The Sovrin Foundation, a private non-profit body governing the Sovrin Network as a global public utility for independent identity, has announced that its custom-built blockchain for independent digital identity project has been accepted into incubation under Hyperledger.

Called “Hyperledger Indy”, the project aims to provide people, organizations, and things independent control over their digital identities while giving the enterprise new solutions to the complex challenges of digital identity in general. Its code base enables creating and managing decentralized, self-sovereign identities using distributed ledgers. In addition, it also provides a robust cross-ledger identity management capability to other incubated projects such as Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Corda, and others.

“I’m excited about incubating Indy at Hyperledger. Hyperledger is home to world-class blockchain projects from leaders in finance, banking, IoT, supply chain, manufacturing and technology,” said Phil Windley, Chair, Sovrin Foundation, IIW Co-Founder and Enterprise Architect, BYU. “We’re honored to join this community and bring a purpose-built identity system that is just as decentralized as they are—and which can interoperate with all of them.”

Sovrin Foundation announced its Associate membership of Hyperledger in December 2016. With incubation within Hyperledger, Indy would attract more developers who want to unlock the transformative power of digital identity that is decentralized, self-sovereign, and independent of any silo.

“Indy provides tools, libraries, and reusable components for providing digital identities rooted on blockchains or other distributed ledgers so that they are interoperable across administrative domains, applications, and any other silo”, Sovrin Foundation said in an online post.

According to official release, this joint effort will accelerate the development of solutions that address digital identity challenges spanning any device, application, domain, or service on the Internet. Indy-powered digital identities will give people and organizations an increased ability to exchange and verify identity information easily, securely and privately. Implementations of Indy can be deployed within a single enterprise or community, across an ecosystem of partners, or for the Internet as a whole.

“Identity done right is a critical need for the distributed ledger ecosystem and the world at large. With Hyperledger Indy, we are working to provide a digital identity utility that works for individuals, enterprises and connected things,” said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. “We need identities that are secure, private, distributed, and interoperable across all our projects, and Hyperledger Indy is a force-multiplier for those efforts.“

Peter Simpson, Executive Director, iRespond, said that iRespond’s solutions will use the Sovrin network which is based on project Indy.

In addition, Jim Nussle, CEO, Credit Union National Association, said that Sovrin’s identity service will help credit unions safeguard their members’ identity and personal data – a critical element to maintaining that trust.

“Having Indy incubated by Hyperledger is a major validation of CULedger’s leadership in this exciting new industry”, Nussle added.