Decentralized Identity: Passport to Web3

A DID is an address on the internet that someone can own and control directly. It can be used to find connected DID documents, which contain information associated with the DID. DID documents contain relevant information to enable use cases, such as sign-in, data encryption, communication, etc. Cryptographic proofs, such as digital signatures, allo... See more

Having a strong DID layer could allow for “on-chain” credit scores, providing users access to credit-based lending. Furthermore, because users directly control their credit score, they can better monitor and adjust their borrowing/lending behavior. Thus, DID offers the chance of further democratizing decentralized financial systems. 

Applications can build off of DID to allow creators to provably sign off that an NFT, representing a digital or physical asset, was created by them. Buyers and sellers will be able to verify the provenance of the digital artwork too. DIDs could also help foster greater engagement between artists and their community, such as restricting NFT ownershi... See more

The internet is perhaps the most important invention of the century. Over the past twenty years, it has transformed the fundamental nature of information flows in society: media, politics, news, education, social interactions, etc. Yet even as economic activity increasingly moves from atoms to bytes, our online identities continue to lack true owne... See more

DIDs could preserve a user’s reputation across multiple DAOs. Porting over credentials from one DAO to another reflects the reputation portability that we already enjoy in the physical world, preventing active contributors from having to start from zero. Furthermore, other Web3 contexts, such as participation in Gitcoin, publications to Mirror, or ... See more

On Ceramic, each piece of information is represented as an append-only log of commits called a stream. Each stream is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) stored in IPLD, with an immutable name called a StreamID, and a verifiable state called a StreamState. A stream is similar in concept to a Git tree, and each stream can be thought of as its own blockch... See more

Metamask serves as a strong mental model of what a broader DID solution could look like, as well as highlighting the promise and perils of self-sovereignty. Because Metamask users hold their own private keys, they truly own the assets in their wallets. There is no need to trust third parties with security and custody. Furthermore, users can seamles... See more

Although decentralized identity (DID) has been a largely overlooked topic compared to DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs, we view it as a critical technological primitive that enables native Web3 applications. If we create a shared, flexible, and resilient identity layer, we can drastically unlock the pace of innovation by creating a wider design space.

Credentials have to be managed, updated, and exchanged. This layer aims to address how DIDs can negotiate proof of control and authentication, as well as securely passing data between identity owners.BrightID is a notable project in this area. It is a social identity network with over 30,000 users that allows people to prove to applications that th... See more