Five questions for ecsec GmbH – TEAM-X consortium partner

Why are you involved in TEAM-X as a consortium partner?

We are very happy to be part of the great TEAM-X consortium to develop

conventional systems for digital identities in healthcare based on SAML and OpenID Connect to add functionality for self-sovereign digital identities (SSI), decentral identifiers (“Decentral Identifiers (DIDs”) and W3C-compliant Verifiable Credentials (VC) so that they can also be used in a secure, self-determined and interoperable manner in the emerging Gaia-X compliant data spaces.

What is your task?
Together with other partners from the TEAM-X consortium, we are working on infrastructure services (“Issuer”, “Verifier”) and client components (“Wallets”) for the issuance, verification, custody and application of digital identities and verifiable credentials.

What are the biggest challenges?
Self-determined digital identities, decentralized identifiers and verifiable verifications are comparatively powerful and, as it were, young technologies for which standardization (e.g., at the level of data formats and exchange protocols) and implementation have not yet been fully completed, so that interoperability between the various technical components is not always complete.

What are the benefits of a Gaia-X compliant data room?
The advantage of SSI- and VC-based approaches is that, in addition to the actual core identity (name, date of birth, place of birth, address, etc.), the digitization of digital verification and authorizations (e.g., consent, vaccination certificate, license to practice, signing/acting authorizations, certificate, extract from the commercial register) of the natural or legal person itself is made possible, right through to the verifiable assignment of animals, devices, services, etc. At the same time, the marketable verifiable digital verifications create the basis for “zero trust” and “compute to data” architectures and enable the distinctly privacy-friendly use of data and digital identities.

What inspires you about Gaia-X?
Gaia-X provides a reliable framework that embraces fundamental European principles: Sovereignty, Openness, Fairness, Security and Trust. In particular, the decentralized and international approach as well as the commitment to openness, reflected in multiple open source components, make Gaia-X an excellent foundation for the development of trusted healthcare data spaces.