We are living in a world where digital crimes & hacks are as common as buying groceries. It's like these hackers go out shopping every day and rip so many innocents. Also, governments and top business organizations around the world use our valuable personal data against us and track every move we make. It's their way of controlling our lives and feeding us the information they want us to absorb. We all are under 24x7 surveillance if we are connected to the internet and not doing enough to stop lurkers. Privacy is the price we are paying for convenience. It has been a major concern since the start of the internet and now even more important to do something about it. The world doesn't play by your rules so we make tools to fuck the rules. Blockchain Technology can revolutionize digital identities. It enables a secure way to store and manage your identity on the internet. The data is immutable hence it cannot be manipulated.
Did you ever want to do KYC without revealing your personal details? Do you want to prove that it's you without letting others know that it is you? Do you want to sign the documents without revealing your name and handwriting? WEB3 projects have already started working on these solutions and one of them is being built on Polygon, the most famous ETH L2 Scaling solution in the world.
What Is Polygon ID?
Polygon on 30th march announced a new breakthrough project called Polygon ID, the first Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Proof based self-sovereign identity to allow secure on-chain verification. It means that all DApps based on Polygon would be able to use this identity to attest and verify that it's you without revealing your personal data. Now you can own your identity! Polygon's main mission is to become a centerpiece of WEB3 development and make users the first-class citizens on the network instead of any one particular entity. Polygon ID would help to further progress towards their goal because it will simply allow users to register on Dapps, Sign documents, Private Messaging & Private transactions, and do whatever without compromising their privacy.
Polygon ID has the following properties:
- Blockchain-based ID for decentralized and self-sovereign models
- Zero-knowledge native protocols for ultimate user privacy
- Scalable and private on-chain verification to boost DApps & DeFi
- Open to existing standards and ecosystem development44
Since this will be an open-source protocol, any other developer can leverage it to create their own customized use cases and applications. As per their roadmap, it will be ready by the year-end. As per Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, it is also a great showcase for how zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs can help us create a better world.
What Are Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Proofs
Zero-Knowledge allows you to authenticate & communicate on the internet without revealing your personal data like name, password, email id, who's your mama and papa, how many kids you have or don't have, marital status, social security number, name of your doggo, bank account, etc. It is secure and private by default. Second-party will have "zero-knowledge" of your identity but they will still be able to verify it is you. Cool, no? To know more, check out this blog with an example of ZKP protocol in real life.
Why Does It Matter?
Everyone has a right to access their favorite application anonymously. Without providing personal data to each application separately, Polygon ID will help users, organizations, and businesses with user identity & access management. As a DApp creator, you can now provide the most advanced, safe, and secure identity verification tool that is in alignment with the philosophy of WEB3. The power is now in the hands of the users and not the network. You can easily accomplish KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business), and attestation (Digital Signature) with the help of Polygon ID. No need to rely on centralized services that compromise your data or get compromised due to hacks.
The 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.
I think a privacy-focused digital identity solution is the need of the hour. User data is safe with Polygon ID and makes authentication easier. Potentially it has a utility everywhere on the internet and on private networks too. This is one of the most significant developments that happened in the Polygon's Ecosystem empowering its users and making them the first priority. What do you guys think? Comment below!
