Path to Web3 Identity

Journey to Web3 ID

The idea of using Ethereum for identity can be traced back to the “Identity and Reputation Systems” category listed in Vitalik’s Ethereum white paper in 2014. Today, there are some primitives of Web3 identity stacks, but more work is needed for identity to become the most widely used Ethereum use case. Cryptographic researcher brantly.eth expands on his previous comments on web3 identity primitives, elaborates on his vision of how Web3 identity will work, and proposes a general strategy for building Web3 identity stacks and specific elements to be addressed next.

Identity is not a single problem, but a collection of many problems and factors. We should break down identity elements into the smallest feasible parts and let independent teams use decentralized protocols and open standards to solve them separately. In its mature state, web3 identity will be the sum of information and relationships held in various decentralized protocols and open standards, which I call the “web3 identity stack.” Almost everything you do in web3 will tell others who you are. In fact, web3 identity is the primary use case of Ethereum, and everything else is a part of it.

The main components of the existing web3 identity stack are: 1) Private keys, which can be used for other non-blockchain purposes, including serving as the root of your internet identity. 2) Wallets, programs that help manage private keys and could be expanded to include web3 identity. 3) Sign-in with Ethereum (SIWE), a standard for using Ethereum private keys to verify identity in service chains. 4) Other off-chain signatures for snapshot voting, proof, etc. 5) Off-chain storage, such as IPFS and Arweave. 6) ENS, a unique, self-sovereign, and portable web3 username and profile. 7) NFTs, a way to represent yourself and indicate membership in a group, deriving their meaning from exclusivity. 8) On-chain assets, such as tokens and NFTs, indicate interests, social status, and group membership. 9) On-chain history indicates how long you have been active in the crypto field, interests, team member status, skills, and how these things have changed over time. 10) Roles, such as protocol governance DAO delegate, voting methods, delegation to others, participation in multisig, and other similar web3 coordination mechanisms.

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What should we build next? 1) Refactor wallet experience around web3 identity: With the rise of NFTs, ENS, DAOs, and SIWE, wallets have been more than just a place to manage crypto assets and should shift from primarily managing crypto assets to managing web3 identity. 2) Ethereum Follow Protocol (EFP): The Ethereum ecosystem currently lacks a native social graph protocol that suits its existing web3 identity stack. 3) Privacy and selective information sharing: Privacy is a very tricky issue, and if we wait for it to be solved before doing anything, we won’t make any progress so far. It’s okay to build the parts we can build now, meaning that we will need privacy and selective information sharing at some point. 4) Message passing: We need a native web3 message passing protocol that enables users to send messages to other Ethereum accounts, and is more powerful and decentralized than SMTP.

Reference: https://mirror.xyz/brantly.eth/7nJZCqyvhbdTIfq4oSnNEjlUUyxS9sf3pTHcBNi8Te8

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