W3C Decentralized Identifiers specification
- Wrote The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity (2016), which named and framed the concept
- Founded the Rebooting the Web of Trust workshop series and Blockchain Commons
Bio
Christopher Allen co-authored the IETF TLS 1.0 specification, co-authored the W3C Decentralized Identifiers specification, and in 2016 published The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity, the article that gave the field its name and its ten principles. He runs Blockchain Commons and founded the Rebooting the Web of Trust workshop series.
Profile built from public IETF, W3C, and publication records.
Where their work shows up
Few people have authored a foundational specification in two different eras of internet security. TLS 1.0 is the reason a browser connection can be trusted at all; the DID specification and the self-sovereign identity principles set the terms for the argument about who should hold an identifier and who should be able to revoke it. See what is self-sovereign identity and what is decentralized identity.
Related on Start with Identity
- ExpertChairman
Nat Sakimura has chaired the OpenID Foundation for many years and is a primary author of the OpenID Connect specifications and the FAPI security profile used by
- ExpertCo-chair, OpenID Shared Signals working group
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- ExpertCo-editor, W3C Decentralized Identifiers 1.0
Drummond Reed co-edited the W3C Decentralized Identifiers 1.0 specification, co-chaired the Sovrin Governance Framework working group for five years, and sits o