Why Decentralized Identity Fails Without Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Uses custom hardware (Orb) to generate a unique, private ZK-based World ID, proving personhood without revealing identity.

• Key Benefit: Enables global, permissionless distribution (e.g., UBI, airdrops) with ~1.5% fraud rate.
• Key Benefit: Decouples proof-of-personhood from centralized KYC, solving the Sybil attack problem for on-chain governance and subsidies.

ZK badges allow users to aggregate credentials from Web2 (GitHub, Twitter) and Web3 (DAO votes, NFT holdings) into a single, provable claim.

• Key Benefit: Enables granular, composable reputation (e.g., prove you're a top-100 ENS holder without revealing your address).
• Key Benefit: Data minimization by design; applications request a specific ZK proof, not your entire social graph or transaction history.

Provides an SDK for issuing, holding, and verifying W3C-compliant ZK credentials on-chain, targeting regulated DeFi and enterprise use cases.

• Key Benefit: Off-chain issuance, on-chain verification enables KYC/AML compliance for DeFi pools without exposing user PII.
• Key Benefit: Identity-as-a-Service model reduces integration complexity for protocols, with ~2-second proof generation on mobile.

Traditional decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials on public blockchains (like Ethereum) create permanent, linkable records of identity actions.

• Consequence: Your DAO votes, credit score checks, and game achievements become public, creating doxxing and discrimination vectors.
• Consequence: This undermines core crypto values; you trade centralized surveillance for a permanent, public ledger of your personal data.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs cryptographically separate the claim ("I am over 18") from the data (your passport). This enables a new architectural primitive.

• Key Benefit: Selective Disclosure: Prove specific attributes from a credential without revealing the credential itself or any other data.
• Key Benefit: Trustless Computation: Protocols like Aztec, zkSync can process private state; identity logic can be executed confidentially, with only the validity proof published.

The endgame is a wallet that manages your private keys and your ZK-provable identity claims, enabling seamless, private interactions with any dApp.

• Evolution: Wallets like Privy, Spruce ID evolve into ZK coprocessors, generating proofs locally for actions like private voting or credit checks.
• Evolution: This enables autonomous agents that can act on your behalf (e.g., a trading bot that proves it's operating under pre-set risk parameters) without exposing your strategy or capital.

Storing verifiable credentials or attestations on a public ledger like Ethereum or Solana creates permanent, linkable data trails. This defeats the purpose of self-sovereignty.

• Every transaction becomes a privacy leak, exposing KYC status, credit scores, or DAO membership.
• Projects like Worldcoin face scrutiny for centralization; ZK proofs could anonymize the 'proof of personhood' check.

Storing full credential data on-chain for every verification is prohibitively expensive and slow. This kills user experience for high-frequency actions like DeFi logins or game check-ins.

• ZK proofs compress a credential's validity into a ~1KB proof, reducing gas costs by >90% vs. storing data.
• Enables real-time, sub-second verification for applications across Polygon zkEVM, zkSync, and Starknet.

Without a shared, privacy-preserving primitive, each identity protocol (e.g., Civic, Ontology) becomes its own walled garden. Cross-chain or cross-dApp identity becomes impossible.

• ZK proofs create portable, verifiable claims that any chain or app can trust without seeing the underlying data.
• This is the missing layer for a unified identity standard, enabling seamless movement between Aave, Uniswap, and gaming worlds.

Regulations like Travel Rule demand identity checks, but exposing user data to every DeFi protocol creates massive surveillance risk and liability.

• ZK proofs allow users to prove they are KYC'd by a licensed provider (e.g., Circle, Coinbase) without revealing who they are.
• Protocols like Aztec and Polygon ID demonstrate this for private compliance, enabling $10B+ institutional DeFi flows.

Distributing resources (airdrops, governance power) fairly requires Sybil resistance. Physical biometrics (Worldcoin) are invasive; social graphs are gameable.

• ZK proofs enable anonymous, unique personhood via cryptographic accumulators or biometrics where the raw data never leaves the device.
• This creates a foundational primitive for retroactive public goods funding (like Optimism's RPGF) and democratic DAOs.

Legacy identity stacks are data-heavy registries. The ZK paradigm flips this: the chain becomes a lightweight verifier of cryptographic proofs.

• Identity becomes a function, not a dataset. This aligns with the modular blockchain thesis, separating execution, settlement, and verification.
• EigenLayer AVS's could provide decentralized proof verification, creating a robust, credibly neutral identity layer.