Why a Do Over?
We’ve been struggling with disapprovals on YouTube. It seems to be part of a dirty tricks campaign. We’ve discovered videos with ‘TADSummit Innovators’ in the title now not impacted. One of the interviews that I think was adversely impacted by the campaign was Trusted Number Identity Management (TNID) from Noah Rafalko. So I’m repeating that podcast here. I do not understand why this video is considered worthy of muzzling, it’s just an implementation of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) that can help solve robocalling and SMS spam.
Intro to Noah
Firstly, thank you Noah Rafalko of TNID, for creating the video we shared in Podcast 27: Truth in Telecoms, Taking Back Control & Save Grandma – The Fight Against SMS Spam and Robocalls! And for making the time to take part in this episode of TADSummit Innovators.
Given the industry’s failure to stop spam, identity has become ever more critical. Here is a review of a conversation between Noah and Jeff Pulver: A Humble Request to the FCC on Robocalls.
Noah brings a wealth of experience across telecoms, beginning in the good old days of TDM, though VoIP, to the wild west of communications over the internet.
Intro to Trusted Number Identity Management
Trust and identity have been a constant issue, from the KYC (Know Your Customer) of a copper wire connecting the phone in the customer’s home to the the local exchange; to the mess we have today. For me, the hook that helped me understand what TNID does is, it’s the plumbing for decentralized identifiers (DID), which I first came across at the W3C.
Decentralized identifiers are one of the three pillars of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), which is a model that gives individuals and organizations full ownership and control of their digital identities without relying on a third party. The other pillars are: blockchain and verifiable credentials.
We’re going to do a session with Noah on SSI that explains in more depth this critical technology to solve the challenges we face in robocalling and protecting our data. This paradigm is popping up across industries, for example content credentials to protect people from deep fakes.
The FCC should investigate SSI as a way to enable consumers and businesses to protect their identities, be in control of their data, and who can communicate with them. SSI has been around for one decade, and the timing is now right to regulate its implementation.
We’ll be following-up with Noah on SSI, where’s the money? And TNID use cases.