How to Pitch Self-Sovereign Identity to Your Developers: A Managers Guide

This article will cover:

• How Truvity can address your pain points, such as:

• Database development, processing time, and costs
• Time (and money) lost in verification processes and onboarding
• Cybersecurity concerns and demands
• Compliance, regulatory evolution, and auditing
• The emergence of new business models enabled by SSI

• How to pitch Truvity to your engineering team, by highlighting:

• Direct benefits in simplicity, and reduced development time
• Improved security protections and processes
• Integration and ease of use in deployment via SDKs and APIs
• Sharing documentation suites and case studies

So let’s get started!

Why You Should Consider Truvity

In an ever-evolving tech landscape, CTOs and other executives across tech-dependent industries constantly grapple with challenges ranging from database complexities to security vulnerabilities. However, what if there was a single solution that could streamline operations, bolster security, and pave the way for unprecedented business opportunities? Enter the realm of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) solutions.

Increase Onboarding Conversion and Harness Instant Verifiability

Time is money, and time-intensive verification processes can impede business workflows. Waiting for identity checks or document verifications can result in lost opportunities and decreased efficiency.

With SSI, the promise of instant verifiability comes to life. As users have control over their verified identity data (for example their digital driving license), they can grant immediate access to businesses, eliminating the need for redundant checks. In essence, it's a win-win: businesses accelerate operations, and users enjoy a frictionless experience. This immediately translates to improved customer conversions, as 48% of customers abandon onboarding as expectations for seamless experiences rise.

A Fraud-Proof Solution

In a world rife with cyber threats, security is paramount. Traditional identity systems often become the weakest link, vulnerable to breaches and fraud.

However, the decentralised nature of SSI ensures that there's no single point of failure. By empowering individuals to manage their identity data, the risk of mass data breaches, and the loss of clientbase and the incursions of fines which come with them, diminishes drastically. When paired with cryptographic proofs, the system becomes virtually fraud-proof, offering peace of mind to both businesses and users.

Ensuring Compliance Now and Tomorrow

Regulatory landscapes are notorious for their dynamic nature, especially concerning data privacy and protection. Ensuring compliance is not just about adhering to today's standards but also by staying ahead of the curve and being prepared for tomorrow's changes.

SSI is built to address the specific compliance and regulatory needs of today and tomorrow. It does this by taking both the user/developer and the identity holders in mind in its creation; it inherently supports principles of data minimisation and user consent, making it compliant with existing regulations like GDPR and the coming eIDAS 2.0 regulation. Moreover, its adaptability ensures readiness for future regulatory shifts, providing businesses with a proactive approach to compliance, as the past few years have taught us that KYC regulation regularly levies over €2bn in fines each year.

New Business Models with Advanced Tech

The most exciting facet of SSI isn't just its problem-solving prowess but its potential as a catalyst for innovation. By decoupling identity from centralised authorities, businesses can explore novel models of interaction, partnerships, and user engagement.

This means a new generation of previously impossible business models.

Imagine creating services tailored to user-controlled data, forging partnerships based on verifiable credentials, or even crafting platforms that redefine user trust. With SSI, the door to these possibilities swings wide open.

Reduce Database Complexity and Costs

Modern businesses often struggle with database sprawl. Managing numerous databases, each with its distinct schemas and data models, can be a logistical nightmare. The inherent complexity not only increases operational costs but also amplifies the risk of errors.

SSI acts as a remedy for these woes by simplifying the complex. By providing individuals control over their digital identities, businesses can substantially reduce their reliance on sprawling databases. The result? A more streamlined data infrastructure that leads to significant cost savings.

For example, you’ll benefit from unified customer profiles, instead of multiple, redundant entries, ie. one profile for sales, one for marketing, one for KYC, and more. With an SSI architecture, a single profile is shared and accessed by everyone involved, from each of your departments to the customer themselves, with no redundancy, and absolute verifiability of identity and credentials. Expand this concept to all the kinds of entries and profiles within your company’s database(s), and the scale of the time savings starts to become clear.

How to pitch Truvity to your Engineers

Start with the Direct Benefits

Time and Money Savings:

• Explanation: Emphasize the resource-intensive nature of managing multiple identity systems and the associated overheads. Illustrate how SSI can streamline workflows, reducing the time spent on handling authentication, authorisation, and data reconciliation.
• Real-life Comparison: Discuss how traditional systems often require frequent patching, updates, and maintenance, while SSI, being decentralised, can significantly reduce such overheads.

Reduction in Database Infrastructure Complexity:

• Explanation: Showcase the technical challenges that arise from managing numerous databases, especially when reconciling identities and permissions. Contrast this with SSI's unified approach.
• Demonstration: If possible, provide a hands-on comparison of the architectural diagrams between the traditional system and an SSI setup, highlighting the simplified nature of the latter.

Highlight the Robust Security

Fraud-Proof System:

• Explanation: Describe the decentralised nature of SSI and how, by removing central points of failure, the system becomes less susceptible to mass data breaches.
• Case Study: Share instances where centralised systems suffered massive breaches and how SSI would've mitigated such risks.

Appeal to the Developer’s Passion for Innovation

The Future of Best Practices:

• Explanation: Stress that the tech world is evolving, and SSI is at the forefront of this evolution. Adopting it is not just about staying current but also about leading the charge towards more user-centric digital experiences.
• Industry Trend Analysis: Share articles, studies, or expert opinions that predict the rise of SSI as a standard in the industry.

Showcase Ease of Integration and Developer Resources

• Explanation: Developers often have reservations about adopting new tech due to the steep learning curve or potential integration challenges.
• Toolkit Introduction: Introduce them to developer-friendly SSI toolkits, SDKs, or APIs that make the transition smoother.
• Community Engagement: Highlight the vibrant developer communities around SSI that offer support, answer queries, and share best practices.

Share Technical Documentation

• The first step towards adoption for every developer is the technical documentation of the proposed tool. This provides not just the practical first steps on the implementation side, but also speaks to their technical knowledge and displays its potential in their language.

Open a Channel for Feedback:

• Encourage developers to voice concerns or reservations. Addressing these directly can clear misconceptions and build trust.
• Consider organising a Q&A session with an SSI expert to further allay fears and provide clarity.

Trial and Pilot Programs:

• Propose a small project or module where SSI can be implemented. A hands-on experience can often be the best way to convince developers of the technology's merits.

In essence, the key is to be transparent, present clear evidence, and make the adoption process as seamless as possible. Developers respect data, hands-on experiences, and the promise of innovation, and these should be the pillars of your pitch.

Secure Your Company’s Future with SSI

For the proactive executive, embracing Self-Sovereign Identity isn't just about solving today's challenges—it's about unlocking tomorrow's potentials. Whether it's the promise of cost and time-saving efficiency, unparalleled security and compliance, or the allure of groundbreaking business models, SSI stands as the beacon of modern tech solutions. And this shift is already coming– in the form of the EU’s coming eIDAS 2.0 identity regulation, so don’t be left behind. The future is self-sovereign, and it's time to be a part of it.

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