Learning Digital Identity

Chapter 22. Governing Identity Ecosystems

Starting in 2016, I was the founding chair of the Sovrin Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to provide governance for the identity metasystem known as the Sovrin Network. I, and a handful of like-minded people, started the foundation because we knew that an identity ecosystem that aimed to provide identity for all (the foundation’s vision) would need governance. The irony of decentralized systems is that they often need more governance than centralized systems, which can often get by with ad hoc or just-in-time decisions about how they will operate. Decentralized systems must figure that all out ahead of time or they fall apart.

In Chapter 7 I discussed confidence and trust, ending with an exploration of social cohesion. Cohesion enables a group of people to operate with one mind about some set of ideas, processes, and outcomes. You might have wondered how the four types of organizations I discussed create cohesion; the answer is, in short, governance.

When you hear the word governance, you might first think of presidents, legislatures, courts, and other apparatuses of governments. In his excellent (and short) introduction to governance, philosopher Mark Bevir defines governance as “all processes of social organization and social coordination.”¹ While most people typically think of governance as a process undertaken by hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations, Bevir’s definition also includes the processes for social coordination ...