Microsoft ID System Launches Its Beta On Bitcoin Network

The decentralized identity network Microsoft ID System in May announced the launch of the beta version on the Bitcoin blockchain. As the Bitcoin news now show, the network named ION which was first announced in May is now moving to beta testing on the Bitcoin network.

A blog post from June 10 shows that Daniel Buchner, who is a program manager for the Microsoft Identity team, said that the new open-sourced layer 2 Identity Overlay Network (ION) had launched.

Currently, the goal of this network is to provide users with a decentralized identifier (DID) that could replace the need for usernames on the Bitcoin blockchain. The blockchain news also show that it has been developed in conjunction with the Decentralized Identity Foundation – and that ION was developed as a decentralized network to operate independently and does not rely on “special utility tokens, trusted validator nodes, or additional consensus mechanisms”.

“The core promise of DID technology is to empower all individuals and entities with ownership and control over their identities, which aligns well with our mission of empowering every person to work, play, and achieve more,” said Buchner. “To deliver on that promise, we have chosen a different path from some of the more centralized approaches to DID technologies—and we believe ION exemplifies that choice.”

While the Microsoft ID System launches its beta, the company has not yet set a release date for the final version. However, the team said that it would be working on further developing the protocol and improving the ION reference implementation over the coming months.

As we reported earlier this year, Microsoft had announced its brand new Azure Blockchain Service along with the Azure Blockchain Development Kit for the Ethereum blockchain. The ETH news also showed that the tech giant is not the only company seeing potential in blockchain. Earlier this year, ConsenSys also announced how it is utilizing the blockchain agnostic protocol Ethr-DID for its own DID, in contrast to the Microsoft SideTree solution.

Blockchain apps are seeing increased usage lately and we can see that the Microsoft ID System is one of the projects which are now getting more views and responses as one of the most influential projects in the space.