Internet Identity: The zero-knowledge Identity System Powering Distrikt’s User Authentication.

The importance of privacy-preserving identity systems

Web3 Identity Systems are revolutionizing the Authentication Paradigm of the Internet.

The Internet’s can make users extremely vulnerable and most of that vulnerability comes from the authentication standards used as “best practices” in web2, which make it an exploitative and outdated environment.

Blockchain technology brings a different paradigm to the Internet’s status quo and is it’s disruption is making our digital landscape more and more decentralized and privacy-preserving. That’s not to say that this new world doesn’t have its own share of lingering inefficiencies that create friction for the average user. But it is developing web3 solutions to web2 problems at an accelerating pace. Such problems, that Internet Identity addresses, are personal privacy and identity management.

Not just Web3 applications need Web3 Identity Systems.

Internet users have become dangerously accustomed to giving up sensitive, personal information in order to access digital products and platforms. That sensitive data can and has been compromised and used in malicious ways, as shown by the countless data breaches and illegal trading of users’ personal information.

Typically, when someone creates an Account/Profile on a web2 service such as Twitter or Medium, they have to use their Email as the authenticating ID along with a password.

The ID credentials and the password is almost always stored in a centralized server database owned by the identity provider or the web2 software company.

There isn’t much transparency on how these identity service providers manage and protect your data or if access to your account is being granted to third parties.

If we are talking bad faith, all of the current web2 data, including user data, is technically owned by software companies, as it is hosted within their centralized servers to which they have unrestricted access.

Cambridge Analytica, countless data breaches, and illegal trading of personal information are only a few of the proven dangers that come with the way social media networks (and not only) treat users and their personal data.

With the help of blockchain-based solutions like the Internet Identity, we finally have a universal digital identity system that prioritizes privacy whenever we log into any website or application and doesn’t require us to create any new accounts or passwords.

This is a huge step forward in online privacy and can go so far as to reduce online fraud and identity theft as well as providing a more trustworthy environment for users navigating new platforms.

The II enables Pseudonymous and Secure Authentication to Distrikt and most of the ICP ecosystem.

Cryptographic identity solutions are great, but many legacy Crypto authentication methodologies are cumbersome and involve complex key management and sometimes even exposure of private keys to insecure front-ends hosted on insecure cloud servers.

A true web3 identity system provides authentication for securely accessing dapps, with minimal trust assumptions associated with it by leveraging advanced cryptography solutions.

Thanks to the Internet Identity authentication system, distrikt enables users to create their profile and sign in to their accounts without disclosing any personal information whatsoever.

This authentication method via Internet Identity has been a fundamental value proposition for distrikt, as it aligns with the platform’s values of prioritizing the user’s privacy and sovereignty.

On ICP, applications like distrikt are built as Smart Contracts that live 100% on-chain, in contrast to simply leveraging blockchain for the token ledger. Both the Front-end and back-end of the decentralized application are hosted fully on-chain as Canister Smart contracts. This is possible because of the unique capabilities of the Internet Computer.

ICP is an end-to-end blockchain network that hosts internet-scale software as Smart contract canisters, and these smart contracts serve the web directly via HTTP(S) calls without relying on any cloud servers or external networks.

Internet Identity can be used to authenticate to most Dapps on the IC, including the Network Nervous System — the on-chain governance system of ICP, which also supports an ICP wallet.

Similarly, whenever a user signs into a new dapp, for example, a Decentralized Social application like Distrikt or OpenChat, a unique (principal ID) is created for their account, allowing users to hold their tokens natively within the Dapp and unlocking a variety of web3 features.

Distrikt never collects a user’s credentials as the Internet Identity always creates a pseudonymous ID used for interacting with the distrikt application smart contract.

The Internet Identity authentication system is

• Decentralized: it is hosted and runs fully on-chain as an immutable smart contract
• Simple to use compared to other blockchain solutions.
• Free to create and use — doesn’t require tokens.
• Secure: user data sovereignty is secured with end-to-end blockchain cryptography
• Privacy-preserving: Internet Identity is anonymizing and generates a pseudonymous ID for every canister a user authenticates with — thereby preventing tracking.
• Portable: With seed phrase, security keys, or remote device registration.

These features of II allow users to create accounts without having to share any authenticating credentials with platforms. Distrikt knows nothing about the user when they sign up with an Internet Identity anchor.

Create your Internet Identity now

Why Distrikt Embraces Internet Identity

Ditch Web2 Identity Systems to embrace the sovereignty and autonomy of web3

In the past, private key management has been notoriously cumbersome for many users who first need to become familiar with blockchain technology and educate themselves about security measures that allow them to manage their keys securely.

The II, although in need of its own UX improvements, is a great step forward in simplifying this process while remaining decentralized and permisionless.

How it works

The II is easy to use once you get the hang of it

Users can log in to Internet Identity using their devices biometrics or other supported device authentication methods like security keys or Ledger devices. This puts an end to the need to use a username + password.

The system generates a private/public key pairing, where the public key is used to identify an individual, and the user manages the private key for authentication via biometrics or a security key.

Hardware wallets or security keys, such as the Ledger hardware wallet or the Yubikey, can add additional security layers to your II (Internet Identity). The private keys of the user are stored within the hardware chips of their devices, and that information never leaves the device. Therefore the exposure of user private keys to insecure front-ends decreases significantly.

To use Internet Identity, you only need a device with biometrics/security key, an internet connection, and a browser.

Internet Identity is supported by nearly all modern web browsers and end-user digital devices, including PCs and smartphones.

After creating an Internet Identity Anchor, users can manage their Internet Identity via the II’s dedicated interface, where advanced options such as remote device adding and seed phrase protection are available.

Users can add and authorize up to 8 trusted devices, allowing them to back up their account and access dapps across all of their devices.

Upgrades and (im)mutability

We can rely on the Internet Identity to run 24/7. The developers or users do not have to ask the permission of any centralized entity to use the Identity system. This also reduces platform risk significantly.

Internet Identity can be upgraded and evolved only by the Network Nervous System DAO — the open algorithmic on-chain governance DAO that upgrades and controls the Internet Computer Protocol blockchain network.

Privacy and User Sovereignty Matters to us

Distrikt’s mission is to provide a better alternative to traditional social media networks by creating a network that respects its user’s sovereignty and offers them decision-making power over the platform.

Collecting user data and controlling it would go against this principle while the II’s inherent privacy-preserving design is actively helping distrikt in achieve its mission. We take great care in choosing which third-party services should be integrated into the platform, ensuring they are decentralized, permissionless, secure, and failsafe to the maximum extent. The II fits masterfully into the category of integrations that align with distrikt’s values.

There are multiple advantages to leveraging the Internet Identity authentication system of ICP.

One of the most significant advantages is that since the user creates and manages their Internet Identity, applications like will never have to touch or handle user private information insecurely because they can’t access your II or store any credentials you use to authenticate with the dapps.

The reverse of this amazing value proposition is the responsibility that comes with this autonomy: if the user loses their keys and Internet Identity, no one will be able to recover their access as there are no middlemen that manage this system. Your keys, Your data.

When a user creates an account on an ICP dapp such as distrikt with their internet identity, the dapp has no direct knowledge about the Internet Identity being used. Instead, II creates anonymous sessions across dapps and leverages pseudonymous ID creation, which is the only ID visible to dapps/smart contracts the user uses.

So the II also offers protection if one of the dapps that you signed into turns out to be malicious. In that case, they won’t be able to use your Internet Identity to cause additional harm beyond that application environment.

This helps mitigate attacks and strictly limits the authority of the dapp over your identity and associated assets.

We believe that blockchain technology can and should be used to build a decentralized digital identity system where people control their own data and decide who can access it. Self-sovereignty is one of the promises of web3, and the II does a beautiful job of living up to the challenge.

About Distrikt

Distrikt is a decentralized social network built 100% on the Internet Computer Protocol blockchain.

distrikt is fully self-funded and supported by the Open Internet Foundation.

distrikt users will not be the product and will not pay with their data to use the platform. Instead, distrikt users will own their data and identity and have a say regarding the governance of the platform and its future development.

distrikt is to become a strong user-centric alternative to the status quo and it will become a fully decentralized and user-owned social media network soon. Each iteration of distrikt will lead us closer to this goal!

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