Polygon network, a decentralized app (Dapp) layer for ethereum, has announced that Polygon ID, one of the first identity platforms powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography, will be ready before the year-end.
A zero-knowledge technology enables verifying data such as transactions and personal information or identification without handing over control of the information.
The blockchain-based ID for decentralized and self-sovereign models has zero-knowledge native protocols for ultimate user privacy, is scalable and private on-chain verification to boost decentralized apps and decentralized finance, and is open to existing standards and ecosystem development.
Polygon ID leverages the Iden3 protocol and Circom ZK toolkit. Moving forward, both of the projects will be sponsored by Polygon while keeping the original spirit of community initiatives to provide open-source protocols and tools to the broader ecosystem of developers.
“Polygon ID is private by default, offers on-chain verification and permissionless attestation. There is nothing in the digital identity space now that ticks all these boxes,” said Mihailo Bjelic, Polygon’s co-founder. “It is also a great showcase for how zero-knowledge proofs can help us create a better world.”
Polygon ID is expected to be used by organiZations and businesses, for identity and trust management purposes, such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and digital wallets, where users can authenticate themselves to blockchain-based applications, without providing passwords or data to every such application individually.
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.
According to the company’s stated timeline, the proof-of-concept (PoC) has been developed and the complete Polygon ID platform is scheduled to be ready in the third quarter of 2022.
