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Introduction : the digital identity endgame paradigm with on-chain protocols on the Blockchain

Introduction : the digital identity endgame paradigm with on-chain protocols on the Blockchain

Introduction

Scaling blockchain technology to be adopted in our daily life is under huge development, and we are still at an early stage of the technology. Scaling blockchain technology can take many forms:

  • Scaling the blockchain infrastructure to onboard the world activities on-chain.
  • The current blockchain digital identity suffers from multiple issues, such as bad user experience(UX) and complex onboarding. How can we scale the onboarding of humans to use the blockchain?
  • How can we move existing activities on-chain at scale?
    • How can we migrate markets such as capital markets on-chain?
    • How can we migrate financial services on-chain?
    • How can we design efficient markets on-chain?
    • What does the economy on-chain look like?
    • etc
  • How can we regulate on-chain activities, digital services, markets, financial services, etc?
  • How can we scale to have the human resources and skills to accomplish all this work?

Blockchain is a transformation that will take many decades.

On-chain digital identity protocols

On-chain/Tokenized digital services are designed and developed via smart contracts and zero knowledge(zk circuits) based computer program paradigms deployed on the blockchain. These services are based on the trust-minimization idea, eliminating centralized trusted third parties as much as possible. Trust is mainly provided via public good infrastructure such as blockchain and programmable cryptography(ZKP, MPC, FHE).

Digital identity is a critical component that bridges humans from the real world to the digital world to use digital services. In the case of using on-chain/tokenized digital services, digital identity within the blockchain has multiple issues, such as an unfriendly user experience and complex onboarding, and users have more responsibility to conserve their safety and security that they aren’t familiar with.

With our Microchain protocol, we want to scale the onboarding of users to use the on-chain digital services with better user experience while ensuring their safety and security. We want to scale the Blockchain digital identity paradigm. We introduce new techniques to solve the complex onboarding problem and the bad user experience. Micorchain is an on-chain digital identity protocol that allows humans to own, control, manage, and govern their digital presence.

The digital identity endgame on the internet is a set of interoperable on-chain protocols deployed on the blockchain. Each on-chain protocol can serve different digital identity services, such as identification, authentication, authorization, naming services, profiling, reputation, and attestation.

Landscape

In the on-chain/tokenized paradigm, humans own their digital identity via on-chain protocols deployed on the Blockchain. We can distinguish two main on-chain digital identity protocol types:

  • Protocols that manage, control, and govern human digital presence(identification, authentification, authorization, account recovery).
  • Protocols that provide identity services around the human digital presence, such as reputation, attestation, naming service, profiling, etc.

As a human, you own the protocol(a computer program that exists in the blockchain) that you identify on-chain, and you can share it with any used digital services. The Ethereum account abstraction(AA) roadmap enables flexibility in programming such protocols via smart contract accounts(SCAs). Before AA, users are identified via ownership of a private key(externally owned account EOAs). AA enables user identification via ownership of something programmable(Programmable Ownership). “Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins” => “Not Your something programmable, Not Your Coins”

Wallets

On-chain digital identity protocols are smart contract/zero-knowledge-based computer programs that are independent of any centralized trusted third parties deployed on the Blockchain. We need client software that lets us interact with those protocols and authenticate within digital service using our on-chain digital identity protocol.

A wallet is a client software that lets us interact with on-chain digital identity protocols, which we will use in our daily digital activities. It is like using browsers and mobile phones nowadays.

The wallet provides a set of interfaces for managing and configuring our on-chain digital identity and sharing our identity(identification, authentication, authorization) with on-chain/tokenized digital services.

Landscape

Mainly, wallets will:

  • Facilitate interaction with on-chain digital identity protocols for key rotation, module activation, payment automation, account recovery, etc.
  • Integrate an on-chain digital identity within used digital services, such as the “connect” button and opening a new session key within a particular on-chain digital service.

Users can use different wallets(different clients, it is a form of decentralization) that let them interact with on-chain digital identity protocols. Users can switch between different wallets as they want.

Landscape

The wallet is a critical component for adopting blockchain and tokenization concepts. Wallets and on-chain digital identity protocols must be aligned with tokenization core ideas(Tokenization-centric). Wallet must abstract technical and security aspects via simple, user-friendly interfaces and concepts.

Conclusion

In such a paradigm, we have a scalable approach for building a community-oriented and human-centric digital identity layer on the internet. Digital identity is a basic human right. It must be owned and controlled by humans, not by centralized, trusted third parties.

The on-chain digital identity consists of the following:

  • On-chain protocols
  • Wallets

How can we bridge humans from the real world to the digital world? Simple response: via an on-chain protocol.

Humans will be identified digitally via an on-chain protocol(a computer program based on smart contracts and zero knowledge) deployed and executed on a decentralized public good infrastructure(Blockchain).

These computer programs and decentralized public good infrastructure allow humans to own their digital identities, control and govern their digital presence, and ensure sovereignty over digital identities.

This decentralized, programmable human identification in the digital world is enabled via account abstraction(AA) and smart contract accounts(SCAs). Externally owned accounts(EOAs) are decentralized but static, limited in terms of functionalities, and difficult to program on top of. More details: https://docs.microchain.microchainlabs.xyz/getting-started/digital-identity/digital-identifier

It is a digital identity layer on the internet independent of any centralized trusted third parties. Digital identity, financial activities, and money are services that must be provided as public goods in the digital world. Digital identity is critical to ensuring ownership property of assets, rights, etc.

Identity provider(IDP): we’re familiar with centralized, trusted third-party identity providers(IdPs) such as social logins and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS). With account abstraction(AA), we’re moving to a new paradigm where the identity provider is designed and programmed via on-chain protocols deployed on the blockchain.