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30/06/2023

The best web3 identity solutions. Really?

10 min read
June 30, 2023
Research by Surto.io

What is a Web3 Identity tool?

A Web3 identity tool allows you to create a centralized hub where people can connect with you and learn about your online presence. It enables users to track your online activity, achievements, and more.

In Web 2.0, constructing an online persona and generating content involved using platforms owned by others, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. While much of the information on these platforms was the same, it needed to be tailored to each medium. Managing and updating this information manually across multiple platforms was time-consuming. Additionally, there were various methods of communication, such as messenger links, email accounts, and other contact details, resulting in numerous ways to interact with services and resolve issues. Some tools attempted to address this issue by introducing features like the "sign in with Google" option, which represented a step in the right direction.

A good Web3 identity creates a unified hub where people can find, connect, and understand more about you. It bypasses intermediaries, offering a direct and comprehensive solution for showcasing your identity.

5 key components of web3 ID:

  • 1. Data control: In centralized systems, your personal data is stored and controlled by third parties such as social networks or service-providing companies. With web3 identity, users have the ability to store and control their own data, as well as grant access to it to other parties at their discretion.
  • 2. Security and confidentiality: Web3 identity employs cryptographic methods to ensure the security and confidentiality of data. Users have unique digital identifiers, and authentication and authorization are performed using cryptographic signatures. This enhances security and eliminates the need to trust centralized intermediaries.
  • 3. Interoperability enhancement: Web3 identity facilitates standardization and interoperability across different blockchain platforms and decentralized applications. This allows users to have a unified identifier and the ability to interact with various services, irrespective of specific platforms or providers.
  • 4. Ownership of digital assets: Web3 identity enables users to own and control their digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, tokens, or unique digital items. Owning one`s assets without intermediaries and transaction transparency contributes to decentralization and economic freedom.
  • 5. Identification and reputation: Web3 identity allows users to create identification profiles and manage their reputation in a decentralized environment. This can be useful in establishing trust and interacting with other users or services.

Beacon

Website|Twitter|Discord

The DegenScore Beacon is an Ethereum soulbound token designed to identify and highlight a user`s crypto skills & abilities and make them available both on-chain and off- chain.

Any Ethereum user can connect one or more addresses on DegenScore and mint a Beacon SBT, as long as it meets the requirements: there is currently a threshold of 700 DegenScore points. To do this, you need to interact with the various DeFi protocols.

Once a user has minted their Beacon SBT to an address of their choice, anyone can use the Beacon SBT online and offline without permission to use or gather information about the user`s on-chain reputation.

Recently, many projects have been using Beacon SBT as a criterion for giving users drops and other preferences. For example, Rage Trade, Kinetic, Soulbonds, Gearbox, NFTPerp, Mycelium, Cora, Superform, NFTGo and others.

Investors

There is no public information about the investors in the project at the moment.

Conclusion

Beacon is a great solution for DeFi protocols because Degenscore allows the project to determine the 'quality' of the user, and based on this, give access only to the most active users with a high rating. The project already has numerous partnerships with other projects that use DegenScore as a key metric to provide access to beta testing, thereby eliminating the possibility of multi-accounting.

PhiLand

Website|Twitter|Discord

Phi is the first social meta-universe focused on “web3 identity”, created using ENS (Ethereum Name Service) domains and wallet activity verification. It encourages users to interact with various Web3 protocols.

The PhiLand ecosystem consists of 3 key elements:

  • 1. Land - your land, which is created by having an ENS domain.
  • 2. Quests - by completing which you will receive statues that you can place on your land.
  • 3. Campaigns are time-limited sets of quests that focus on a single protocol or ecosystem.

There is a leaderboard for landowners.

  • —   Social - shows the number of links to your land from other members;
  • —   Attention - shows the number of clicks on the links on your land;
  • —   Land Power - indicator is calculated based on XP of objects that are placed on your land.

The higher the level of the quest you did, the more exclusive the item you got, the higher you are in the rankings.

That is, in addition to the usual achievements for completing tasks, a competitive element is being introduced that will motivate users to climb higher and higher up the leaderboard.

Investors

In February and March 2022, the project managed to raise $2,000,000 from investors such as Delphi Digital, Mask Network, Chapter One, Next Web Capital, Polygon Fund, GBV Capital, and others.

Conclusion

Phi is a gamified web3 identity solution that introduces interactivity to on-chain tasks, while also fostering competition within the community. Users will compete for rewards by taking on challenging tasks and earning placements on the leaderboard. Phi also partners with projects, launching campaigns in which users can get active and be rewarded with items to improve their land. These items give XP on Phi, which helps move up the leaderboard. This kind of Phi interaction with projects helps projects attract new audiences.

DeBank

Website|Twitter|Discord

Debank is a portfolio tracker for DeFi that supports the largest number of DeFi protocols across multiple chains. With DeBank, any cryptocurrency user can quickly and conveniently answer daily questions for free:

  • ● How many tokens are held in a specific address?
  • ● What is the value of the tokens?
  • ● How has the portfolio's price changed?
  • ● Which transactions have occurred at a given address?

DeBank tracks approximately 1,400 DeFi protocols across over 30 blockchain networks. The Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of users' assets, positions, loan debts, rewards, and other parameters.

Investors

In December 2022, the project managed to raise $25,000,000 from investors such as Sequoia China, Dragonfly, Hash Global, Youbi, as well as strategic investments from Coinbase Venture, Crypto.com, Circle, and Ledger.

Conclusion

DeBank is a financial web3 identity solution that allows you to track all transactions and activities in the DeFi segment of any user.

Space.ID

Website|Twitter|Discord

SPACE ID is building a universal name service network with one Oracle which seamlessly connects people, information, assets, and applications across blockchains. It’s decentralized, censorship-resistant, and open-sourced.

SpaceId aims to build SID with the following properties:

  • —   Universal usernames with cross-chain interoperability;
  • —   Decentralized identity in a Single Source of Truth system, providing access to any resource associated with the name;
  • —   Ad hoc Oracle chain to enhance scalability and availability.

Investors

In September 2022, Binance Labs invested in Space ID. In February 2023, the project managed to raise $10,000,000 from Polychain Capital and DAO5.

Conclusion

The traditional structure of domain naming services is "domain.tld/filepath". However, SID introduces an innovative and superior layout.

SID will start with a colon symbol. It may sound simple, but it has much greater capabilities. A domain name should only be registered once, and any chain that complies with the protocol should prohibit the registration of the same name. This means that a domain name will be used solely to identify a single resource, regardless of its location.

Scenarios for SIDs New Innovative Structure

  • ● Scenario 1: “:luke” can be registered as Luke’s SID across all SPACE ID supported blockchains.
  • ● Scenario 2: Yuga Labs can acquire the TLD of “yuga:” and open for registration for their community only. If Luke is one of their users he can register his very own “yuga:luke” domain. MeebitsDAO developers can also register the domain “yuga:meebits”, and map the domain to Meebits smart contract on Ethereum. In this way, the Meebits NFT with the ID 1024 on Ethereum can be configured to display as “yuga:meetbits/2626”.

Fractal

Website|Twitter|Discord

Founded in 2017, Fractal is the leading provider of identity solutions for Web3, with nearly one million users distributed across more than 200 Web3 projects. Fractal is currently engaged in building an all-encompassing identity stack that works for everyone, everywhere. Fractal is dedicated to extending support to dApps by fulfilling their specific identity requirements, ranging from complying with data and regulatory standards, including GDPR regulations, to facilitating seamless user verification via the use of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, alongside human liveliness checks.

Fractal offers identity solutions tailored to address various needs, including Sybil resistance for establishing human uniqueness and KYC/AML compliance to meet regulatory requirements. The identity integration options are customized to cater to the specific requirements of different Web3 projects, ranging from conventional OAuth to decentralized identity solutions such as the DID Registry. Fractal technology also makes it easy for users across Web3 platforms to easily manage their identity, eliminating the need for users to create multiple accounts and manage different sets of login credentials, which can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. This way, Fractal prioritizes a seamless user experience for Web3 projects while safeguarding the privacy of users.

Investors

In 2020 and 2021 the project managed to raise $2,600,000 from Framework Ventures, KuCoin Labs and Polkastarter IDO.

Conclusion

Good prospects, a fundamental niche, many partnerships and integrations with other projects signal a bright future for the project.

Gitcoin Passport

Website|Twitter|Discord

Gitcoin Passport is an identity verification application. Users collect “stamps” from different authenticators around web2 and web3, such as Bright ID, Proof of Humanity, Twitter, and Google.

Gitcoin Passport acts as an aggregator of decentralized society credentials, proving your trustworthiness without needing to collect personally identifiable information. This process transmits more Sybil resistance out to the entire ecosystem.

Investors

In 2021 the project managed to raise $11,300,000 from Paradigm, Eclectic Capital, 1kx and others.

Conclusion

Building a thriving community or ecosystem requires addressing two crucial aspects:

  • —   Identifying "high-quality participants" who genuinely contribute to community/ecosystem. What characteristics do they possess that warrant their inclusion?
  • —   Preventing low-quality participants from joining, without imposing an excessive administrative load on the community/ecosystem as it grows.

Gitcoin Passport effectively tackles these challenges with advanced Sybil defense and Identity/Reputation system, backed by Gitcoin Grants-grade technology.

Is there a future for web3 ID?

WebID allows you to remain anonymous while confirming that you are a real person without revealing your identity. Of course, Web3 ID is the future. However, there is significant competition in this field, and projects are focused on different issues. Each of them has good support from venture capital and great potential for further development.

Considering the relatively young nature of the Web3 ID concept, projects are doing a great job. Each of the mentioned projects already has a large audience and has established itself in the industry.

Beacon and Phi enable projects to address the problem of multiple accounts among users that are falsely presented as real users without undergoing the KYC procedure. On the other hand, Fractal has occupied a niche and become the main service that projects can turn to for KYC and AML procedures. For example, many projects reward early users with tokens. To ensure that these rewards go to genuine users rather than empty wallets controlled by the same users attempting to obtain multiple rewards, projects can utilize Web3 identity solutions for wallet identification and filtering based on low activity or ratings.

Within Web3ID, identification is based on blockchain and cryptography technologies. Instead of relying on centralized organizations for identity verification, Web3ID allows users to create and control their own decentralized identifiers based on the blockchain.

The advantages of decentralization in Web3ID include:

  • —   User control: Users have full control over their identification data and can decide who and when to grant access to this data.
  • —   Elimination of single point of failure: The absence of a centralized organization that stores and manages identification data eliminates the risks of a single point of failure and data breaches.
  • —   Enhanced security: Cryptographic protocols and blockchain technologies ensure a high level of security and integrity for identification data
  • —   Increased anonymity: Web3ID's decentralized identifiers allow users to verify their identity without disclosing their personal information.
  • —   Interaction with different networks: Web3ID can be used for identification across various decentralized networks, enabling users to carry their identity across different applications and services.

Overall, decentralization in Web3ID provides users with greater freedom and control over their digital identity while improving security and anonymity.

This material is provided for information purposes only. Surto is not an advisor. Nothing in this material should be construed as investment, financial, tax, legal, accounting, regulatory or other advice.

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