Sidetree

Full Title

Sidetree is a spec for a collection of Distributed ID methods that uses IPFS to guarantee uniqueness of a DID.

Context

Microsoft started to build Sidetree as the backing for the Ion DID method to improve responsiveness to reads and writes of ID data.

• Sidetree basically intercepts any request for ID reads or writes and tries to cache them to avoid a delay caused by a read or write to the Bitcoin Blockchain.

Problems

• As of 2020-11-15 the Sidetree spec did not guarantee that an old key used for signing or encryptions would be available from any of their methods.
• As of 2020-11-15 the IPFS implementations were at Alpha release level and not recommended for production use.
• As of 2020-11-15 the Sidetree spec required two versions of the DID and stipulated that any RP relying on that DID would have to accept either version interchangeably.