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DID and a decentralized link built with on-chain data

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As a front-end facility for entry, DID is the first step in building a complete decentralized user experience

End to End: DID and Decentralized Links Built with On-chain Data

Original source: R3PO

preface

When we opened the door to Web 3.0, we saw nothing but desolation.

DID itself cannot exist independently. It must promote and grow together with Web 3.0 contents. DID is like a gate, which can be enough to ensure decentralization and prevent some goalkeepers from charging tolls after dominating the market. However, after pushing the gate, there should be content to see, otherwise users will never be retained, and DID will become a tree without a source. Our discussion on DID Building on our belief that Web 3.0 is the future.

As the front-end facility of the entrance, DID is the first step to construct a complete decentralized user experience. However, after that, it needs the support of SocialFi, GameFi, DeFi and other DApps. Therefore, it also needs the public chain as the operation network, and IPFS, AR and so on as the decentralized storage. Middleware such as prophecy machine and decentralized network node can maintain the decentralization of information incoming and outgoing. Finally, the verification of information on the chain is needed to ensure that the data is truly connected to the chain without being deceived.

In this link, the functions of SBT and DID are highly similar. It is hard to say that one product is DID or SBT, even BAB or GAL. It is more like a PASS token, which guarantees the link of information after centralized verification, which is fundamentally centralized. Just like USDT cannot be called an algorithm Stablecoin.

Uniswap is a DeFi, but it cannot be said that DeFi only has Uniswap, and even the DEX under it can continue to be divided into spot, derivative agreements, and constituent principles such as the AMM mechanism and order book.

DID and SBT are a kind of functional description used to verify personal identity. On-chain address, unmanaged wallet, decentralized mailbox and Web3 social protocol are all carriers of DID or SBT. Currently, products with their selling points are only a selling point publicity in the early stage of the market.

Only under the guarantee of DID, users will have the willingness and motivation to generate effective data on a large scale, and the on-chain data analysis will enter the 2.0 era instead of the current DeFi and NFT market analysis mode. Direct analysis of user behavior is a development direction with more economic prospects, and then the iterative mode of Web 3.0 application will be reconstructed. Get out of Pond's and imitate.

Starting from DID, the accumulated original data will inevitably become more and more abundant, rather than just the simple usage scenarios such as transfer and whale address tracking. The rich data value not only supports personal privacy, but also is the source of monetization of the future Web 3.0 economic model. Become the foundation of the value of the entire Web 3.0 application, rather than the advertising model that companies rely on today.

In a word, what we need is complete decentralization. The absence of any link or compromise to decentralization will cause a kind of fragmentation and fracture, and the advantages of Web 3.0 cannot be truly played out.

ID Falls into the data Net: DID and Personal data unified history

The medium is the message, the soul is the identity.

Decentralization brings the return of individual value. From a broader perspective, DID is the supporting measure of DeSoc. As Vitalik said in Searching for the Soul of Web3, the wider world in the future is a decentralized DeSoc society, in which DID will become an individual unique identity identifier, which will not only be used in the Web 3.0 network world, but also have a wider space for use.

If everything is to be decentralized, then identity should be decentralized. A decentralized society will not last long if it continues to use Twitter and Facebook, and when Web 3.0 becomes the new infrastructure, it is also possible to feed the real world. For example, Debank has achieved some success in displaying on-chain activities around on-chain addresses as a personal display page.

While DeGenScore goes further, focusing on scoring individuals' on-chain activities, credit records have shown their power in the real world. From official credit investigation records to Alipay Sesame credit, the informatization of credit records has shown a more effective side than traditional risk control.

Of course, such a discussion is to some extent divorced from the idea of DID as a portal to Web 3.0, and can be seen as a divergence of thinking that sees DID as a physical manifestation of the "soul" of a broader decentralized society. From this perspective, DID is no longer an entry tool, but a node for on-chain and off-chain interactions, Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 interactions, and person-to-person interactions, which is broader than the entry concept.

At the same time, however, it is important to note that only by implementing DID as an entry point to Web 3.0 will so-called linking be possible on a larger time scale.

Here is R3PO backtracking on our use of the Internet.

Origin of all things: the emergence of information network

Web 1.0: The World Wide Web WWW and browsers

After the network communication technology came out of DARPA LABS and universities, the concept of the so-called civil Internet came into being later. At that time, the entrance was the browser and the World Wide Web, which constituted the whole concept of the network. At that time, the ID was mainly mailbox address, personal domain name and forum ID, and the main scene of data precipitation was such as RSS and BBS.

In other words, from the very beginning, ID comes before the application, just as it did with Web 3.0.

The root of all evil: The growth and misuse of personal data

Web 2.0 and UGC, blogs, iPhone, 5G, XR

From forums, blogs to Twitter and Tik Tok, and from individual sharing, the development history of the Internet has experienced a continuous stage of decentralization of the right of expression, from the elite at the beginning to the media of the whole people, from the middle-aged elite to the teenagers to the Internet, until the concept of Web 3.0 was put forward, the Internet has become a transcendental existence in the age of Z. Like hydropower and coal, it has become a kind of ubiquitous infrastructure like air, and its status is unquestionable.

The 2016 US presidential election broke out when Facebook sold personal data, and it was later confirmed that Cambridge Analytica used the data to "influence" the US presidential election to some extent. However, there are two preconditions for this. First, people will leave a large number of digital traces about their privacy on the Internet. The second is that people tend to leave their personal data on certain applications, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Let's be clear that the concept of personal data comes first, and the debate about privacy comes second. The gradual migration of ID to social tools does not mean the death of email, but a change in people's usage habits. More appropriately, Facebook has become an alternative login tool to email, with the implicit premise that everyone will be using Facebook by default.

However, the disadvantages of this situation are increasingly obvious today. Our personal data is deposited in Google, Facebook and other apps. It seems that we are talking about our privacy, but we are actually talking about our relationship with these apps.

If the separation of privacy and data was not a problem in Web 1.0, the social giants and search engines of Web 2 are all usurping the fruits of user labor, all in the name of free.

In this context, user ids, game items, and social media data all belong at least not entirely to users, but at most only to users. The introduction of GDPR protects user data sovereignty to some extent, but this protection still fails to return the economic benefits generated by user data to individuals, and the problem is still worsening.

DID under Web 3: Reuniting individuals and data

The user belongs to the user and the protocol belongs to the protocol

In Satoshi's vision, people had better use a new address every time the transaction, so as to maximize the protection of privacy, but in fact in addition to hackers and forget mnemonic people, no one will do so, because this violates the human preference for convenience of nature.

Web 3.0 is the intersection of concepts. Since the concept was proposed in 2004, it has undergone the transformation of the traditional Internet and gradually generated the connection with blockchain. This connection is not achieved in one step, at least through the (public chain) bitcoin Ethereum and EOS era, as well as the ongoing multi-chain and Layer 2 era. The attempt to replace WWW with a public chain is still an ongoing process under the existing technology conditions. The public chain TPS itself cannot match the concurrency capability of the existing network, nor can it show the high efficiency advantage of replacing the traditional centralized database.

But at the very least, if we believe that the next generation of humans will grow together using Web 3.0, then we believe now that DID matters, that there will always be an entry point, and it won't be a entry point, but there will be a limited number in the coordination of interactivity and decentralization, similar to social tools, Real infrastructure unions form strong user loyalty. Human nature is always lazy. People may change their nicknames and profile pictures at any time, but no one will change their wechat ID and mobile phone number on a daily basis.

In other words, Web 3.0 will do the opposite and absorb the concepts of blockchain, DeFi and NFT to form the next generation of flower network, and DID will become the most direct interaction entrance. We cannot confirm the hardware such as VR equipment for the time being, nor can we directly consider the software such as wallet as the best choice, but there will be.

The regression of personal data control is the criterion to judge its success. This kind of data ownership is not a promise of the platform to users, but the real hash value on the chain, which cannot be forged and will last forever.

During the epic collapse of the FTX, it was easy to follow the dollar amounts at each address and watch the elephant fall every step of the way, but the problem is that CEX still controls our data, and individual users lose their value when they lose control of their address.

On the contrary, only the integration of data and value can stimulate the great value of the decentralized link -- ensuring that personal value is in the hands of individuals. Without on-chain information, no DID or SBT can truly claim to be decentralized.

DID X chain data: An overview of major project progress

The following are sorted out mainstream projects involving DID functions and on-chain data. Due to the extensive involvement of DID, projects that can generate a large amount of on-chain data, such as SBT, social networking and logon, are included, so as to have a deeper understanding of the combination of DID and on-chain data.

Social protocols and on-chain data

The data type of social protocol mainly lies in the personal data generated by users. At the present stage, the amount of data produced by users will directly affect the direct economic benefits such as airdrop. In terms of its operation mode, it can be divided into two types: native social protocol and plug-in protocol.

• Web 3.0 native social protocols represented by Lens Protocol;

Lens Protocol is the popular Web 3.0 social application created by the Aave team. It was released in February 2022 and is closer to a meta-protocol in terms of architecture. Hopefully, other social apps will build their own social Dapps based on the Lens Protocol, such as LensFrens, the official demonstration app, which is basically a decentralized Twitter where users can follow people like themselves.

Image caption Lens Protocol

Image source: Lens Protocol

Some of the best apps in the Lens ecosystem so far are Lenster, a decentralized social media app; LensFrens, which recommends profiles based on users' Web3 footprints; Phaver, a Share-to-Earn social app; and Link Trend leaderboards Refract, the decentralized "YouTube" Lenstube, etc., there are also relatively innovative projects such as Soclly, a time auction network for creators or senior people, Clipto, which provides customized services for celebrity videos, and LensAI, an NFT image generator created by AI technology.

In addition, Lens has the following more on-camera projects:

, LensTube, a decentralized streaming service

, AI authoring NFT tool LensAI

, Decentralized social protocol service Lenster

, ORB, a decentralized social media application

Image caption Daily casting volume

Image source: dune.xyz

The majority of apps have yet to achieve significant network effects, with a Profile Mint of 100,000 +, but a daily population of 600, and only 44% of registered users Posting content.

In Lenster, only about 10% of the users have posted more than 20 posts, while 36% of the users have posted no more than one post. The trend of centralization of creators has appeared before the Internet became active.

Its detailed running data is visiblehere.

• Mask Network represents a plug-in protocol

In essence, the user identification work of this model is completed by Twitter and Instagram, while user data is in the hands of users, which is a compromise to the centralization.

However, Meta social products are becoming more and more friendly to NFT. After Twitter fell into the hands of Musk, the concept of decentralized social protocols is increasingly moving towards. Plug-in protocols such as Mask are also getting a little improvement, and Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 are moving towards the two-way connection point.

Thanks to Musk's acquisition of Twitter, its $MASK price has doubled in a short time. In the long term, it reached cooperation with Next.ID in July 2022, and Mask Network has become its first choice for decentralized identit-as-a-service (DIaaS).

Next.ID is a decentralized identity aggregator that is establishing a base layer of identity. It takes a unique approach to decentralized identity, seamlessly integrating Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 accounts, creating a highly interoperable layer where both coexist.

In a word, the user data of Mask will become more decentralized no matter whether it links to the content of platforms like Twitter or to plug-in DID services like Next.ID.

The datalization of personal domain names

Personal domain name is the real legacy of Web 1.0 era. Driven by ENS at a stroke, it has become the entrance ticket of Web 3.0 era and set off the craze of The Times.

· ENS, the on-chain version of a personal identifier

The full Name of ENS is Ethereum Name Service, which is a domain name service running on the Ethereum network. The main domain name can act as a user's cross-platform Web 3.0 username and Profile, and also allow direct access to decentralized websites.

Vitalik has praised ENS as the most successful non-financial Ethereum application to date, which can be likened to a decentralized address book.

On May 4, 2017, Alex Van de Sande and Nick Johnson of the Ethereum Foundation launched the ENS project, which aims to build human-friendly domain name services, Similar to the relationship between traditional IP addresses and Domain Name System (DNS) domain names, the relationship between ENS and Ethereum addresses is as follows:

At the same time, every ENS domain name is also an NFT, which is fully running on the chain. The protocol currently used is ERC-721, which can not only be minted, but also support resale in OpenSea and other NFT markets. The highest price ever sold on OpenSea was the domain name of investment agency paradigm.eth, which was sold for 420ETH.

ENS has many functions. Currently, typical use cases include user domain name, Web3 business card and DID.

User domain name

First of all, ENS can not only be displayed as NFT, but also be an actual operational Ethereum network domain name. By enabling IPFS service, a completely decentralized user experience process can be built, so that individuals can completely control the website domain name and data without relying on the centralized service provider.

This is the main reason why it has evolved from the original Ethereum address resolution service to a personal business card in the Web3 world in the more than five years since its launch.

For example, Vitalik uses vitalik.eth as its personal domain name. When you enter this domain name in a browser that supports the IPFS service, it is automatically redirected tohere.

The resulting interface is as follows:

Image caption Vitalik personal page

Photo: vitalik.eth

Not only IPFS, ENS domain name resolution service operator ETH.LIMO ENS domain name Gateway now supports a variety of content, and users can now use every ENS compatible storage tier, including IPFS, IPNS, Swarm, Skynet, and Arweave.

In addition, although ENS exists on the Ethereum network, it is essentially a cross-chain domain name system. For example, ENS domain name can also be used for address binding on the Boca network.

With the popularity of the on-chain domain name system, ENS will continue to support other blockchain networks and build a unified on-chain user-defined domain name system.

Web3 Business Card

Secondly, the ENS domain name can also be displayed as a personal business card. After purchasing a personal domain name, individuals and organizations can put it on Twitter and other social platforms to show their unique image.

The main attributes of personal information on the chain include specific indicators such as time, amount, currency and NFT holdings, but there is a lack of a unified identity identification system. In other words, we need something that can show ourselves.

ENS domain name is a readable combination of numbers, letters and symbols, and it is also related to the address on the personal chain. Displaying self-image is a rigid need. Just like business cards in the paper era and domain names in the Internet era, individuals have the right to display and build their self-image.

Nick Tomaino, founding partner of 1confirmation, a venture capital firm, buys "1492.ETH" and says, "1492 was the year Christopher Columbus first sailed." "Some people don't think ENS is an NFT, but the truth is it's the most widely held NFT," he said.

The famous sports brand PUMA changed its official Twitter account to "PUMA.eth" in February. According to the ENS website, the URL bound under the domain name and Twitter account have been set as the official information of PUMA.

Photo caption: PUMA.eth

Photo: ENS

DID

As the nickname of personal account, ENS domain name can identify the unique identity of an individual. Especially when ENS is bound to personal Web 3-Web 2 social media, we can uniquely determine the identity of a person without knowing the specific address on the chain.

In RSS3, a social platform in the era of Web 3, we can directly use ENS to retrieve address information and confirm its related results, which is highly similar to Google search in experience, but behind it is a completely decentralized user experience.

Image caption RSS3 search interface

Image source: RSS3

If the address is linked and the display link of all platforms, such as NFT avatar, ENS domain name and Twitter account information, is made, a unified user identity system will be built on and off the chain. Even the NFT market OpenSea has enabled users to directly search for related accounts and NFT projects in the form of ENS.eth.

The total number of ENS domain names registered has exceeded 2.55 million, with 570,000 users. Nearly 400,000 new ENS domain names were registered in September 2022, more than 378,800 in July and a record monthly registration.

Behind the hot market of ENS is the revival of the domain name business of the traditional Internet. The hype logic is as follows:

1. Buy the domain names of top enterprises and organizations in reality and wait for them to pay a high price;

2. Register auspicious numbers, such as 666.eth, 888.eth and other numbers in line with specific audiences, waiting to be sold;

3. Buy in bulk to invest in PFP NFT at a logical low price, and wait for the hot market of ENS domain name to be sold in the secondary market.

At present, the most popular domain name in ENS market is the 4-digit domain name of 10k club, which sells 1445ETH in 24 hours, for example, 7000.eth trades at 170ETH, followed by the 3-digit domain name provided by Arabic 999 club. This is also the shortest domain name supported by ENS, with a sales volume of 95ETH in 24 hours. For example, eth is traded at 30 ETH.

There is also a five-digit domain for 100K club, a meme domain for Triple Ethmoji, and a domain for 999 Club ENS Chinese that supports Chinese numerals.

At present, the total market value of ENS is $93 million, but its liquidity is only 0.78%, and even the number of sellers is stronger than the number of buyers. Its performance in the secondary market is hardly excellent, and it is still dominated by speculation and speculation.

Image caption ENS holds the data

Figure: NFTgo.io

This is because ENS domain name is different from general DeFi Token and NFT. It has a very strong binding relationship with individual users, which is similar to personal mobile phone number. Ordinary people will use it for a long time and stably, and it is difficult to sell and trade frequently.

· TwitterScan, a miner around user data

TwitterScan was developed by MetaScan to mine currency, NFT, and new project developments around Twitter, Web 3's most active public information hub.

Different from the pure on-chain data used with DID, the data of TwitterScan is completely based on Twitter, and its identity identifier is consistent with Twitter. The most important innovation of TwitterScan is to introduce the idea of on-chain data analysis into traditional Web 2 services.

Currently, it can track more than 17,000 tokens, 150,000 KOL movements and more than 300 topics.

This idea of feeding back Web 2.0 refers to the in-depth study and learning of more traditional Web 2.0 platforms that can be considered as part of the available data sources that can be linked, identified and analyzed.

Logon: identifies precipitated on-chain data

From a single login function, the logon has its unique uses. In the Web 2.0 era, the most typical uses are M2F tools, such as Microsoft Authenticator and Google Authenticator. Time-based secondary validation tools are often used for CEX security validation.

In Web 3.0, the tools surrounding login and authentication are collectively referred to as logins.

· Unipass, the unified landing device

Built on Nervos CKB, a Decentralized Digital Identity (DID) identity protocol is being built for Web 3.0 users.

Its operation logic lies in the fact that enough users can be used to accumulate enough user data, so as to develop business models around traffic, such as service charges or institutional services, which can be expanded by the C/B end.

· Bright ID, the 15+ app collection DID service that V God likes

BrightID was singled out by Vitalik Buterin for its impressive support in the seventh round of donations to Gitcoin, an open-source software funding platform. Instead, create a for-profit consulting business for an integrated BrightID application that can allocate a portion of its profits to BrightID, where BrightID's value depends on the application it integrates.

BrightID will sell each person a "sponsorship" for $1. This will be paid for by a lifetime fee of $1 per user from one of the apps that initially brought users to BrightID, and the app purchases sponsorship to solidify its position as a "first port of call" for users.

· CyberConnect, DID revision of WalletConnect

Image caption CyberConnect operation mode

Photo: CyberConnect

To be precise, CyberConnect is a kind of "meta-" DID, similar to WalletConnect, which provides wallet integration service. CyberConnect also has a similar idea. By constantly integrating new DID projects and public chains, it builds the most complete login experience.

CyberConnect's goal is to return ownership of social graph data to the user and to embed identity systems throughout the entire app experience.

In January of this year, the number of users was around 400,000, but by October, the number of users had exceeded 1.5 million. Binance, Protocol Labs and 24 other companies participated, including SpaceID, NFTGo, helloword, ZKlink and other 35 ecological applications.

Reputation system: The most relevant use case for on-chain data and DID

We arrange this part at the end of the article as an example of the back-end experience of DID and on-chain data. In previous applications, DID came first, and then user behavior data could be generated. However, the logic of reputation system is the opposite, a user's credit "rating" can only be performed after sufficient data has been deposited. This credit rating serves as the sole marker for the SBT, the identifier for social recovery, and the holy grail of DeFi lending, the sesame credit score for unsecured lending.

· POAP, the real beginning of reputation system

POAP is a new way to keep a reliable record of their experiences on the chain, and each time they attend an event, POAP collectors receive a unique badge that is supported by information on the chain. POAP badges are all non-homogeneous tokens (NFT) that record the information footprint of each step in the chain.

Organizers can create their own events on the POAP platform to customize the design and the products they will offer to attendees. Users can look out for QR codes at POAP-sponsored events to collect badges and participate in different events. Once your community has a POAP, the association will remain permanent between the two parties.

If social interaction is a two-way peer-to-peer high-frequency mode, then POAP is the link between people and things.

Major brands and events such as the U.S. Open Golf Tournament, Lollapalooza, Adidas and Budweiser have partnered with POAP, and as of May 2022, more than 4.5 million POaps have been distributed to more than 500,000 POAP collectors.

In essence, similar to Lens Protocol, it is a component that can be called by other POAP services. Any POAP project or project side can use POAP to set up its own reputation system. When the system accumulates enough data, the information on the personal chain will be rich enough. Each active POAP can implement the function of DID.

· Galxe (Previously Project Galaxy), a "pseudo" decentralized information rating system

Galxe is an ID service that uses KYC service to identify a person, and then connects to the chain for identification.

One solution is to verify on-chain behavior to determine on-chain address ownership, such as nansen's smart money tracking feature. The other is to use direct front-end KYC to ensure the authenticity of on-chain information as a source of identification for on-chain behavior.

Its product matrix includes services for Binance's SBT project BAB, as well as all-in-ones such as Web3 Passport, but there is no escaping the embarrassment of where its identity system came from.

At present, it supports more than 7 mainstream public chains, the number of cooperative projects is 1223, and the ID registered users reach 8 million. It can be said that it is the most abundant DID data provider in the whole Web3.

Mainstream DeFi applications such as Yearn, public chains such as BNB and ETH, and CyberConnect can connect to Galxe.

But just as KYC isn't decentralized, Galxe ID doesn't actually work in the way it claims to, which is one of its biggest complaints.

conclusion

1. From the perspective of user experience, DID is the real starting point of Web 3.0, rather than the underlying network protocols such as prophecy machine and public chain. DID indicates the identity of the entrant;

2.DID must be a function and module, rather than a separate product form. Wallets, mailboxes, social media, logins and validators can all be embedded with DID functions;

3.DID as an identity connects all scenarios of Web 3.0, DEX replaces CEX, ENS replaces domain name, etc., liberates the ownership of personal data, and personal value can be transferred;

4. Data on the chain is a posteriori of the scene. Data on the chain generated by SocialFi and Web 3.0 social protocols can be verified, just like the Merkle tree proof of CEX.

5. DID is deduced from the data on the chain, and only by unified decentralization of front and back end and middleware can a truly complete Web 3.0 application be stacked to complete the replacement and reconstruction of the existing Internet.