Dear EPDP team, We are writing to provide you with an update on ICANN org’s effort to produce a cost estimate based on the answers<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YtLHw4ASPOLwI_77bXGJrGypCHzYePQ5vaIWXzPa...> provided in March in response to our questions regarding this effort. We appreciate the team’s efforts to estimate the scope of use for the SSAD and provide answers to our questions. ICANN org is committed to supporting the EPDP team in its work and hopes that its estimates prove useful for the team’s deliberations. To that end, the org is preparing estimates that in some cases will reflect ranges of costs, because some critical factors remain unknown or undetermined by the EPDP. This includes in the area of accreditation and identity verification, which we raised as concerns on today’s EPDP call. In particular, question #23 in the Q&A document<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YtLHw4ASPOLwI_77bXGJrGypCHzYePQ5vaIWXzPa...> asks for greater detail regarding the EPDP Team’s expectations about the depth and breadth of identity verification. In the org’s public comments on Preliminary Recommendation #1, we also cited concerns regarding the verification and management of signed assertions. Specifically, we noted: “As there are no recommendations on how the Accreditation Authority must verify the identity of the requestor, ICANN org believes it is important to understand the scale of effort the EPDP expects for the verification process. For example, how and to what type of standards would an IP attorney’s identity be validated? A cyber security researcher? If any possible SSAD user may be accredited, how would the Accreditation Authority or Identity Provider be expected to verify that an individual with the email address NAME@SLD.TLD is who they say they are? Would it be up to the Accreditation Authority or the Identity Provider to set these parameters?” We understand from today’s discussion that the EPDP notes many of these details can be worked out in the implementation phase. With this discussion in mind, the org will estimate costs to the best of its ability based on its past experiences, as suggested by the team. Given the team’s timeline for reviewing public comments on the initial report, we are working to provide you with an estimate ahead of the scheduled discussion on Preliminary Recommendation #15, which we understand to be 23 April. Our CFO Xavier Calvez and Vice President of Finance Becky Nash are available to join the team on that call, or whenever is most appropriate, to discuss these efforts as we work to produce the estimates. Thank you, Eleeza and Dan ICANN org liaisons