The ToIP Model - Trust Over IP

Before Trust Over IP Foundation, trust architects had a vision.

There would be a “trust layer” for the Internet, achieved by following the same architecture as the Internet.

Each peer would be an instance of a standard “stack” of protocols, just as each device on the Internet runs an instance of the TCP/IP stack.

Today, that vision, with its combination of technology, governance and ecosystems, is seen in the journey below to what we call the Trust Over IP Model.

Here’s our story.

We are defining an architecture for digital trust on the internet, so we need technology…

Experience has taught us that for technology to be trustworthy, we need to understand how it is governed

Two columns, one for technology, one for governance

Using layers helps to describe how technology systems are built, each layer providing specific capabilities to the next

Part of the full Trust Over IP model diagram, with columns for technology and governance, and rows for trust support, trust spanning, trust tasks and trust applications

We need to consider governance of each layer and of the system as a whole

Governance is a continual process, cycling through define, run, and then (re)define cycles as risks and purpose evolve

Ecosystem implementations will use ToIP elements, and ToIP will learn from how they are used

Part of the full Trust Over IP model diagram, with columns for technology, governance and ecosystem, and rows for trust support, trust spanning, trust tasks and trust applications

Ecosystem implementations are separate to ToIP.

They have control over their work, ToIP has control over its work.

Each ecosystem will have specific concerns and interests defined by their purpose and context

A partial view of the new Trust Over IP model, with three columns and four rows

Ecosystem implementations may make use of other systems in addition to ToIP.

Ecosystems may have relations with other ecosystems.

And we use the concrete representations of artefacts and parties to illustrate how it works…

The full Trust Over IP model diagram, with columns for technology, governance and ecosystem, and rows for trust support, trust spanning, trust tasks and trust applications

With ToIP, the Internet can become a world of interconnected & interoperable trustworthy ecosystems

Ecosystem 1 connected to multiple other ecosystems with arrows

We believe this new model can underpin an entire layer of Internet-scale digital trust.

Try the interactive demo below to learn more.

The introductory white paper (PDF) also has more background and detail on the history of the model.

To hear more about the ToIP stack, listen to a panel presentation The Stack The Stack The Stack done at EIC 2022 in Berlin and Defining the Protocol for Internet-Scale Digital Trust done at EIC 2023 in Berlin.

Try the Interactive Demo