Decentralized Identity in Polkadot
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Table of contents & fast scroll:
🔸How does DID work?
🔸Decentralized Identity & Projects on Polkadot:
🔸Litentry
🔸Kilt
🔸Dock
🔸Ontology
Overview
Everyone knows that people are becoming increasingly dependent on identity verification. However, present mechanisms for authenticating individuals and building trust online are quite unpleasant for users and burdensome for organizations. In addition, the existing approach requires consumers to sacrifice their privacy.
This new concept of “Decentralized Identity” places individuals back in control of their personal information, while organizations make certain that user information provided to them is correct and corresponds to the person with whom they are interacting, reducing fraud actions.
A new class of identifier called a decentralized identifier (DID) allows for the creation of a verified, decentralized digital identity. It refers to any subject that a DID’s owner chooses: a person, institution, item, data structure or pretty much everything else. DIDs have been created to be independent of centralized registries, identity providers and certificate authorities, in contrast to conventional, federated identities. It is possible to confirm control over DID without requesting authorization from any other party, even while it may be utilized to aid in the finding of information pertaining directly to a DID.
How does DID work?
Decentralized identifiers are critical for preserving personal information privacy through decentralized identification. For example, if a person offers proof of an attestation (such as diploma in languages, for instance), the verifying party is not required to confirm the authenticity of the information in the proof. Instead, the verifier simply needs cryptographic assurances, demonstrating the validity of the attestation, and the identification of the issuing organization to evaluate whether the proof is genuine.
Attestations (also known as Verifiable Credentials) are tamper-proof, cryptographically verifiable statements made by the issuer to perform the process of decentralized identification. Every attestation issued by an entity (a company, for example) is connected with its DID.
Some Polkadot-based projects can function as a global directory, allowing the verification of DIDs connected with specific entities. Because DIDs are recorded on the blockchain, any user can validate an attestation by comparing it to the issuer’s DID within the Polkadot ecosystem. Let us take a closer look at this point.
Decentralized Identity & Projects on Polkadot
More DID data will be created on-chain as Web3 grows. Because of its highly fragmented nature, this data is spread across multiple networks. But existing Web3 infrastructures, which are quite comparable to the internet in this regard, do not facilitate data merging and integration across various networks, creating a data management challenge.
Litentry’s main feature is DID aggregation. A more convincing and complete identity image is constructed by combining fragmented, single identities into an aggregated one. This aggregated DID fully complies with W3C DID standards and has the ability to overcome the problem of isolated ID registration systems that most tech enterprises are experiencing. Litentry DID-aggregation offers a platform-agnostic identification system that removes the account registration procedure for users and the coding labor required to construct a new registry system for builders.
My Crypto Profile
My Crypto Profile (MCP) is Litentry’s decentralized Web3 personal data management tool, aiming to collect and manage user’s personal data across blockchains and decentralized storage systems, as well as enable data access to third-party dApps. It restructures the web’s hierarchy of user data consumption, giving users control over who may access their data without disclosing their identity. The project will begin with a proof-of-concept stage that will replace the blockchain implementation with a self-hosted centralized server. MCP infrastructure will be transferred to the Litentry blockchain after the product has shown its market fit.
KILT offers a protocol and tools that enable users to manage their own data and create a digital identity by accumulating Credentials provided by trusted institutions.
A digital identity is built on KILT by adding credentials to the DID (which is represented by an industry-standard string of letters and numbers unique to each user). An off-chain DID can be generated for free via the Sporran wallet. Then it can be upgraded to an on-chain DID that is anchored on the KILT blockchain, enabling the use of additional services.
DIDsign
DIDsign is built on KILT. It enables the usage of a unique DID to sign any digital content (PDFs, music, video or software ) straight in your browser. Then you can save a signed file (or set of files) as a ZIP archive to your device and share it to other people using any preferred method (email, Telegram, various social networks). The receiver can readily check that the file was not modified.
Sporran Wallet
Sporran Wallet is designed to create various identities (it can be your professional identity with all qualifications or your gaming identity with all current achievements, for example). The wallet allows users to manage and sign transactions on the KILT blockchain using these digital identities. This is intended to take back control over your data when you provide it to online services.
Web3name
web3name can replace a long and unreadable DID string with a short and simple name. Thus, a digital identity can be represented in a personal and recognizable way, and it is another step toward making Web3 easier to use.
SocialKYC
With SocialKYC, KILT is rethinking the procedure of identification by giving users the option to prove that they are in control of their social media accounts and email addresses, therefore establishing their identity. This is achieved by giving users a task, such as asking them to click on a link in an email or post a certain code on one of their accounts. After that, SocialKYC delivers a verified credential that stays in user’s ownership and may be used to prove an identity to third parties.
Social KYC was recently integrated by Moonsama, allowing users to log into its multiverse bridge using their decentralized Web3 identity. This eliminates the need of traditional Web2 usernames and passwords via the help of KILT’s Sporran wallet and SocialKYC credentials.
Dock delivers a set of tools that include blockchain technology and allow organizations and developers to generate Verified Credentials.
The project is presently functioning as a proof of stake chain. DIDs can be produced by everyone who has Dock tokens, but the creator is not the owner of the DID and hence cannot manage (edit, delete) it. DIDs are handled using their associated private keys, which are separate from the keys that control the Dock tokens used in creating the DID. The chain does not contain the whole DID document, but merely the DID, the accompanying keys and controllers, and the block number for the most recent update, which changes with each DID upgrade. This is required for replay security. Dock’s client SDK gathers these parameters and builds the whole DID document.
Dock now enables registering a new DID with a single public key on chain. However, multiple keys for authentication and authorisation, as well as other W3C-compliant capabilities, will be available in the near future.
Dock Certs
Dock Certs is a fully-featured set of Verifiable Credential solutions designed to let companies issue digital credentials and certificates that are instantaneously and automatically verifiable, fraud-proof, and auditable.
Web3 ID
Web3 ID is a blockchain-based authentication and authorization system that prioritizes user privacy. It enables companies to securely request confidential user data, and the user has the choice of giving permission to disclose the information or just confirming it without providing any details.
Dock Wallet
Dock Wallet is created to save your digital Verifiable Credentials and really own your professional and educational achievements. Currently, you can use Dock’s Credential Verifier to verify your VC.
Ontology is constructing the infrastructure to give trusted access to Web3, allowing consumers and organizations to be certain that regulatory compliant digital identity solutions prioritize users and their privacy.
Ontology DID is a decentralized identity protocol based on the W3C DID standard. This protocol is used by Ontology’s ONT ID to establish and maintain on-chain identities. Individuals, legal entities (organizations, companies, institutions, etc.), items (mobile phones, vehicles, devices, etc.), and contents (articles, licenses, etc.) in the actual world are referred to as “entities,” and “identity” refers to the entity’s identity inside the network.
ONT ID identifies and maintains the identities of entities. On Ontology Blockchain, one entity can relate to several individual identities, and there is no connection between multiple ones.
ONT Login
ONT Login is a decentralized universal authentication login component that allows developers to hide the details of authentication while fast delivering a Web 3.0 safe login experience to organizations and services. Users should currently log into services using their DIDs developeeONT ID. In the future, the ability to log in directly with wallet addresses will be implemented.
ONT TAG
ONT TAG is an open and decentralized authentication technology built on the Ontology trust ecosystem and ONT ID. It offers KYC services for individuals, funds, items, and companies.
Mercury
Mercury is a peer-to-peer decentralized communication protocol that enables entities to safely transfer messages, verified credentials, and verifiable presentations to one another.
OScore
OScore is a self-sovereign credit rating system based on user data recorded on the Ontology blockchain. It supports cross-chain interaction and verified credentials by integrating user identities with personal accounts.
