KILT Protocol: DID It Before Anyone Else — The Pioneering Decentralized Identity Solution for Web3 on Polkadot
KILT is a decentralized and anonymous protocol for maintaining personal data and credentials (such as your online identity or personal documents) that may be used to prove ourselves to other organizations and entities.
Because the protocol is built on the Substrate framework, KILT will enable any parachains and their users on Polkadot to securely manage their personal data and credentials, which they can transfer over to third parties anonymously and securely without the possibility of disclosure to anyone else.
TL;RD
- KILT Protocol is a decentralized identity (DID) protocol built for Web3
- DID allows individuals to create and manage their own digital identity with control over personal data
- KILT Protocol enables organizations to issue and verify credentials on the blockchain for increased security and transparency
- applications for KILT: Sporran wallet, Stakeboard, SocialKYC, DIDsign, web3name
Content:
- Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0
- KILT applications
2.1. Sporran wallet
2.2. Stakeboard
2.3. SocialKYC
2.4. DIDsign
2.5. Web3name
2.6. AssetDID - KILT Coin
- Team
- Final word
Kilt Protocol is one of the Web3 initiatives aiming to safeguard personal information from any unwanted activity. It enables users to make any claims about themselves, have those claims confirmed by reliable sources, and then communicate those validated claims to any third parties.
The objective of KILT is to support new business models based on establishing trust, as trusted institutions can provide verification for a price. Consider a notary, who, in the real world, verifies various documents. The KILT protocol will do the same function but in a decentralized and autonomous manner.
Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0
In the present Web 2.0 environment, several major tech giants including Facebook, Google, and Amazon, manage digital identities and related data, such as passwords or social network accounts.
The truth is that users in the current Web 2.0 space entirely lose control over their data and pass the responsibility to the aforementioned corporates, which economically benefit by owning & selling those data for marketing purposes.
That’s why Dr. Gavin Wood, the creator of Polkadot and a founding member of Ethereum, came up with the Web 3.0 initiative as an answer to the broken internet of today. It aims to redesign it so that users can regain control over their data, maintain their anonymity and security, and finally free themselves from the shackles of big corporations that currently rule the entire internet.
The logical component of such an attempt is to develop a method by which users may control their identities, passwords, and other sensitive data. This is where KILT protocol enters the field, which, as a Polkadot parachain, brings such a solution for the whole Polkadot ecosystem and even beyond that. A solution that is especially necessary to connect the old, centralized world, where anonymity is just a myth, and the new one, which uses decentralized technologies.
Besides blockchain and DeFi usability, there are many types of credentials and certificates that we encounter in everyday life, such as car license plates, university degree certificates, course certificates, and trademarks. These are typically issued by trusted organizations or centralized authorities, which of course lack anonymity. Those can be provided by the decentralized service such as the KILT protocol as well.
KILT applications
Let’s dive into the decentralized applications, which have already been built to utilize KILT and its core functions, such as DIDs and decentralized credentials.
Sporran wallet
Wallets are the gateway to Web3. They store private information like secret keys for KILT DIDs and credentials. Each time a website needs to access some information about the visitor, the wallet first asks for its owner’s permission to share the requested information.
Web 3.0 wallets, such as the Sporran wallet, allow users to securely store and manage private information like secret keys for KILT DIDs and credentials.
When a website requests information about a visitor, the wallet prompts the owner for permission to share the requested data.
As the first wallet to support the KILT protocol, Sporran enables users to easily access and interact with Web 3.0 resources.
Sporran wallet is maintained by BOTLabs Trusted Entity B.T.E GmbH and it is open source.
Stakeboard
Stakeboard is a web application allowing direct interaction with the KILT blockchain and KILT staking. By using Stakeboard, you can delegate your KILT tokens to a trusted collator.
By doing so, you can have a say in who is allowed to build blocks on the KILT network. This is an important step in ensuring the integrity of the network. Remember to carefully consider which collator you choose to delegate to, as they will be responsible for verifying and adding new transactions to the network.
For your delegation, you get rewarded when the picked collator successfully produces blocks.
You can delegate your KILT tokens to our Polkadotters collator as well!
SocialKYC
SocialKYC is a free service that allows you to obtain credentials that verify your ownership of various social media profiles, including email addresses, Telegram, Twitter, and GitHub accounts. New profiles are regularly added to the list. These credentials are valid for one year and can be easily obtained. This is the future of the cryptographically verified ownership of your social media profiles.
SocialKYC can help you securely store and manage your government-issued identification documents, such as an ID or passport, which are often required for KYC (Know Your Customer) purposes when opening a bank or cryptocurrency exchange account.
By using both SocialKYC and the Sporran wallet, individuals can now have control over their personal credentials and choose which elements of their information they wish to share with the relevant service. This improves the security, usability, and overall effectiveness of Web3 services.
One of the first huge usecases is the integration of SocialKYC and related e-mail verification by using the Sporran wallet is Moonsama, the leading NFT project within the Polkadot ecosystem with its own on-chain governance that is using NFTs. Moonsama’s ecosystem includes various components such as blockchain technology, a community of users, metaverses, digital assets, marketplaces, and NFT collections.
DIDsign
DIDsign provides a decentralized way to sign and verify any document or file directly in your browser using your KILT DID (in a similar fashion to what DocuSign is doing now). Your data stays locally on your device and is never transferred or held in any centralized place, so it's providing privacy by design in the Web3 fashion.
DIDsign is a tool that allows you to sign any digital file, including PDFs, audio, video, and software, directly in your browser using a decentralized identifier (DID). You can download the signed file, along with the signature, as a zip file and send it to anyone via your preferred method.
The recipient can then easily verify the file’s authenticity. Multiple people can sign the same document separately and confirm that it was signed in its original form and has not been altered.
DIDsign requires a Sporran wallet and an on-chain DID. But you can decide, whether to attach your credentials to the signature or sign the files without credentials.
DIDsign can be used in the real world by researchers to verify new research discoveries, by doctors to sign and verify lab reports with colleagues in clinical settings, or by developers to sign software.
Web3name
Web3names are user-friendly aliases for KILT DIDs. They serve a similar purpose to domain names for IP addresses. There is a one-to-one relationship between DIDs and web3names, meaning that a KILT DID can only be linked to one web3name and a web3name can only be claimed by one DID.
Each web3name is unique within the KILT space and consists of 3 to 32 characters from a specific character set to improve readability and reduce the chances of two web3names looking the same. KILT also allows DID owners to link multiple accounts to a single DID.
To claim your web3name and search for others, you can use the website w3n.id.
AssetDID
AssetDID is a unique digital identifier that can be used for NFTs. AssetDIDs will ensure authenticity across multiple chains and prevent counterfeits.
The AssetDID is publicly available and can be constructed by anyone with access to the necessary information. As a result, it is not necessary to store the AssetDID on a blockchain. In contrast to traditional DIDs, AssetDIDs do not have private keys since objects such as NFTs are unable to sign messages or transactions.
AssetDIDs could be used also for physical goods such as branded products (e.g. watches, clothes) or even for physical property such as houses. A notary service could issue an NFT to indicate ownership of the house and a credential including the AssetDID and relevant details about the property (e.g. size, location) could be notarized on the KILT blockchain and linked to the NFT. A smart contract could then track the transfer of ownership with each sale, enabling the digital transfer of ownership for physical items in a transparent and efficient manner.
KILT Coin
KILT has its own tokens which will is used as fees for services provided by the protocol. KILT Coin is a means of enabling and incentivizing functionalities in the whole KILT ecosystem.
These services will typically be the authentication of applicants or payment to the intermediaries for arranging anonymous communication between verifiers and claimers.
KILT Coin tokenomics:
- Total supply at Token Generation Event (TGE): 150 million pre-minted KILT Coins
- Initial circulating supply: 34 million
- The remaining pre-minted coins gradually unlocked over a period of 6 to 60 months
- Initial inflation started at around 5% per annum, dropping to 1% per annum within the first 6 years and then slowly moving towards 0%
- The maximum supply is about 290 million KILT Coins (290,560,000)
Team
The KILT Protocol was created in 2018 by Ingo Rübe, the CEO of BOTLabs GmbH, in collaboration with Hubert Burda Media, where Rübe served as CTO from 2012 to 2017.
Rübe recognized the potential of blockchain technology to give individuals and organizations more control over their personal data, and he set out to develop identity solutions that could be standardized and used by companies and entrepreneurs around the world.
Christine Mohan, ex-CMO at Web3 Foundation/Polkadot and a journalist at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, is a Vice President of Business Development. With her 25 years of experience in software and digital media, Christine is leading marketing, public relations, and community operations.
The KILT website features a team of seasoned professionals from both the cryptographical and corporate spheres.
The KILT Protocol has been awarded two grants from the Web3 Foundation. The first grant supported the development of Substrate Anonymous Credentials, while the second grant was used to create Polimec, a funding mechanism for projects within the Polkadot ecosystem.
Final word
KILT is a blockchain identity protocol for issuing self-sovereign, verifiable credentials, and decentralized identifiers (DIDs). DID refer to a digital identity that is owned and controlled by the individual, rather than a custodial middleman, so there is no central evidence that stores all the users' secure data.
This brings a higher level of privacy and data sovereignty including the ability to easily verify and authenticate oneself online.
The Kilt Protocol also provides a framework for organizations to issue and verify credentials, such as educational degrees or professional licenses, on the blockchain and in encrypted form. This ensures the integrity and verifiability of these credentials, providing a more secure and transparent system for credential verification.
KILT is the missing technological link between the growing need for self-sovereign and verifiable data and interoperability. It's an essential part of the decentralized Web 3.0, which regains users' control of their data. This is the true spirit of Web 3.0!
Source: https://kilt.io/
