Vitalk Buterin’s ‘What do I think about biometric proof of personhood?’: A look at how Vendible addresses many concerns in this space.
Introduction
On 24 July, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, wrote an article titled What do I think about biometric proof of personhood?. In this article, Buterin discusses the importance and potential pitfalls of identity systems which attempt to verify that a user is a distinct individual. At Vendible, we understand how powerful this type of claim is for the holder and for those they transact with. After a review of Buterin’s article, we decided to outline some of the key points and how Vendible works to address many of the concerns Burterin raises.
Decentralization in Vendible’s unique identity network
A crucial characteristic of any robust blockchain-based system is its decentralized nature. Decentralization adds to the security, transparency, and inclusivity of the system while reducing the risk of a single point of failure. However, maintaining this decentralized ethos while ensuring accurate and reliable identity verification can be challenging. Vendible addresses this challenge head-on with its unique identity (uID) validation process, designed to mitigate centralization concerns while ensuring maximum security and trust in the network.
In the current state of the Vendible system, potential members are required to connect securely with an identity validator who follows Vendible’s strict identity guidelines. This approach provides a layer of validation that is designed to ensure that each identity on the network is unique, authentic, and tied to a real individual.
At present, Vendible has one identity validator who is fully compliant with these strict guidelines. However, it’s important to note that this is only the beginning. Vendible has plans to significantly expand the number of identity validators on the network. This expansion will be facilitated by Vendible’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which aims to foster a dynamic, self-regulating system where validators adhere to standardized protocols. This approach will ensure the full interoperability of the identity network while preserving the system’s decentralized integrity.
It’s worth comparing this approach with other systems such as Worldcoin, which relies heavily on specialized hardware called “Orbs” for identity verification. Buterin has highlighted this reliance as a potential centralization risk. This centralized approach can create an over-dependence on a single hardware system, potentially compromising the overall security and robustness of the network.
In contrast, Vendible’s approach is far more decentralized and flexible. The system can accommodate various forms of authentication, ranging from mobile to hardware. By doing so, Vendible ensures that its network remains versatile and adaptable, accommodating the evolving technological landscape while maintaining the core principles of decentralization and security. Furthermore, this diversity in authentication methods ensures that Vendible’s network remains inclusive and accessible, reducing potential barriers to entry for new members.
Vendible’s approach to decentralization in its unique identity validation process represents a significant step forward in the ongoing quest for secure, trustworthy, and decentralized identity systems. The commitment to expanding the network of identity validators, coupled with the adoption of a standardized protocol, demonstrates Vendible’s commitment to preserving the decentralized ethos of the blockchain while ensuring a high level of security and trust in the network.
Overcoming specialized hardware requirements in Vendible’s uID system
The requirement for specialized hardware in decentralized identity systems can introduce unnecessary complexity, cost, and potential centralization risks. This is a concern highlighted by Buterin, specifically in his critique of Worldcoin’s hardware-dependent Orb system. In stark contrast, Vendible’s unique identity system (uID) does away with such dependencies, opting for a more versatile and accessible solution that ensures identity uniqueness without proprietary hardware.
In the Vendible uID system, identity verification is carried out using a combination of liveness detection, facial recognition, and government document validation. This approach leverages universally accessible technologies rather than proprietary hardware, thus allowing for a wider reach and ease of implementation.
Liveness detection serves to ascertain that the prospective member interacting with the system is a real, living person and not an artificially generated image or video. This step is crucial in warding off attempts to spoof the system with fake or stolen identity data. Facial recognition technology, a feature available on most contemporary mobile devices, complements this by verifying that the face presented matches the image on the government document provided by the potential member.
One significant advantage of Vendible’s approach is that the technology is hardware-agnostic. As long as identity validators can support the stipulated identity verification processes to maintain user privacy, they can perform the necessary checks on any mobile or physical hardware device. This flexibility ensures that the network remains inclusive, adaptable, and decentralized. Additionally, it keeps the system resilient against specific hardware vulnerabilities or supply chain disruptions.
Moreover, the Vendible system ensures that individual validators’ facial recognition data can be shared across the network. This facilitates the maintenance of a collective and constantly updated repository of unique identities, further fortifying the system against duplicate registrations.
In conclusion, Vendible’s uID system effectively circumvents the challenges associated with specialized hardware requirements in decentralized identity systems. By leveraging universally accessible technologies and encouraging interoperability, Vendible ensures a high degree of security, accessibility, and decentralization. Through this, Vendible remains ahead of the curve, ensuring the best user experience while addressing critical concerns raised by experts in the field.
Addressing the Challenge of Proprietary Algorithms in Identity Verification Systems
In the realm of decentralized identity systems, concerns about proprietary algorithms pose a substantial challenge. Specifically, Buterin has discussed the potential risks if proprietary algorithms are used to determine who is an authentic participant in an identity system.
At Vendible, we acknowledge these concerns and strive to develop an identity verification system that aligns with the ethos of decentralization while also maintaining a robust level of security and user privacy. This ethos guides our commitment to utilizing open-source cryptographic methods in our protocol.
Leveraging Open-Source Cryptographic Methods
Our approach to overcoming the issue of proprietary algorithms involves leveraging well established public/private key pair technology and Merkle trees combined with zero-knowledge and equality proofs. Theoretically, this approach effectively mitigates Buterin’s concerns about the centralization risks posed by proprietary algorithms. Our unique identity system, known as uID, is derived from a set of cryptographic methods that are entirely open-source. We have extensively detailed our methods in our whitepaper for full transparency.
Emphasizing Transparency and Security
In the pursuit of a truly decentralized identity verification system, transparency and security are of paramount importance. Therefore, Vendible intends to fully open-source our methods. By doing so, we aim to engage the community in the ongoing development and maintenance of our protocol, fostering a more democratic and inclusive ecosystem.
The journey of decentralizing identity systems is rife with challenges, but through open-source collaboration and a steadfast commitment to transparency, security, and agreed upon standards we believe that we can forge a path that ensures unique identities in the digital world while also respecting the privacy of users.
Fortifying Security in Vendible’s Identity Verification System
One of the core challenges faced by any decentralized identity system is the task of ensuring robust security measures that prevent duplication of identities and guard against ‘fake people’. As highlighted by Buterin, these issues pose significant risks to the integrity of any identity verification system.
At Vendible, we are committed to addressing these challenges head-on with a series of thorough checks and security measures designed to safeguard the authenticity of each identity on our platform.
A Multi-Tiered Approach to Security Checks
Our security protocol starts with stringent identity validation checks to prevent duplication. Each prospective member of our identity network undergoes biometric recognition, liveness detection, and submits a government document that also contains an image of their face. These checks form the first line of defense against any attempts to duplicate identities or register fake individuals.
The identity validator then performs a critical check, comparing the prospective member’s biometric markers against existing members. Any facial recognition match immediately disqualifies the individual, effectively preventing the creation of duplicate accounts.
To further validate the prospective member’s identity, the identity validator ensures that the biometric data matches the government document provided by the individual. Only upon passing this final identity check does the identity validator move to the submission process.
The Identity Vault: A Personal Protection System
While these stringent measures are crucial for verifying the uniqueness of each member, we understand that it’s equally important to protect members’ sensitive information. That’s why Vendible has designed the ‘Identity Vault’, a personal protection system that ensures no corrupt validator or other entity can access any personal data of a unique member.
In our system, the member provides personal information outside of their document to create their Identity Vault, providing an additional layer of protection against unauthorized access to their data or assets. Even though biometric data is stored by the validators, it’s crucial to note that they do not store personal information as it is given to the member and stored in distributed storage, inaccessible to anyone but the individual member, thanks to our Identity Vault mechanism.
Securing the Future of Decentralized Identity Systems
The security of decentralized identity systems is a multifaceted challenge that requires innovative solutions. Through Vendible’s careful design and rigorous security checks, we believe we’re moving closer to an identity verification system that aligns with the decentralization ethos while providing robust protection against potential threats.
Enhancing Accessibility and Scalability in Vendible’s Identity Verification System
Creating an accessible and scalable decentralized identity system is an immense challenge. Such a system needs to be versatile enough to cater to users worldwide, transcending geographical boundaries and socio-economic disparities, while also being robust enough to withstand a multitude of security threats.
Vendible addresses this challenge by leaning on readily available technology — mobile devices. We utilize mobile device-based biometrics and government document verification to establish a system that’s not reliant on specialized hardware. This strategy increases the reach of our system and makes it more accessible to individuals from various walks of life, irrespective of their location or economic status.
Balancing Accessibility with Scalability
While we strive to make our system as accessible as possible, we’re also cognizant of the need for scalability. As Buterin rightly points out, social-graph-based approaches offer a strength in terms of scalability due to their ease of deployment. However, these methods often rely on a decentralized network of attestations, which can present its own set of complications, such as the reliability and integrity of the attesting parties.
Vendible, on the other hand, has focused on creating a system that enables a ‘single source of truth.’ Our approach eliminates the ambiguity of having to assess the validity of a credential issuer or other group of claims before making a decision on whether to trust an entity or data. We’ve intentionally streamlined our system to reduce the complexity of trust judgments, enhancing the overall scalability of our platform.
Trust Built Directly Into the System
Our system’s robust structure helps us embed trust directly into the system, rather than relying on external attestations. This approach ensures that our system can scale effectively, providing secure, reliable identity verification for all users, regardless of their location or socio-economic status.
As we continue to evolve our platform, we remain committed to ensuring accessibility and scalability, upholding our mission of providing a secure and reliable decentralized identity verification system to everyone, everywhere.
Emphasizing Privacy in Vendible’s Decentralized Identity System
Privacy is a cornerstone of our approach to decentralized identity verification. Vendible’s system ensures privacy by utilizing Decentralized Identifiers (DID) for each user, tying their unique identity to their blockchain account. We prioritize returning all personal data back to the user’s device and only retain a key value and the user’s biometrics for identity validation.
Our approach aligns well with Buterin’s emphasis on the importance of privacy in decentralized systems. However, it’s worth noting that any system involving biometric data will invariably face scrutiny concerning privacy.
Overcoming Biometric Privacy Concerns
While biometric data is integral to our identity verification process, we have implemented robust measures to ensure this data is not misused or exploited. The identity validator cannot use the biometric data to access any personal information due to the unique setup of our identity vault system and our use of associated accounts to mask the main DID.
Even in an unlikely scenario where both Vendible and an identity validator become corrupt, they cannot collude to gain control over a member’s data or assets. Our system requires personal details added to the vault by the member to access the data, making unauthorized access practically impossible.
Supporting Pseudonymity in Vendible’s Decentralized Identity System
Pseudonymity, or the ability for users to interact with the network under a pseudonym, is a critical aspect of preserving privacy in any online ecosystem. This is particularly pertinent in decentralized identity systems, which require a careful balance between robust identity verification and respect for user privacy.
Vendible’s approach to pseudonymity involves the creation of new key pairs for each new connection. These are known as associated accounts. Each associated account is connected to a user’s main DID account, but this connection is never exposed to the applications or contacts that interact with these accounts. This allows users to interact with various applications and contacts pseudonymously, effectively masking their main DID.
This design choice aligns with Buterin’s discussion on the importance of compatibility between proof-of-personhood systems and pseudonymity. In his article, Buterin emphasizes the need for identity systems that respect privacy and provide the option for pseudonymous interaction.
Ensuring Pseudonymity Through Associated Accounts
In Vendible’s system, users have the flexibility to generate new key pairs for every new connection they make, whether that’s for messaging, transacting between contacts, or connecting to applications. This strategy effectively ensures pseudonymity by shielding the main DID account from direct interaction with others, thereby preventing any breach of privacy.
With this method, we maintain the security and integrity of the user’s main DID account while facilitating diverse interactions in the network. The concept of associated accounts has been central to our design philosophy, ensuring that privacy and pseudonymity coexist seamlessly with robust identity verification.
In addition to our account system, these associated accounts can be queried by applications to perform zero-knowledge checks or selective disclosure as part of the authentication process.
This approach makes Vendible’s system uniquely positioned to provide secure, verifiable identity solutions that respect the privacy needs of users.
Balancing Centralization and Decentralization in Vendible’s Governance
Vendible has designed its system to be fundamentally decentralized over time, alleviating some of the centralization risks raised by Buterin in his analysis of proof-of-personhood systems. However, our model does entail a specific point of control — Vendible acts as the sole Producer of Decentralized IDs (DIDs). This aspect of our system design merits a careful examination of potential centralization risks.
The Role of Vendible as the DID Producer
In Vendible’s identity system, Vendible serves as the primary entity responsible for producing DIDs. These DIDs are integral components of our identity verification system, as they represent verified identities within the network. While this role allows us to maintain the rigorous standards necessary for reliable identity verification, it does introduce a single point of control in our structure.
Despite this, we have taken active steps to mitigate potential risks. Vendible is committed to maintaining the highest level of transparency in its role as the DID Producer. We will ensure our processes are fully open and verifiable. Furthermore, our long-term goal is to evolve into a more decentralized model by introducing new DID Producers.
Decentralizing DID Production in the Future
On our development roadmap, we have plans to introduce a feature allowing for multiple Producers of DIDs. This initiative is expected to further decentralize our identity verification system, offering an additional layer of redundancy and security.
As we progress towards this goal, Vendible and the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governing the network will collaborate to ensure a smooth transition. This move is set to strengthen the potential weak point in our design and create a more robust, secure, and decentralized system.
Ultimately, our mission is to create a decentralized identity network that strikes a balance between robust identity verification and a commitment to decentralization. We believe our approach aligns with the concerns raised by Buterin and showcases the steps we’re taking to ensure we navigate the path between centralization and decentralization responsibly.
Vendible’s Approach to Preventing the Sale or Renting of IDs
A significant challenge faced by decentralized identity systems is the potential sale or rental of identities. Vendible, in line with Buterin’s concerns, has mechanisms to discourage such practices, which can undermine the integrity and security of the network.
In the Vendible system accounts are only valid as long as the submitted documents are valid, members are periodically required to submit updated documents and undergo biometric verification anew. This means the long-term use of a rented account becomes untenable.
Additional Security Features
In addition to the verification process, Vendible offers additional security features to prevent unauthorized use of an account. Developers have the option to include biometric checks during authentication or before a transaction to ensure the correct member is present at the device and is authorizing the transaction.
This feature adds an additional layer of security and ensures that even if an account were to be sold or rented, the original owner’s biometric data would be required to validate any transactions, making such unauthorized use practically impossible.
Through these features and policies, Vendible creates a system that discourages the selling or renting of identities, ensuring that each member’s DID remains truly personal and secure. By maintaining the uniqueness and integrity of each identity, Vendible bolsters the trust and reliability of its network, upholding its commitment to a decentralized yet secure online environment.
Security Measures against Phone Hacking and Government Coercion
In a world where digital identity is becoming increasingly important, the concerns regarding phone hacking and government coercion cannot be overlooked. Vendible’s security measures are designed to tackle these potential vulnerabilities head-on, ensuring a robust and secure user experience.
Identity Vault and Account Recoverability
Central to the security measures in Vendible’s system is the identity vault, a protected space where users place personal information that only they have access to. This information serves as an additional layer of protection and access control, making it nearly impossible for unauthorized entities to access a user’s account.
Moreover, Vendible’s recoverability protocol further secures a user’s account and data. This system, based on security questions and user identity, enables users to regain access to their accounts should they ever be compromised.
The Secure Key Mechanism
Addressing concerns about device security, Vendible has outlined a new key management system where a member’s full key is never present on a device, providing an additional layer of security. This measure means that even if a user’s device is stolen, the malicious party would not be able to access their account, data, or assets.
By prioritizing such measures, Vendible builds upon the inherent strengths of blockchain technology to provide an additional level of security against phone hacking and government coercion. The combination of identity vaults, account recoverability, and secure key mechanisms creates a robust system that provides peace of mind for users while maintaining the ease and efficiency of a digital identity system.
Overcoming Limitations of Social Graph-based Verification
One key aspect of Vendible’s system is its independence from social graph-based verification. Unlike systems which require a user to already know someone in the network, Vendible’s design eliminates the potential for excluding certain demographics.
Inclusive and Private
Through the use of personal biometrics and government document verification, Vendible provides a more accessible and inclusive verification process. This means that regardless of a person’s social connections, they can create and validate their digital identity with Vendible. This inclusivity is a vital part of our mission to create a digital identity platform for everyone.
Protecting Privacy
Vendible’s system also offers superior privacy protection compared to social graph-based systems. Personal data is secured through hashing and zero-knowledge proofs, making it challenging for unauthorized entities to access private information. Furthermore, biometric data and government document information are used in such a way that they are practically impossible to replicate or counterfeit.
Enriching the Identity Network
While Vendible’s system can extend to use social recovery methods to further protect the network, we believe that such measures should be optional and not a requirement for participation in our identity network. We envision a future where credentials and attestations from friends, colleagues, and institutions can enrich the identity network, yet we firmly believe that a standard for identity must be adhered to in order to provide the best possible platform for security and trust.
In conclusion, Vendible’s system offers a comprehensive and robust solution that not only mitigates many of the risks Buterin identified in his article but also provides a more inclusive and accessible platform for digital identities. As we move towards a more digital future, Vendible stands ready to provide the necessary tools and infrastructure for secure and reliable digital identities.
