Abstract
As the global industrial complex gears toward fulfilling the tenets of
Industry 4.0 and beyond, technologies such as distributed ledger
technologies, digital twins, and artificial intelligence become pivotal
enablers. In the last decade, metaverse as a concept and technology
found its place among crucial enablers for technology and digital
advancement across several engineering domains. Metaverse has the
potential to combine the elements from distributed computing platforms,
the digital evolution of physical systems, and advanced learning systems
to unearth a fully digitized world of comparative properties of the real
world. We should ensure the privacy, integrity, and confidentiality of
personal data. These requirements will lead to proper identity
management in the metaverse. Given the complex nature of the metaverse,
traditional centralized systems may not offer a viable identity
management solution. Therefore, this study explores a decentralized
identity management system called the Self-sovereign Identity (SSI) as a
logical alternative to traditional centralized identity management
systems. The proposed holistic framework aims to ignite new ideas and
discussions related to the combined deployment of DLT, SSI, and
metaverse to inspire new implementation areas within the Industry 4.0
environment. The paper also discusses various opportunities, enablers,
technical \& privacy aspects, legislation requirements,
and other barriers related to SSI implementation.