Personalization 101

Up until now Handles have played a very significant role in facilitating the transfer of assets on Cardano in a human-friendly way. The concept was simple and the functionality seamless, but now it is all about extending that functionality out and improving on the standard. Personalization is the beginning of that imperative.

If you have not read our Intro to Personalization article, please do so as this article is going to cover the concrete functionality that we are bringing at launch and into future iterations.

It’s true that Personalization is a loaded feature which can make it hard to figure out what is coming to Handle owners, so let’s break it down.

Here is what is coming at launch:

The Handle Designer

(Pictures used *DO NOT* reflect end product release)

The Handle Designer represents ADA Handle’s first step into Identity on the Blockchain. Within the Designer you can begin to customize, more intricately, who you are. Every interaction and change is secured entirely on the Cardano network; you, are secured entirely on the Cardano network.

At launch you will be able to customize your:

• Profile Picture
• Handle Background
• Handle Name (not the name itself)
• Add Social Links
• Add QR Code

How will Profile Pictures and Handle Backgrounds work?

The nature of a permissionless and immutable ledger instructs us to build safeguards into platforms that allow a user to customize data and submit that data as a transaction onchain. This is why we are only allowing Verified NFT projects to participate in Profile Pictures and Backgrounds, for now.

Once a Handle owner connects their wallet, they’ll be able to choose from a collection of their own NFT Profile Pictures if they own them AND hold them in the same wallet as their Handle. If they own any of the Verified NFT project Profile Pictures in their wallet, they will be able to attach it onto their Handle. Any dApp across Cardano can then pull that information and display that Profile Picture on their UI the same way they display your Handle Name.

Handle Backgrounds will work very similarly. The same Verified NFT projects will create a collection of their own branded-Backgrounds available for purchase for holders of their specific collection.

Which NFT Projects are Verified?

For the launch of Personalization we have chosen 3 Verified NFT projects to flagship this feature. We will reveal them soon. We have the next batch of 3 in waiting to begin their onboarding. After the second batch of Verified NFT projects is onboarded, we will begin polling the community of Handle Owners on which project should be onboarded next.

The Handle Portal

Personalization will also bring an entire revamp of the UI/UX of Handle.me. The new site will be your own personal Dashboard, but also your own personal public display. For example, if I have my own wallet connected to the Dashboard with my $goose Handle and I go to handle.me/goose, I will be directed to my own Dashboard. If anyone else types in handle.me/goose they will be redirected to my Dashboard-on-Display for the public.

The Future of Personalization

In building the architecture of Personalization, we will be allowing ourselves to extend the Handle Standard into further functionality such as:

• encrypted datasets for user-controlled information sharing
• DID-compatibility
• domains (loading IPFS/decentralized websites)

It is important to know that Personalization is a backbone for important data-sharing onchain, but until blockchain rules and regulation on data-sharing and the palpability of self-sovereign-identity-as-a-service is more mature, we are focusing on the customization aspects of Identity on the Blockchain.

I am my Handle, my Handle is me.