# self-sovereign-identity

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/self-sovereign-identity/
Last updated: 2026-08-29
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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A model in which individuals own and control their own digital credentials directly, holding them in a wallet and presenting them without a central provider's permission. Popularized by Christopher Allen's 2016 principles; the guiding philosophy behind decentralized identity.

SSI is the philosophical position underneath the technology, and the deployments that are actually shipping have quietly relaxed it: government wallets are state-issued, recovery mechanisms need a custodian, and revocation needs an authority. That is not a failure so much as a correction. The durable ideas are holder-mediated presentation and the removal of the issuer from every transaction.

See also: [what is self-sovereign identity](https://startwithidentity.com/guides/fundamentals/what-is-self-sovereign-identity/), [decentralized identifier](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/decentralized-identifier/), [issuer, holder, verifier](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/issuer-holder-verifier/), [decentralized identity vendors](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/decentralized-identity/)