W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)
A W3C Recommendation defining a URI scheme for identifiers that resolve to a DID document containing public keys, authentication methods and service endpoints. Identifiers are controlled by their subject rather than issued by a central registry, and are designed to be verifiable and persistent.
Why it matters for autonomous finance
Agent identity is the MARQUE question with among the thinnest coverage anywhere in this register, and DIDs are the most mature published answer to the narrow part of it: giving a non-human actor a durable, cryptographically verifiable identifier that survives the platform it was created on. Agents deployed under shared service credentials cannot be individually attributed, and DIDs are the standards-track route out of that. Several proposed agent networking protocols build on them.
What it does not cover
A DID answers who, and nothing else. It does not say what the identified agent may do, who authorized it, or whether the authorization still holds. Treating an identity primitive as a governance solution is the same category error as reading a tool manifest as an authority grant — the identifier is a prerequisite, not an answer. Adoption in regulated finance also remains limited.
No authority semantics, no oversight, no revocation of permission as distinct from revocation of keys. Every entry in this register carries this section. A standard read past its scope is worse than no standard, because it produces confidence without coverage.