# Introduction Internet applications suffer from the lack of proper identity management. TCP/IP was designed as a network of networks with the sole purpose of identifying machines and not their users. The rise of the web in the 90s favored the emergence of servers that concentrated user access and capitalized on stored data to the point of being today the identity providers of a significant part of humanity. The GAFAMs implemented an identity layer above TCP/IP because there was none and we all missed it. For about ten years now, the concern for the protection of personal data has become a major subject for policies and new paths have been opened up, such as in particular the concepts of Self Sovereign Identity (**SSI**) which allows everyone to have their data in the format electronically as is done for paper data. Web3 suffers like web2 from the lack of proper identity management. On the other hand, there are particularities which make SSI integration even more difficult: * The users of web3 applications are even less docile than those of internet applications. they are more concerned with the management of their data because decentralized finance has already done its work. * Web3 applications require on-chain data integration but the verifiable credentials we use in the SSI are off-chain data container by construction so we have to find solutions, tricks to make a bridge that allow both to use the technology provided by the blockchain while guaranteeing the protection of user data. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://altme-documentation.gitbook.io/altmes-documentation/introduction.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.