SSI forked timeline

Six ideological streams in self-sovereign identity, 2005–2026. Click any event for context.

Roots & concepts Hyperledger / Sovrin W3C / DIF / OIDF Ethereum-native EU-regulated Peer attestation / ZK

Reading the forks

Roots & concepts — Shared substrate (PGP's Web of Trust, Kim Cameron's Laws of Identity, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Christopher Allen's Path to SSI). Not a fork; the ground everyone builds on.

Hyperledger / Sovrin — Classical SSI. Ideology: SSI needs its own neutral, permissioned ledger and purpose-built protocols (AnonCreds, DIDComm).

W3C / DIF / OIDF — Format-neutral standards. Ideology: SSI should be ledger-agnostic and interoperate across rails.

Ethereum-native — Identity as a smart-contract primitive. Ideology: the chain is the trust root.

EU-regulated — State-anchored identity with legal recognition. Ideology: legitimacy derives from the state.

Peer attestation / ZK — Composability-first. Ideology: sovereignty comes from no privileged issuer, not from well-structured credentials.

Three convergence moments: 2017 (DIF, VC WG, Indy, ERC-725 — the Big Bang), 2022 (DID Core Rec, Soulbound, Worldcoin/Polygon ID/Gitcoin Passport, eIDAS 2 negotiation — the tracks start competing), 2026 (EUDI rollout deadline forces everyone else to decide).