Trinsic Sells Decentralized ID Platform to Dentity, Shifts Focus to Identity Acceptance Network

Trinsic has sold its decentralized ID platform to Dentity, a long-time customer and partner, as part of a strategic shift to focus on its Identity Acceptance Network. The company, which launched the first cloud-based decentralized identity platform in 2019, served over 100 paying customers and 5,000 developers, generating more than $1 million in revenue over four years.

Trinsic CEO Riley Hughes identified growth limitations as an infrastructure provider, noting that success depended heavily on customer execution. “Our big challenge was that, as an infrastructure provider,” said Hughes, “our success was dependent on our customers’ execution. Not enough customers were successful enough.”

Dentity, under CEO Jeffrey Schwartz’s leadership, has demonstrated significant market success, processing millions of IDs and building a client base exceeding 100 businesses. The company’s combination of consumer focus and commercial orientation made it an optimal candidate to acquire Trinsic’s decentralized ID assets.

Following the divestment, Trinsic will concentrate exclusively on its Identity Acceptance Network, which launched in May. The network, which aims to accelerate ID verification through partnerships with mobile driver’s licenses, eID apps, and decentralized ID wallets, has expanded to include nearly 100 million users. This builds on Trinsic’s earlier work demonstrating novel mDL use cases through its participation in the California DMV Hackathon.

The development occurs amid broader changes in the decentralized identity sector. The Sovrin Foundation, an early pioneer in self-sovereign identity, recently announced plans to discontinue its MainNet by March 2025. Operational since 2017, the Sovrin Network played an important role in advancing decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials but faces closure due to reduced usage, regulatory uncertainty, and financial constraints.

The industry’s evolution reflects a shift toward practical applications and partnerships, as demonstrated by recent developments like Microsoft Azure’s integration of decentralized ID capabilities and various government initiatives in digital credentials. While infrastructure providers face sustainability challenges, solutions emphasizing immediate utility and scalable value in ID verification are gaining prominence. The Trinsic-Dentity arrangement demonstrates a potential model for sustainable growth in the decentralized identity ecosystem.

The Identity Acceptance Network aims to make ID verification ten times faster through its various partnerships, including collaborations with major digital ID providers like Yoti and CLEAR. Hughes has indicated openness to additional collaborations, inviting interested parties to explore partnerships within the Acceptance Network.

Sources: LinkedIn

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December 13, 2024 – by Cass Kennedy