Description

In this episode of The Future of Identity Podcast, I’m joined by Thomas Mayfield, Head of Decentralized Trust & Identity Solutions at the Cardano Foundation. Thomas leads the development of the Veridian Wallet, an open-source digital identity platform built on the KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) protocol and funded by the Foundation.

Our conversation explores the rapidly evolving Web3 digital identity ecosystem—and how Veridian aims to bridge Web2 and Web3 with universal interoperable identifiers that cut through today’s fragmented identity landscape. We also dig into the growing urgency to rebuild digital trust as data breaches, ransomware, and AI-powered threats escalate.

In this episode we explore:

• Why interoperability—across Web2, Web3, and beyond—is essential to breaking down identity “walled gardens.”
• How the KERI protocol enables quantum-proof, tamper-evident, and recoverable identifiers for individuals, organizations, and AI agents.
• Real-world adoption: how the United Nations is using Veridian for organizational identity and passwordless authentication.
• The potential for verifiable IoT and AI agent identities to transform trust in machine-to-machine and human-to-machine interactions.
• How developers can leverage Veridian’s open-source infrastructure, sandbox environments, and tooling to build secure, compliant identity solutions faster.
• The role of regulation in driving adoption—and why future-proofing identity systems now could save billions in breach-related costs.

This episode is essential listening for anyone working on decentralized identity—whether you’re building infrastructure, integrating identity into products, or shaping policy. Thomas offers a rare, in-depth look at how to design for both future-proof security and real-world interoperability.

Enjoy the episode, and don’t forget to share it with others who are passionate about the future of identity!

Learn more about the Cardano Foundation.

Reach out to Riley (@rileyphughes) and Trinsic (@trinsic_id) on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or find all ways to listen at trinsic.id/podcast.