Now keep your personal details private, thanks to Web3 ID

Mumbai, Apr 02 The Polygon network, a decentralized app (Dapp) layer for Ethereum has launched 'Polygon ID', one of the first identity platforms powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography — privacy, and blockchain scaling technology, will be ready before the year ends.

The blockchain-based ID for decentralized and self-sovereign models has Zero-knowledge native protocols for ultimate user privacy, is scalable and private on-chain verification to boost decentralized apps and decentralized finance, and is open to existing standards and ecosystem development. Polygon ID leverages the Iden3 protocol and Circom ZK toolkit. Moving forward, both of the projects will be sponsored by Polygon while keeping the original spirit of community initiatives to provide open-source protocols and tools to the broader ecosystem of developers.

"Polygon ID is private by default, offers on-chain verification and permissionless attestation. There is nothing in the digital identity space now that ticks all these boxes," said Mihailo Bjelic, Polygon's co-founder. "It is also a great showcase for how zero-knowledge proofs can help us create a better world."

Polygon ID is expected to be used by organiZations and businesses, for identity and trust management purposes, such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and digital wallets, where users can authenticate themselves to blockchain-based applications, without providing passwords or data to every such application individually.

Polygon ID will also allow for the construction of new forms of reputations like a decentralized credit score for financial primitives and social payments in DeFi; decentralized Sybil score, voting power/delegation, and domain-expertise reputation for DAOs to enable new decision-making and governance models; player reputation profile for Web3 games; private and censorship-resistant P2P communication and interactions for social applications.

According to the company's stated timeline, the proof-of-concept (PoC) has been developed and the complete Polygon ID platform is scheduled to be ready in the third quarter of 2022.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Raj Kapoor, chief advisor, Acryptoverse, says "Polygon ID is private by default, and as we are aware it offers on-chain verification and permissionless attestation. Now the network will make it possible to create new features, such as a decentralized credit score and social payments in DeFi, voting power, decentralized Cibil score, and domain-expertise reputation for DAOs and allow for a more robust approach to new governance and decision-making models, private and censorship-resistant P2P communication, social app interactions, and player reputation profiles for Web3 games. These would be a first.

The Polygon ID platform will be fully functional in the third quarter of this year as the PoC is already in place. Businesses are expected to use Polygon ID for identity and trust management purposes such as digital wallets and KYC. It will also allow people to verify their ID to blockchain-based applications without having to provide passwords or personal details to every single one they use. Presently there is nothing in the digital identity space now that addresses these and the POC is an excellent showcase for how zero-knowledge proofs can help us create a better world, he added.

The concept of a verifiable identity is fundamental for many use-cases within digital inclusion, and in Web3, it is in any case supposed to be private by default and decentralized, The Polygon ID slips in seamlessly in a vis hitherto unfulfilled. The third quarter will clearly vindicate the POC.