About Podcast Episode

What if there was a way to establish a new trust layer for the internet, enabling secure digital interactions and unlocking valuable transactions that are currently impossible?

In this episode of The SSI Orbit Podcast, host Mathieu Glaude sits down with Darrell O’Donnell, Executive Director of the Global Acceptance Network (GAN), to explore this ambitious vision. The GAN aims to create a neutral, non-profit organization that governs digital public infrastructure for exchanging trusted information.

Drawing inspiration from payment networks like Visa, GAN seeks to standardize conversations around digital credentials and identity across different ecosystems and industries globally.

Some of the valuable topics discussed include:

The problems GAN is trying to solve around digital trust

How GAN compares to and complements existing digital identity efforts

GAN’s governance structure and business model

The role of trust registries in enabling new types of digital interactions

Tune in to learn how GAN could transform digital trust and enable new forms of secure, valuable transactions in our increasingly digital world.

Key Insights:

GAN (Global Acceptance Network) aims to establish a new trust layer for the internet, ensuring secure and seamless digital credential exchanges.
The internet was not built with trust in mind; GAN seeks to address this by building a neutral governance system.
GAN is working with ecosystems across different industries to standardize how digital credentials are issued and verified.
Unlike Visa, GAN won’t be providing the “rails” for transactions but will facilitate standardized conversations around digital trust.
Trust registries are foundational to GAN’s strategy, enabling ecosystems to verify credentials consistently.
The importance of building business, governance, and technology together for sustainable trust networks.

Strategies:

Focusing on business, governance, and technology in that order, to unlock commercial value and ensure long-term sustainability.
Operationalizing the Trust Over IP framework by applying it in real-world ecosystems.
Building trust registries to answer simple yet critical questions like “Is entity X authorized to do Y?”

Chapters:

00:00 – What is the Global Acceptance Network (GAN)
08:35 – What value does GAN bring to whom?
12:05 – Comparing GAN to VISA and SWIFT
17:39 – Does GAN need to become a consumer brand?
22:49 – Who are GAN Members? What type of relationship will they have with GAN?
27:07 – How does GAN differ from and complement National Digital ID programs?
36:16 – How is GAN managing its own internal governance?
40:19 – What is GAN’s business model?
46:27 – How do Trust Registries fit into GAN?
53:29 – What is next for the GAN?

Additional resources:

About Guests

Darrell O’Donnell is the Executive Director of the Global Acceptance Network (GAN), a pioneering initiative focused on establishing a trust layer for the internet. Darrell is a technology company founder, executive, investor, and advisor who specializes in helping organizations—both large and small—operationally deploy emerging technologies. With a focus on solving the challenges of life-critical and mission-critical systems, he excels in environments where interoperability and collaboration between multiple players, often with no clear central authority, are essential.

As a leader in the digital trust ecosystem, Darrell chairs multiple standards and interoperability efforts with organizations such as the Trust Over IP Foundation, Sovrin Foundation, Decentralized Identity Foundation, and W3C. He also advises numerous startups, large corporations, senior government leaders, and investors, leveraging his expertise to guide the development and deployment of digital trust solutions across industries. LinkedIn

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