ArcBlock was recently identified by Gartner as a leader in the emerging blockchain and decentralized identity market

In December 2019, Gartner released their annual report - Predicts 2020, a report of the top emerging technologies for technology service providers (TSPs). The report was created by the Gartner for Technology & Service Providers Analyst Group and detailing the top five emerging technologies that have the potential to disrupt existing industries and transform marketplaces. These five technologies are:

• AI
• Security
• Blockchain and Decentralized Identity
• User interfaces
• Quantum

Each technology is summarized in the report including benefits and challenges and the technologies ability to create a monumental shifts in a market. Morever, the report includes details on leading providers of those technologies.

The Rise of Decentralized Identity

One of the leading emerging technologies identified is blockchain, more specifically, the area of decentralized identity. In the next several years, analysts expect that with the adoption of decentralized identity and blockchain technology, data sharing of personally identifiable information will be reduced by more than 15%. While this only represents a small percentage of overall data sharing, the beneficial impact for businesses and end-users will be signficant as they limit who has access to their data, reduce the possibility of data breaches and have control over who has their data and where it is shared.

With Decentralized Identity, any company or entity who needs information about a user will submit a request to the user giving that user the ability to approve the request and verify what data is being shared. In this scenario, the company no longer is required to store user data and can verify and authenticate the identity of the user in a way that protects all parties involved. A leading trend for 2020 is the evolution of trust between users and companies as users are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is being collected and used, and companies are increasingly liable for storing and gathering data.

ArcBlock, a leading platform for blockchain development, cloud deployments, and decentralized identity, was recognized alongside several other leading decentralized identity solution providers, including Consensus and Sovrin, for their efforts around building identity solutions for many common use cases. Over the last few months alone, ArcBlock has published several major releases to its blockchain platform to enable developers and businesses to easily add and provide decentralized identity capabilities for their end-users, including login, payment, access and more. In addition, just last month, ArcBlock release their ABT Wallet 2.3 enabling end-users to manage their decentralized identities and digital assets easily. ArcBlock released the industries firstly truly decentralized identity wallet more than a year ago, and have been releasing continuous updates based on user feedback, customer requirements and usage to create the leading user experience for end users managing their data and decentralized identities.

Customer Driven Identity

With ArcBlock, companies can use decentralized identity and blockchain technology to solve several key issues identified by Gartner including:

• Customers having too many different usernames and passwords
• Utilizing customer consent and giving users the ability to decide who and where their data is shared
• Mitigation of protected/un-protected customer data silos spread across the internet
• Ability to quickly adopt new privacy regulations. For example, Californias recently implemented California Consumer Privacy Act that is designed to enhance privacy rights and consumer protections.
• Limiting centralization of user data and mitigating threat exposure for businesses
• Standardized login and authentication including OAuth2 and other leading sign-in technologies
• and more.

Unlike many companies in the industry, ArcBlock's goal was to build industry compliant blockchain and decentralized identity solutions (W3C and the Decentralized Identity Foundation compliant) and to put those tools and capabilities into the hands of businesses, developers and users. ArcBlock continues to see significant adoption of decentralized identity and is preparing to release its next generation of decentralized identity solutions that will potentially be a game-changer enabling anyone to build, run and user decentralized identity. ArcBlock's decentralized identity solutions can be used in the cloud, or customers can run their own blockchain nodes in their data centers.

Try Decentralized Identity, Build Decentralized Identity

ArcBlock recently launched a new campaign focused on educating, training and demonstrating real-world examples of decentralized identity. ArcBlock’s I DID IT campaign covers a wide-range decentralized identity application use cases including self-sovereign identity, next-generation authentication, data portability, digital assets, digital currency, and asset exchanges and cross-border transactions, and the ability to create, verify and issue verifiable claims and certificates easily. Each example is available online and any developer can immediately build their own identity application using one of ArcBlock's ready-made Blocklets including a demo cash app, and money transfer app.

“Over the next few weeks, we want every company to begin to see the value of giving back users control of their own data and to see how decentralized identity can be used to replace existing legacy systems and to create amazing new experiences for end-users. I DID IT is focused on showing what is possible right now and to let everyone immediately use decentralized identity in the real-world. We also want developers and businesses to see the potential opportunities for their business by developing low-cost/high-reward applications that mitigate many of today’s security risks, remove the need to store personally identifiable information and to give everyone the ability to create new applications and economic models that enable new revenue streams,” said Robert Mao, CEO of ArcBlock.

Gartner for Technology & Service Providers (TSP)

TSP analysts primarily work with vendors on their product strategy, go-to-market initiatives, and overall business efficiency. Most TSP analysts were leaders in the roles for which they write and advise, and can offer specific advice on how to maneuver within tricky markets. However, most TSP analysts rarely work with end-users, and therefore don’t have the direct influence over buyers that other groups offer. Nevertheless, thanks in part to their understanding of successful vendor strategy, these analysts often are co-authors for Magic Quadrant evaluations.