> Decentralized systems that are engineered to prevent concentrating power as they grow avoid this. They can in fact increase their credibility as more users provide their assessments as input. Protocols and structures that are distributed and self-sovereign also offer significantly improved robustness, portability, and versatility than conventional centralized or escrowed processes — especially when combined with secure cryptography.
>
> One of the first technologies to offer the advantages of decentralization emerged 25 years ago when the advent of PGP realized a Web of Trust that contained decentralized, cryptographically verified attestations of its users. Unfortunately, failures of UX design confined the spread of PGP to highly technical communities.
>
> Today, decentralized Webs of Trust remain as important as ever. Now is the time to extend them to be usable by everyone who has access to digital networks, in particular to marginalized populations that can benefit from the technology. It is a fortunate tragedy that there is no shortage of real-life examples of the need for decentralized Webs of Trust in the world today. A large spectrum of individuals — from marginalized persons like stateless refugees and victims of human trafficking to members of the informal or unregulated economy — urgently need to participate in otherwise privileged economic and political fora, but they face technical, economic, and political barriers to entry.
>
> The essential problem is to connect burgeoning new technological developments with unmet consumer needs, and vice-versa. In this paper, we present five use cases: from two relatively simple cases of managing selective disclosure to the most extreme case of establishing government-verifiable credentials from nothing for a stateless refugee.
