Why Your Current KYC Solution is a Privacy Liability

Replaces identity documents with a zero-knowledge proof of unique humanness. The protocol's Semaphore-based architecture ensures no biometric data is stored or linked to activity.

• Key Benefit: Enables sybil-resistant airdrops and governance without doxxing users.
• Key Benefit: ~5M+ verified humans creates a portable, reusable credential for any app.

Centralized KYC aggregators like Jumio or Onfido create single points of failure. A breach exposes PII for your entire user base, leading to regulatory fines and irreversible reputational damage.

• Key Liability: You are responsible for data you collect, even if a third-party vendor is hacked.
• Key Cost: Compliance audits and data storage for inactive users create perpetual overhead.

Transforms on-chain history (e.g., ENS holder, Gitcoin donor) into reusable, private attestations. Uses ZK proofs to selectively reveal traits without exposing the underlying wallet or full history.

• Key Benefit: Users aggregate reputation across chains and apps without creating a public linkable identity graph.
• Key Benefit: Developers can gate access based on proven behavior, not just token holdings.

The credential layer uses W3C Verifiable Credentials as a standard and zk-SNARKs/STARKs for privacy. Users hold credentials in a wallet (e.g., Spruce ID), proving claims on-demand.

• Key Benefit: Data minimization. Prove you're over 18 without revealing your birthdate or name.
• Key Benefit: User sovereignty. Credentials are portable and revocable, breaking vendor lock-in.

Provides a public, immutable registry for attestation schemas on-chain. Acts as the neutral infrastructure for issuing credentials, from KYC approvals to skill certifications.

• Key Benefit: Permissionless and composable. Any entity (DAO, corporation) can define and issue standards.
• Key Benefit: On-chain provenance creates a trustless audit trail for any credential's origin and history.

Aims to bridge enterprise compliance and user privacy using Iden3 protocol and Circom ZK circuits. Focuses on reusable KYC where a regulated issuer (bank) attests to identity, which can then be used privately across dApps.

• Key Benefit: Enables institutions to participate in DeFi while maintaining user privacy guarantees.
• Key Benefit: Selective Disclosure lets users prove specific accredited investor or jurisdiction status.

Centralized KYC databases are honeypots for hackers. A single breach can expose millions of user PII, leading to catastrophic liability and loss of trust. Your protocol is held responsible for third-party vendor failure.

• Attack Surface: Centralized SQL databases with known vulnerabilities.
• Liability Shift: You own the fallout, not your KYC provider.
• Regulatory Fines: GDPR, CCPA penalties can reach 4% of global revenue.

You cannot audit your KYC provider's compliance logic. This creates blind spots for sanctions screening and AML flags, putting your protocol at risk of enforcement actions from OFAC or FinCEN.

• Opaque Logic: No on-chain verification of sanction list checks.
• Slow Updates: Manual list updates create windows of vulnerability.
• Chainalysis & Elliptic: Even these leaders operate as opaque oracles.

ZK proofs (e.g., zkSNARKs, zk-STARKs) allow users to cryptographically prove KYC compliance without revealing underlying data. The proof is verified on-chain; you custody nothing.

• User Sovereignty: PII stays with user-controlled identity wallets (e.g., Sismo, Polygon ID).
• Auditable Compliance: Verification logic is transparent and immutable.
• Modular Design: Plug into ZK rollups (zkSync, Starknet) for native verification.

By storing user PII, you become a data controller under GDPR/CCPA, subject to stringent data subject rights (deletion, portability). This creates massive operational overhead and legal exposure that most crypto teams are not equipped to handle.

• Right to Deletion: Technically impossible on most immutable ledgers, creating a fundamental conflict.
• Global Patchwork: Must comply with EU, US, APAC regimes simultaneously.
• Vendor Lock-in: Switching KYC providers requires complex, risky data migration.

Traditional KYC creates a user onboarding bottleneck. Manual review processes and API rate limits from providers like Jumio or Onfido cannot scale to the ~1M+ TPS vision of modular blockchains and parallelized EVMs (Monad, Sei).

• Bottleneck: Sequential API calls create >30 sec latency per user.
• Cost Proliferation: Per-check pricing explodes with scale.
• Architectural Misalignment: Centralized API is antithetical to decentralized, asynchronous app chains.

The endgame is portable, composable reputation. ZK-proofed KYC credentials become a primitive for DeFi risk engines, sybil-resistant governance, and under-collateralized lending without the privacy tax. Think Citizen Finance but for compliance.

• Composability: One proof unlocks multiple applications across chains via interop layers (LayerZero, CCIP).
• Capital Efficiency: Enables credit-based systems in DeFi.
• Network Effects: User's reputation accrues value across the ecosystem.