notes: research/papers/papers-sedi-policy-and-technology-trade-space

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research/papers/papers-sedi-policy-and-technology-trade-space SEDI Policy and Technology Trade Space: Comprehensive Solutions vs. Incremental Solutions summary v0.1 — 2026-10-15: drafted by Claude from the PDF slide deck (all 207 slide titles, slides 1-29 and 133-135, 205-207 in full); unread by Mark; marked partner on Mark's word 2026-10-21, paraphrase only partner 503 # SEDI Policy and Technology Trade Space: Comprehensive Solutions vs. Incremental Solutions **Abstract.** A 207-slide deck by Samuel M. Smith dated 2025/10/01, subtitled "How to best protect citizens from exploitation with citizen-sourced, state-endorsed digital identity". It sets out the security and privacy trade-offs for SEDI (state-endorsed digital identity) and argues for KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) and ACDC (Authentic Chained Data Container) anchored issuances over unlinkable signature schemes. For policy makers and practitioners. ## Summary The deck opens with survivable systems from naval and critical-infrastructure design, a design spiral for exploring a trade space, and the PAC (privacy, authenticity, confidentiality) trilemma. It argues "security first, always", with layered security overlays and the OWASP Top Ten as context. Its first main argument is that key compromise is the hard problem for SEDI. If an issuer's key is compromised, forged issuances are verifiable; if issuances are not anchored, or are made with anonymous zero-knowledge-proof signatures, the issuer cannot detect specific forgeries and the only full recovery is to revoke and reissue everything, which the deck calls impractical for millions of citizens. Anchored, linkable issuances allow specific forgery detection and specific recovery. It lists KERI and ACDC security properties: near-instant detection of and recovery from key compromise, pre-rotated quantum-safe keys, witness pools, watcher networks, delegated identifiers and multi-signature thresholds. The second argument concerns privacy. It holds that unqualified "unlinkability" is impossible, that cryptographic unlinkability is a weak form that does not stop contextual re-identification by data brokers and AI correlators, and that "unlinkable" does not mean "untrackable". It models three-party information sharing and exploitation. The deck then presents ACDC privacy protections (graduated disclosure, chaining, selective disclosure, blinded and bound blinded registries, bulk issuance), the GLEIF vLEI (verifiable Legal Entity Identifier) as an example, the IPEX exchange protocol, chain-link confidentiality, TSP (Trust Spanning Protocol) and RAP (reputable authenticatable pseudonymity). Later sections cover sustainable privacy, k-anonymity and re-identification attacks, and close by concluding that the only practical protection for disclosed data is contractually protected disclosure via chain-link confidentiality. The final slides contrast intellectual honesty with advocacy. A long appendix repeats material from Smith's SPAC (Secure Privacy, Authenticity, and Confidentiality) and identifier-theory decks. ## Key terms SEDI, key compromise, anchored issuance, specific recovery, unlinkability, contextual linkability, chain-link confidentiality, contractually protected disclosure, PAC theorem, watcher network ## Claims and their evidence - Revoking and reissuing millions of government issuances after a likely key compromise is impractical. [informative] - Anonymous (ZKP, zero-knowledge proof) signatures make specific forged issuances undetectable by the issuer. [informative] - No current technology provides full contextual unlinkability, so unqualified unlinkability is not a viable policy goal. [informative] - Selective disclosure is ineffective unless performed under a contractually protected disclosure. [informative] ## Related Security Threats & Mitigations for Persistent State Issued Citizen Entitlements (SEDI); Sustainable Privacy; SPAC; ACDC specification; KERI specification; The Seven Privacies. ## Provenance Drafted by Claude on 2026-10-15 from the PDF in Smith's Papers repository: all 207 slide titles, slides 1-29, 133-135 and 205-207 read in full as extracted text. Not yet read by Mark.

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