{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,13]],"date-time":"2026-04-13T16:56:13Z","timestamp":1776099373805,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Distrib. Ledger Technol."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Web3\u2019s decentralised infrastructure has upended the standardised approach to digital identity established by protocols like OpenID Connect. Web2 and Web3 currently operate in silos, with Web2 leveraging selective disclosure JSON web tokens (SD-JWTs) and Web3 dApps being reliant on on-chain data and sometimes clinging to centralised system data. This fragmentation hinders user esxperience and the interconnectedness of the digital world. This article explores the integration of Web3 within the OpenID Connect framework, scrutinising established authentication protocols for their adaptability to decentralised identities. The research examines the interplay between OpenID Connect and decentralised identity concepts, the limitations of the existing protocols like OpenID Connect for verifiable credential issuance, OpenID Connect framework for verifiable presentations, and self-issued OpenID provider. As a result, a novel privacy-preserving digital identity bridge is proposed, which aims to answer the research question of whether authentication protocols should inherently support Web3 functionalities and the mechanisms for their integration. Through a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) use case, the findings indicate that a privacy-centric bridge can mitigate the existing fragmentation by aggregating different identities to provide a better user experience. While the digital identity bridge demonstrates a possible approach to harmonise digital identity across platforms for their use in Web3, the bridging is unidirectional and limits root trust of credentials. The bridge\u2019s dependence on centralised systems may further fuel the debate on (de)centralised identities.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3719661","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,25]],"date-time":"2025-02-25T10:55:14Z","timestamp":1740480914000},"page":"1-17","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Aggregating Digital Identities through Bridging: An Integration of Open Authentication Protocols for Web3 Identifiers"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1331-6517","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ben","family":"Biedermann","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Islands and Small States Institute, University of Malta, Msida, Malta and ACURRAENT\u00a0UG,\u00a0Frankfurt\/Oder, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-1672-9018","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matthew","family":"Scerri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"WID3+ Consortium, Malta"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3303-3143","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victoria","family":"Kozlova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ACURRAENT UG, Frankfurt\/Oder, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4796-5665","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joshua","family":"Ellul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for DLT, University of Malta, Msida, Malta"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","unstructured":"Christopher Allen. 2016. 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