Digital Identities: A peek into the future
Exploring ATALA Prism’s digital identity solution
A few days ago, the Cardano community had to decide with their vote, which pools would perform a special role. They had to select 30 out of about 300 that applied, from the total of about 3000 pools. For technical reasons, the voting power was not 1 per person but 1 per ADA, giving more voting power to the big wallets, the “rich”. The technical reason is the inability of a blockchain voting system to verify a person. It can verify a wallet, but one can create a huge number of wallets easily. It can also verify tokens, and they are scarce as they have value, so that was the next best thing.
But what if the voting system can verify your identity on the blockchain? That would be a perfect case of transparent, immutable elections! Certificates, memberships, accounts, asset ownership, stored immutably on the blockchain and connected to an identity that is linked to only one person. That is exactly what Atala Prism has been working on, starting with 5 million students in Ethiopia and then the country of Georgia. Many more institutions are following. For example, the National Technical University of Athens (The “Greek MIT”) is starting to implement a similar solution for digital college degrees, and I am proud to announce that our pool Skepsis will support that effort with 10% of our profits (we can increase the number if we get more delegators). But let’s see how digital identity is going to work.
Anyone can create an address on a blockchain. Or a million addresses. But what about a special address that can be created and accessed only by one person, and only once? A wallet that can be unlocked with your biometrics, e.g., a 3D scan of your face, and your fingerprint and a password, with an AI algorithm making sure that the 3D scan is really you and not a cast of your face, and your fingerprint is from a finger that is connected to a live body? Wouldn’t then that person, the owner of the address, be able to store their data, perhaps encrypted, in that address? Then anyone with the right permission, i.e., consent from the original owner, could view the data and be able to trust and transact with that person. That address, the digital identity of a person, can be endorsed with a digital driver’s license issued by a State. It can be endorsed with a college degree, from a participating institution. It can be endorsed with health insurance, medical records, accounts, real estate ownership, you name it. The applications are limitless. And so would be the improvement of the quality of life.
Atala Prism has a demo on their website showcasing the story of a young girl, Jo. You can download the app on your phone and try it out or watch my video where I demonstrate it. She just graduated college and received a digital ID card from the Metropol City on her Atala Prism app, from where she opened an account on the blockchain and has her private key safely stored in the form of 12 words. With that City-issued ID, she can apply to receive her digital college degree. With those 2 documents, she can apply for work, as the employer is certain that the employee’s college degree is authentic. The employer issues a Proof of Employment certificate and with Jo’s consent, endorses her digital identity (blockchain address). With that, she applies for Health Insurance and receives proof of Insurance on her address, or blockchain identity wallet.
The story can go on. Our imagination is the limit. We can forge a new reality using the power of decentralization and blockchains. Brick by brick, we will build it, and our children will have a better world to live in. You, me, our neighbors, all of us ordinary people that want a better world, without corrupted centralized institutions and corporations controlling our lives.
