The Universal ID Council (UIDC) is a group of human rights activists, identity experts, and technology innovators with decades of experience around critical issues tied to identification rights and responsibilities. The Council was created to address an increasingly acute problem across the world: nearly one billion people lack access to proof of their identity, leading to devastating human rights infringement and unjust financial exclusion. Without a trusted, verifiable, and decentralized system to maintain a sovereign proof of identity for every person around the globe, unfathomable numbers of people will continue to be vulnerable to abuse, and unable to meaningfully participate in the global economic system.