Polygon ID vs Ethereum Attestation Service

Polygon ID excels at privacy-preserving, high-throughput credential verification by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) on a dedicated L2. Its architecture, built on the Iden3 protocol and the Circom ZK toolkit, allows for selective disclosure of attributes without revealing underlying data. This is critical for KYC/AML or proof-of-humanity use cases where user privacy is paramount. The network benefits from Polygon's high TPS (up to 65,000) and low transaction fees (often <$0.01), making it cost-effective for mass-scale applications.

Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) takes a different, maximally flexible approach by providing a schema-based attestation primitive directly on Ethereum L1 and its L2s. It is a public good protocol for making statements about anything—identities, reputations, or off-chain data—with on-chain verification. This results in a trade-off: unparalleled composability and sovereignty within the Ethereum ecosystem, but with higher gas costs for on-chain attestations and no built-in privacy layer like ZKPs. Its adoption is evident in its TVL of attestations across protocols like Optimism and Base.

The key trade-off: If your priority is user privacy, low cost, and high volume for a dedicated identity product, choose Polygon ID. If you prioritize maximum ecosystem composability, censorship resistance, and building a sovereign reputation graph integrated with DeFi and other Ethereum dApps, choose Ethereum Attestation Service.

Polygon ID excels at providing a high-throughput, low-cost, and user-friendly framework for private identity verification on-chain. Its use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and the Iden3 protocol allows for selective disclosure of credentials without revealing underlying data, which is critical for consumer-facing dApps. For example, its integration with the Polygon PoS chain enables verification transactions for a fraction of a cent, compared to the multi-dollar costs possible on Ethereum mainnet, making it viable for high-volume applications like Sybil-resistant airdrops or gamified loyalty programs.

Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) takes a different approach by offering a maximally flexible, schema-agnostic, and chain-agnostic attestation primitive. This results in a trade-off: while it lacks Polygon ID's built-in ZKP privacy and dedicated identity stack, its minimalism makes it the de facto standard for creating any type of on-chain reputation, from KYC verifications to project governance votes. Its data lives as cheap, immutable attestations on Ethereum (or any EVM chain via its contracts), benefiting from the network's unparalleled security and decentralization for high-value, trust-critical records.

The key trade-off: If your priority is privacy-preserving, scalable identity for mass adoption with a complete SDK and wallet integration, choose Polygon ID. If you prioritize maximum flexibility, Ethereum's security, and building a custom reputation layer where attestations are public and verifiable by any contract, choose Ethereum Attestation Service. For projects like a DeFi protocol requiring verifiable, on-chain credit scores, EAS is ideal. For a web3 social media platform needing private proof-of-humanity, Polygon ID's ZK circuit library is the superior choice.