Zulu Republic 101: The Passport
This is the fourth installment in a series of posts explaining the fundamental concepts and objectives behind Zulu Republic’s products and services. Read about our overall vision for the ecosystem in Part 1, our plans for Zulu Pay in Part 2, and why we chose Crytpo Valley as our headquarters in Part 3.
Zulu Republic was originally envisioned as virtual nation, a place that transcends borders, built around the central values of freedom, financial inclusion, individual sovereignty, and decentralized collaboration. A republic of choice.
But what good is a republic without its people? Zulu Republic made up of a community of supporters, people who will soon have the option of becoming “citizens” by creating their very own Zulu Republic Passport. This Passport is a digital identity solution that will give its holders certain benefits within the Zulu Republic ecosystem, including the ability to receive a 5% ZTX bonus* for eligible in-network transactions, and the chance to vote on certain updates to the Zulu Republic ecosystem.
The Passport is currently still under development, and will be released in phases with different features, starting with a privacy-oriented KYC solution, and continuing toward the ultimate goal of creating a comprehensive self-sovereign ID.
The central idea behind self-sovereign identity (SSID) is that individuals should have the right to control their own personal data and to consent to claims made in relation to that data. According to the current data management paradigm, sensitive personal information is floating around the web, spread around the globe and servers and databases that are vulnerable to theft and abuse. While the UN Declaration of Human Rights grants all people the right to sovereignty and privacy, we have yet to fully realize these rights in terms of personal data.
Self-sovereign systems invite us to redefine the concept of identity for the digital age, removing vulnerable centralized gatekeepers of private data and replacing them with immutable cryptographic protocol. You can read more about SSID and why we think it’s the future of privacy rights here.
The Zulu Republic Passport is being designed to give users control over the sharing of their sensitive identification data online, while providing benefits both within and external to the Zulu Republic ecosystem. In its initial form, it will provide a convenient, one-stop KYC solution that can be used for onboarding with any third-party service that accepts it for verification purposes, such as online cryptocurrency exchanges and other financial service providers.
Currently, users are required to complete separate KYC processes with each different KYC-requiring service they apply for. Not only is this an inconvenience, it provides more opportunity for the theft and abuse of their personal data. With the Zulu Republic Passport, a firm that validates customer data can provide their customers with a signed claim that they satisfied KYC requirements. This could then used for multiple applications that need KYC instead of completing the KYC process for each one separately.
The Passport will also benefit businesses by removing KYC compliance burdens from their own operations, allowing them to focus on what matters to them: their own products and services.
In the future, we also plan to adapt the Passport for humanitarian needs. Self-sovereign ID can be particularly helpful in cases of regimes that are repressive or antagonistic towards their citizenry, and in cases of conflict, displacement, and human trafficking. Physical identification documents are losable, forgeable, revocable, and exploitable, and many displaced people around the globe have no access to one at all, hindering their search for asylum and making them vulnerable to abuse. In the case of refugees, self sovereign ID can be helpful not only in terms of verifying their identity (i.e. for asylum requests) but can also be used to qualify them for direct philanthropic donations.
Of course, the Passport is also completely free and open source. Check out the beta version on GitHub.
To learn more about Zulu Republic and create your free account, visit our site. For regular updates on what we’re building, follow us on Twitter.
To try out Lite.IM, our full-featured BTC, ZTX, LTC, and ETH wallet for social media and messaging apps, just send any message on the platform of your choice: Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or SMS (US/CAN only: 760–548–3460).
*The rewards bonus is available as long as the ZTX reserve maintains a positive balance.
