This building block supports trust among participants by defining how digital identities play a role in BDI in machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions. The digital identifiers for natural persons are described in Digital Identity (H2M).
In its implementation, BDI aligns with iSHARE's implementation of digital identities, preferring PKI (public key infrastructure) certificates issued by a reputable identity provider as digital identity of parties like Service Providers. In Europe the eIDAS regulation is a solid foundation for the identity ecosystem.
2. Purpose of the building block
The purpose of this building block is to support the framework for trust among parties, by ensuring that parties can provide and receive a verified digital identity. An authenticated digital identity is the prerequisite for determining trust and subsequent authorization.
The building block ensures that interactions within BDI (onboarding, offboarding, data exchange, service consumption, etc.) will take place between identified and authenticated parties.
3. Concepts
The following concepts (from the BDI Glossary), all regarding legal entities, are particularly relevant in this building block:
Member
Legal entity as member of its “home” BDI Association
The figure below shows how a business partner from another BDI association can become a preferred Business partner of a BDI association.
4. Risks
An insufficient framework for digital identity might lead to a lower level of trust among parties and will harm the overall trust in BDI.
5. Interlinkages with other building blocks
This building block describes the BDI principles for digital identity for M2M interactions.
The related building blocks are:
The most important related Kits and concepts are:
6. Core design decisions
A digital identity has to be linked with the legal identifier of the legal entity that controls and takes responsibility and accountability for the IT-process that uses the digital identity in interactions with other IT processes.
A digital identity has to be linked with the legal identifier of the legal entity that controls and takes responsibility and accountability for the IT-process that uses the digital identity in interactions with other IT processes. For more details about possible identifiers, view the information below.
EORI-identifier
The EORI-identifier is the standard defined by the EC Customs for European entities. EORI stands for “Economic Operators Registration and Identification”. Not all European entities are required to register an EORI. Therefore, only a subset have registered an EORI.
EUID
Europe has also introduced an "EUID". This identifier is based on the local European Business Registries and will be used for the eIDAS 2 European Wallet.
VAT-numbers
VAT-numbers can also be used to identify organizations. European VAT-numbers can validated on a central site.
Others
Other identifier standards that are in use worldwide are:
LEI
DUNS (Dunn and Bradstreet Unique Number System)
In practice it may be necessary for a party or an association to create a cross-reference register that relates an internal (unique) identifier with multiple external identifiers of a legal entity. One legal entity may have an EORI, LEI and DUNS identifier, or more.
The following should be noted regarding identifiers in the BDI:
The BDI prefers PKI certificates issued by a reputable identity provider as digital identity of parties like Service Providers.
In Europe the eIDAS regulation is a solid foundation for the identity ecosystem.
Self-signed certificates for digital identities are a low-barrier entry level solution, with serious limitations on trust, federation and scaling
7. Further reading
Consider the following links for further reading
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​, specifically on the topic of identities
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Business Partners
Members of other BDI Associations than the “home” BDI Association
Preferred Business Partners
Outsiders who have agreed to the specific terms and conditions of the local BDI Association, which maintains its own Business Partner Reputation Model
Outsider
Anyone who is not a member of a BDI Association
Visitor
Outsider with a better reputation score than a set minimum
