Allen (2025) Clubs

BRIEF: Explores cryptographic capabilities enabling selective disclosure and delegated authority through derived keys, threshold signatures, and ZKPs.
Allen (2025) Digital Law Framework

BRIEF: Four-layer model legislation demonstrating technology-neutral regulatory approach with anti-coercion provisions and platform independence requirements.
Allen (2025) Exodus Protocol

BRIEF: Establishes “infrastructure without infrastructure”—systems functioning autonomously without centralized control, mathematics over policy.
Allen (2025) Right to Transact (draft)

BRIEF: Frames transactional freedom as constitutional right grounded in assembly and association, not merely financial access.
Allen (2025) Swiss e-ID Anchors

BRIEF: Demonstrates how government digital identity systems can preserve autonomy—addresses “voluntary in law” eroding to “mandatory in practice” pattern.
Celi et al. (2025) Private Age Verification Architecture

BRIEF: Separates content moderation from guardianship in age verification. Proposes guardian-issued DID credentials with client-side enforcement.
Chatel et al. (2025) PETs Limitations in Age Verification

BRIEF: PETs solve only application-layer privacy, not circumvention, censorship, or effectiveness. Complex libraries become “prisons” centralizing power.
Grohmann (2025) Sovereignty-as-a-Service

BRIEF: Analyzes how Microsoft, Amazon, and Google redefined digital sovereignty from political capacity to commercial product—warning pattern for SSI.
Kinstler (2025) Big Tech Wants Direct Access to Our Brains

BRIEF: Documents Big Tech BCI commercialization and neurorights movement seeking legal protections for mental privacy and cognitive liberty.
Nottingham (2025) Age Restriction Architecture

BRIEF: IETF analysis identifying five architectural risks from age verification: centralization, privacy erosion, access barriers, fragmentation, and age-gated internet infrastructure.
Tcherneva (2025) Death of the Social Contract

BRIEF: Applies enshittification framework to labor market degradation, proposing job guarantee as circuit breaker restoring worker power.

2024

Allen (2024) Edge Identifiers

BRIEF: Proposes relationship-based cryptographic identity using edge identifiers and cliques with Schnorr multisig protocols.
Allen (2024) Open & Fuzzy Cliques

BRIEF: Extends cryptographic cliques with open (incomplete connectivity), fuzzy (threshold), and device variants for practical implementation.
Allen (2024) SSI Moral Bankruptcy

BRIEF: SSI originator argues ecosystem became morally bankrupt by abandoning founding principles for market adoption and surveillance-enabling compromises.
Costa & Cunha (2024) Self-Sovereign Identities Survey

BRIEF: Reviews 94 blockchain SSI papers identifying theory-practice chasm, limited validation, interoperability gaps, and Global South exclusion.
DIDComm (2024)

BRIEF: Standard protocol for secure, authenticated messaging between DID-identified parties—foundational delegation protocol for SSI.
Dumitrescu & Pouwelse (2024) PKI Failures

BRIEF: Comprehensive analysis of PKI/X.509 paradigm assumptions and their consequences over decades—cautionary example for 2026 principles.
Garazha et al. (2024) Resilience in Times of Crisis

BRIEF: Derives seven design principles for SSI-based refugee identity through iterative prototyping with Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland.
IETF (2024) FROST RFC 9591

BRIEF: IETF standard for threshold Schnorr signatures enabling distributed trust—emerging capability existing paradigms didn’t anticipate.
Pava-Díaz et al. (2024) SSI on the Blockchain

BRIEF: Evaluates nine blockchain SSI frameworks against Allen’s principles, identifying portability and interoperability gaps from tight coupling.
Satybaldy et al. (2024) Taxonomy of SSI Challenges

BRIEF: Systematic literature review synthesizing SSI architectural framework, development lifecycle, and nine-category taxonomy of open challenges.
Utah SEDI (2024)

BRIEF: Utah’s State-Endorsed Digital Identity framework establishing privacy-first, decentralized principles where identity belongs to individuals, not governments.
W3C (2024) Verifiable Credentials 2.0

BRIEF: W3C standard for machine-verifiable credentials—foundational data model for delegation, authorization, and revocability.
Zhu et al. (2024) Generative AI Security

BRIEF: Analyzes GenAI security; traditional defenses fail, requiring AI firewalls, guardrails, watermarking for social engineering attacks.

2023

Allen (2023) Origins of SSI

BRIEF: Allen traces SSI origins to five traditions: sovereignty, living systems, commons governance, feminist theory, and human rights.
Baird et al. (2023) Threshold Signatures

BRIEF: Modern threshold signature schemes enabling distributed authority where K-of-N parties must cooperate—cryptographic foundation for preventing single points of failure.
boyd (2023) Structuring Algorithms

BRIEF: Framework showing algorithms structure networks via institutional arrangements, enabling network-based discrimination through data infrastructure control beyond categorical protections.
Carter (2023) Operation Choke Point 2.0

BRIEF: Documents financial system weaponization against legal industries through systematic banking access denial.
Ehmke (2023) Dimensions of Digital Coercion

BRIEF: Systematic framework analyzing digital coercion through four dimensions across commercial and open-source platforms, proposing multi-layered standards as accountability.
Farahany (2023) Battle for Your Brain

BRIEF: Argues cognitive liberty (mental self-determination) is foundational right threatened by neurotechnology.
Open Government Partnership (2023)

BRIEF: Policy guidance on digital ID risks across 27 countries; recommends Human Rights Impact Assessments and meaningful participation of at-risk populations.
Renieris (2023) Beyond Data

BRIEF: Comprehensive critique of “data ownership” frameworks; calls for grounding digital identity in human rights rather than property law.
Sovrin Guardianship (2019/2023)

BRIEF: Explores guardianship necessity for SSI inclusivity given 2.9 billion without internet access; warns about “safeguarding dystopia.”

2022

Ahmed et al. (2022) Blockchain SSI Survey

BRIEF: Survey of 153 blockchain identity articles establishing five essential components framework for evaluating BC-IDMS solutions.
CSSPS (2022)

BRIEF: Framework of 42 verifiable properties bridging SSI principles and legal/regulatory compliance requirements across jurisdictions.
Naik & Jenkins (2022) Is SSI Really Sovereign?

BRIEF: Critical assessment revealing SSI sovereignty as inherently contextual and jurisdiction-dependent rather than binary or absolute.
Renieris (2022) Freedom to Transact Critique

BRIEF: Essential counterpoint—challenges absolute “right to transact” claims, distinguishing proportionate regulation from exclusionary gatekeeping.
Schardong (2022) SSI Systematic Review

BRIEF: First reproducible systematic review of SSI reveals explosive growth but critical gaps in trust, usability, and compliance.
W3C (2022) Decentralized Identifiers

BRIEF: W3C standard for decentralized, self-sovereign identifiers with cryptographic verification—foundational infrastructure for platform-independent delegation.

2021

Allen (2021) Principal Authority

BRIEF: Analyzes Wyoming SF0039’s legal grounding of digital identity in Agency law, reorganizing SSI principles as Principal rights and Agent duties.
Allen (2021) SSI: 5 Years On

BRIEF: Five-year SSI retrospective finds W3C success with mission drift toward institutional surveillance over refugee protection.
Ante et al. (2021) Bibliometric Review of Digital Identity

BRIEF: First bibliometric mapping of digital identity reveals seven fragmented streams with minimal cross-citation despite 7x publication growth.
Cordeiro (2021) Sharenting

BRIEF: Examines tension between children’s privacy rights and parental freedom; documents sharenting harms including identity theft and permanent digital footprints.
Čučko & Turkanović (2021) SSI Systematic Mapping

BRIEF: First systematic mapping of SSI research reveals validation dominating, evaluation absent, and zero usability research.
Grigg (2021) The Identity Cycle

BRIEF: Argues identity emerges from community, not state capture; validates through Kenyan chamas (200,000+ groups, $1.7B, 42% GDP).
Utah Code Title 46 (2021)

BRIEF: State legislation recognizing digital identity credentials without creating government monopoly—model for “recognition without mandate.”

2020

Andrieu et al. (2020) Five Mental Models

BRIEF: Identifies five identity mental models (space-time, presentation, attribute, relationship, capability) and their intersections for SSI architecture.
Naik & Jenkins (2020) Governing Principles of SSI

BRIEF: 20-principle SSI evaluation framework extending Allen’s 10 principles; comparative analysis reveals technical maturity but operational gaps.
Zwitter et al. (2020) SSI: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

BRIEF: Critically examines SSI through philosophical, legal, and technical lenses, revealing naturalist-constructivist tensions requiring explicit governance decisions.

2019

Benjamin (2019) Race After Technology

BRIEF: Exposes how technologies reproduce racial inequity while appearing neutral, introducing “New Jim Code” concept for discriminatory automation.
Cohen (2019) Between Truth and Power

BRIEF: Demonstrates how code and law co-construct identity as extractable capital; property frameworks actively create data as commodity.
Sheldrake (2019) Generative Identity

BRIEF: Proposes “generative identity” moving beyond self-sovereignty’s individual focus to embrace emergent, relational, and contextual identity.
Zuboff (2019) Surveillance Capitalism

BRIEF: Develops surveillance capitalism framework—unprecedented economic logic extracting behavioral surplus and deploying instrumentarian power through ubiquitous computation.

2018

Eubanks (2018) Automating Inequality

BRIEF: Examines how automated systems create “digital poorhouse” that profiles and punishes poor Americans through case studies of welfare, homeless services, and child welfare.
Mühle et al. (2018) Essential Components of SSI

BRIEF: First comprehensive technical survey identifying four essential SSI components: decentralized identifiers, authentication, verifiable claims, and storage solutions.
Noble (2018) Algorithms of Oppression

BRIEF: Documents how search algorithms perpetuate racism and sexism, creating conformity pressure through biased categorizations users can’t see or contest.
Wu (2018) Tyranny of Convenience

BRIEF: Analyzes how convenience becomes tyranny—small easy choices accumulate into structural dependency.

2017

Birhane (2017) Ubuntu Philosophy

BRIEF: Contrasts Western individualist “I think therefore I am” with Ubuntu’s relational personhood: “I am because we are.”
Khan & Vaheesan (2017) Market Power (draft)

BRIEF: Analyzes how market power concentration enables gatekeeping and exclusion—applies directly to SSI infrastructure where monopoly positions create participation barriers.

2016

Allen (2016) Path to Self-Sovereign Identity

BRIEF: Foundational 2016 article establishing 10 principles of self-sovereign identity and tracing identity system evolution from centralized to user-centric to self-sovereign models.
Balkin (2016) Information Fiduciaries

BRIEF: Introduces “information fiduciary” concept—platforms holding user data owe fiduciary duties of care, confidentiality, and loyalty.
Hui (2016) Question Concerning Technology in China

BRIEF: Argues sovereignty isn’t universal but culturally situated—global SSI must negotiate across traditions rather than imposing single Western model.
Penney (2016) Chilling Effects

BRIEF: First empirical evidence of regulatory chilling effects from online surveillance, documenting 30% traffic decline to sensitive Wikipedia articles post-Snowden.

2015

Dyer-Witheford (2015) Cyber-Proletariat

BRIEF: Examines digital capitalism’s creation of feudal dependencies masquerading as autonomy—platforms deepen subordination through service dependency.
Purtova (2015) Illusion of Personal Data

BRIEF: Demonstrates “no one owns data” is illusion—corporations already claim quasi-property rights; individual ownership validates framework favoring institutional actors.

2014

Greenwald (2014) No Place to Hide (draft)

BRIEF: Documents Snowden’s NSA surveillance disclosures, examining unprecedented government abuse of power and implications for privacy and democracy.

2013

Solove (2013) Privacy Self-Management

BRIEF: Demonstrates privacy consent mechanisms fail—assumptions of informed, empowered users false given information asymmetry and manufactured consent.

2010

Bryan et al. (2010) Commitment Devices

BRIEF: Comprehensive review of commitment device research showing how voluntary constraints enable better outcomes.
Citizens United (2010)

BRIEF: Landmark ruling extending free speech protections to political spending—debatable whether expression through expenditure applies to identity transactions.

2009

Narayanan & Shmatikov (2009) De-anonymizing Social Networks

BRIEF: Demonstrates that social graph structure enables re-identification even with perfect attribute anonymization—connection patterns are identifying.
Nissenbaum (2009) Privacy in Context

BRIEF: Foundational privacy theory—violations occur when information flows breach context-specific norms, not merely when individuals lose control.

2006

Restatement Third of Agency (2006)

BRIEF: Authoritative U.S. codification of Agency law establishing enforceable duties agents owe principals with centuries of precedent.

2003

Miller et al. (2003) Capability Myths Demolished

BRIEF: Foundational OCaps paper demonstrating how capability possession equals authority—foundational model for SSI delegation.

1998

Scott (1998) Seeing Like a State (draft)

BRIEF: Examines failed large-scale state interventions, identifying how “legibility” requirements destroy local knowledge and contextual complexity.

1996

Radin (1996) Contested Commodities

BRIEF: Foundational market-inalienability theory—some things too bound up with personhood to commodify, including core identity attributes.

1993

Harris (1993) Whiteness as Property

BRIEF: Demonstrates how property law historically encoded racial hierarchies—whiteness functioned as property granting access, opportunity, protection.

1979

Elster (1979) Ulysses and the Sirens

BRIEF: Foundational work on rational self-binding—Ulysses constraining future self enables otherwise impossible outcomes.

1977

Foucault (1977) Discipline and Punish

BRIEF: Classic analysis of how surveillance induces self-regulation—”visibility is a trap”—tracing punishment’s evolution from spectacle to psychological control.

1966

ICCPR (1966) (draft)

BRIEF: Binding international treaty establishing legal personhood as universal right, extending UDHR principles into enforceable international law.

1960

Schelling (1960) Strategy of Conflict

BRIEF: Game theory classic showing how credible commitment enables cooperation impossible for uncommitted actors.

1948

UDHR (1948)

BRIEF: Foundational 1948 declaration establishing universal human dignity and rights as basis for international human rights law.