Emergent Chaos

I am tremendously pleased to say that Microsoft has closed an acquisition of Credentica's U-Prove technology. This technology adds a new and important set of choices in how we as a society deal with identity and properties of people. Kim Cameron has the official announcement, "Microsoft to adopt Stefan Brands’ Technology" and Stefan Brands has blogged at "Microsoft acquires Credentica’s U-prove technology."

Kim writes:

I personally think we are just beginning to understand what it would mean if everything we do is both remembered and automatically related to everything else we do. No evil “Dr. No” is necessary to bring this about, although evil actors might accelerate and take advantage of the outcome. Linkage is just a natural tendency of digital reality, similar to entropy in the physical world. When designing phsyical systems a big part of our job is countering entropy. And in the digital sphere, our designs need to counter linkage.

This has led me to the idea of the “Need-to-Know Internet”.

...
Our goal is that Minimal Disclosure Tokens will become base features of identity platforms and products, leading to the safest possible intenet. I don’t think the point here is ultimately to make a dollar. It’s about building a system of identity that can withstand the ravages that the Internet will unleash. That will be worth billions.

On a personal level, I'm happy to be working with Stefan again, and look forward to what Microsoft and our customers will be able to achieve with this technology.

Previously on Emergent Chaos:

• Stefan Brands Blogging
• Laurie, Cameron and Brands (Oh My!)
• Credentica Launches U-Prove

[Updated with some quotes from Kim.]