Richard Esplin

Richard Esplin

@esplinr.bsky.social

Professional focus: self-sovereign identity, product management Interests: open source, open culture, outdoors, religion, flourishing Tweets reflect my own opinions and are not official statements from my employer

120 followers161 following198 posts

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

I'm excited to be part of an event with @justin.richer.org next week. I learn so much every time I talk with him! We're going to discuss identity architecture that support zero trust: VCs, NHI, GNAP, SPIFFE and more. You can join us and have your own questions answered: www.dock.io/live-event-c...

dock.ioLive Event - Can we really have Zero Trust with a federated identity architecture?We'll be bringing Justin Richer (MongoDB) for a live discussion with Richard Esplin (Dock Labs) and Agne Caunt (Dock Labs) about whether traditional perimeter-based approaches are fundamentally incomp...
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

@techaltar.bsky.social I enjoy the Friday checkout Q&A on Nebula. Thank you! What do you think about the EU Digital Identity wallets that are coming soon? Do regular people know about them? How will a government issued digital identity change daily life? Is it a tool for authoritarianism?

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

In this video from EIC 2025 I explain why EUDI's use of traditional PKI instead of W3C DIDs results in an architecture that is less flexible and open. I'm excited about #EUDI and I hope that future iterations will leverage technologies that go further to empower citizens in the use of digital data.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

This blog post explains how verifiable credentials improve the flexibility of an #IAM architecture while also embracing zero trust principles. User identity wallets allow identity architectures to incrementally evolve and reduce dependence on fragile centralized systems. #digitalidentity

dock.ioCan We Really Have Zero Trust With a Castle-and-Moat Architecture?Traditional castle-and-moat IAM systems create silos and vulnerabilities that undermine true zero trust. This blog explores how verifiable credentials and decentralized identity enable perimeterless s...
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

This series on the history of Lebanon is a masterfully crafted recounting of a complicated story. It makes clear that no single group is responsible for the suffering in the region. It makes me reflect on human nature. I highly recommend you watch it, starting with this prelude. #HistoryMatters

youtube.comI Was Detained In Lebanon as an Israeli SpyYouTube video by Rare Earth
Evan Hadfield @evanhadfield.bsky.social

youtu.be/6WDdFneJ8M4?... I've never had a video throttled even a hundredth this badly before. Talk about Israel on YouTube, lose your channel for the privilege. Unfortunate.

youtu.beHow Lebanon Died: History of Lebanon (Final Episode)YouTube video by Rare Earth
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Spent the last two days playing with #linux toys. I upgraded to Pop!_OS 24.02 and adopted the Cosmic Desktop as my daily driver. I was nervous it wouldn't be ready for prime-time, but it's generally been a smooth update. I'll share some thoughts in the thread. Thank you @system76.bsky.social !

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Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

More updates: * Notifications from Google Calendar in Chrome are raw HTML in the top right corner. * Notifications from Steam are cut-off in the bottom right corner. * I have a bunch of zombie processes that have a Cosmic process as a parent.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

* When a window expands due to interaction with an active edge, it leaves a gap with the screen edge. I don't see how to change that. * I'm losing confidence that I can adjust to active edges being on. So far I'm still glad I migrated.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Spent the last two days playing with #linux toys. I upgraded to Pop!_OS 24.02 and adopted the Cosmic Desktop as my daily driver. I was nervous it wouldn't be ready for prime-time, but it's generally been a smooth update. I'll share some thoughts in the thread. Thank you @system76.bsky.social !

View full thread
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Spent the last two days playing with #linux toys. I upgraded to Pop!_OS 24.02 and adopted the Cosmic Desktop as my daily driver. I was nervous it wouldn't be ready for prime-time, but it's generally been a smooth update. I'll share some thoughts in the thread. Thank you @system76.bsky.social !

View full thread
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Frustrations continued: * Focus-follows-cursor is included out of the box, but it always raises the focus window. * Can't disable windows triggering from active edges.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Frustrations continued: * The Cosmic clipboard manager applet doesn't work. Building from source helped, but it crashed a lot. I had to build Ringboard from source. * Changing the monitor used by my graphics tablet styles took research into command line Wayland tools.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Spent the last two days playing with #linux toys. I upgraded to Pop!_OS 24.02 and adopted the Cosmic Desktop as my daily driver. I was nervous it wouldn't be ready for prime-time, but it's generally been a smooth update. I'll share some thoughts in the thread. Thank you @system76.bsky.social !

View full thread
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

HiDPI handling under Wayland is more consistent than it was with X11. Only Firefox needed a special setting to be large enough. All my applications appear to work with Wayland, except for some Steam games that I still need to troubleshoot.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Frustrations: * The upgrade defaulted to only use integrated graphics, and they removed the GUI for changing modes. Switching to Hybrid on the command line worked once I figured out what was going on. * Cosmic doesn't yet support applications spanning monitors. That's going to annoy me.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Spent the last two days playing with #linux toys. I upgraded to Pop!_OS 24.02 and adopted the Cosmic Desktop as my daily driver. I was nervous it wouldn't be ready for prime-time, but it's generally been a smooth update. I'll share some thoughts in the thread. Thank you @system76.bsky.social !

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

I love how configurable Cosmic is. The panel and dock are great. Floating and tiled windows coexist. I'm glad to retire all the Gnome plugins that I used. The Cosmic file browser and terminal apps might actually lure me away from KDE Dolphin and Konsole. The included Cosmic applets work well.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Here is a recent discussion the mDL standard (ISO 18013) and #onlineprivacy. Andrew Hughes and Ryan Williams shared insights from developing and implementing the standard. We discussed the concerns from the #NoPhoneHome statement and how privacy will improve in the future versions. #digitalidentity

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Trump's CFBP will reconsider Rule 1033 on Open Banking “with a view to substantially revis[e] it and provid[e] a robust justification.” Another loss for the average American against big business. #openfinance #opendata

natlawreview.comThe Future of the CFPB Open Banking Rule Remains…OpenOn July 29, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stated in a legal briefing that it has decided to reconsider an agency rule “with a view to substantially revis[e] it and provid[e] a ...
Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

<quote> …the plaintiffs asserted that “open banking [in the United States] is already flourishing through a private, market-based ‘consumer data sharing ecosystem,’” <endquote> By this logic, mob protection rackets are flourishing private market ecosystems because you pick who will rob you!

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

I'm in Berlin and excited for the start of #EIC2025. Today I'm practicing my talk for Wednesday on #VerifiableCredentials and #Biometrics. I hope to see you there! Anyone willing to join me for a morning run?

Richard Esplin@esplinr.bsky.social

My talk is accepted at the Kuppinger Cole European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC 2025). www.kuppingercole.com/sessions/584... Let me know if you'll be in Berlin in May. I would love to meet up and discuss #DigitalIdentity and #Biometrics.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

I can't claim any special expertise, but for 20+ years I've laughed about this article from @theonion.com : theonion.com/congress-thr... The punchline is here: www.latimes.com/archives/la-... And the story continues: www.chicagotribune.com/2002/06/13/c...

theonion.comCongress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is BuiltWASHINGTON, DC—Calling the current U.S. Capitol "inadequate and obsolete," Congress will relocate to Charlotte or Memphis if its demands for a new, state-of-the-art facility are not met, leaders annou...
Robert Rath@robertrath.bsky.social

Not science but history, from The Onion’s book OUR DUMB CENTURY:

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Another problem with #GoogleChrome during meetings with #GoogleMeet: sharing my screen will sometimes throw a generic error. Trying again doesn't help, I have to close the window and rejoin the meeting. I haven't yet detected a pattern. Anyone else seeing this on #Linux ? #TechHelp

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Is anyone else seeing lots of zombie #chrome processes on #Ubuntu #Linux? The number of processes seems correlated to the number of meetings I've held with #Google Meet since my last reboot. Any tips?

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

Ridgetop Research hires me for a consulting gig. Their fine print says they partner with Dots.dev for payments. "Please note there is a 3% processing fee that is applied to each payment." What‽ You are charging me to receive the money you owe me‽ #DoNotRecommend

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

The most relatable character in the #StarWars universe is middle-aged Ben Kenobi: jaded, cynical, disillusioned, out-of-shape, afraid, and disappointed in his student. I assure my kids that they will one day appreciate his courage to leave the cave and do his duty when sufficiently cajoled.

Richard Esplin
@esplinr.bsky.social

He's missing how American consumers benefit from lower prices. He ignores that we lead the world in the creation of high value goods. He barely mentions the risk of tariffs leading to global stagnation. Still, it's a good piece.