Stephan Penner, Thomas Wieland, Marquart Franz

• Current research in identity management is focusing on decentralized trust establishment for distributed identities. One of these decentralized trust models is Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI). With SSI each entity should be able to independently present and manage provable information about itself as well as request and review evidence from other entities. Using a distributed blockchain, information for verifying the authenticity of this evidence can be obtained from any other entity. This concept can be used not only for people, but also for authentication and authorization during the life cycle of devices in the Internet of Things (IoT). This paper presents an SSI-based concept for authentication and authorization of IoT devices among each other, intended to contribute to the change in trust on the internet. The SSI methodology employing a blockchain offers the possibility to establish mutual trust and proof of ownership without relying on any third party. The paper describes the concept, offers a reference implementation, and gives a discussion of the approach.