Imagine trying to navigate a foreign country without understanding the local language – that's exactly what entering the Web3 identity world feels like without knowing its terminology. As digital identity becomes the gateway to everything from DeFi platforms to NFT marketplaces, understanding these key terms isn't just helpful – it's essential for making informed decisions about your privacy and digital assets.
This guide provides clear explanations of essential Web3 identity terms that empower you to confidently engage with the next generation of identity solutions.
1. Key Participants: The Players in Web3 Identity
Understanding the roles of different participants in the digital identity ecosystem.
- Holder
A party that holds identity credentials and exists on-chain with a unique account identifier. - Issuer
A party that that accepts data from identity holders, issues credentials, and maintains verifiable credential data on-chain. - Verifier
A party that verifies the authenticity and validity of digital assets or credentials.
2. Core Concepts & Data Types: The Building Blocks
The fundamental concepts and data structures that form the foundation of Web3 identity.
- Verifiable Credential (VC)
A verifiable identity credential, issued by the Issuer, that serves as the form in which various identity proofs for holders exist within the ecosystem. - Raw data
The raw data of the holder's identity information. For example, in zkKYC, the holder's raw data includes identification document photos, facial photos, and KYC document details. - Schema
The storage format for holder information within a Verifiable Credential. After being defined by the Issuer, the Issuer SDK generates the corresponding VC according to the Schema requirements, ensuring that the data structure remains consistent for the same type of identity credential.
3. Privacy & Security Technologies: Your Digital Shield
The cryptographic innovations that keep your sensitive information secure.
- Zero-knowledge Proof (ZKP)
In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof (also known as a ZK proof or ZKP) is a protocol in which one party (the prover) can convince another party (the verifier) that some given statement is true, without conveying to the verifier any information beyond the mere fact of that statement's truth.
- zkTLS(Zero-Knowledge Transport Layer Security)
The integration of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) into the TLS handshake process. It enables communication parties to securely verify cryptographic parameters and configurations without exposing sensitive data, thereby enhancing privacy while maintaining robust security. - MPC (Multi Party Computation)
- A cryptographic technique that allows multiple parties to jointly compute a function over their inputs while keeping those inputs private.
- TEE (Trusted Execution Environment)
- In the case of key management, it is a secure KMS solution that ensures keys are encrypted even from the owner of the servers and can only be accessed by the key owner. Example is AWS Nitro Enclave
4. Standards & Interoperability: Making Systems Connect
The frameworks and standards that enable different identity systems to work together seamlessly.
- W3C Standards
Open technical specifications developed by the World Wide Web Consortium that define interoperable frameworks for verifiable credentials and digital identity verification. These standards ensure compatibility and interoperability across different identity systems. - Universal Account
A single digital identity or account that can be used across multiple platforms and services, enabling seamless interoperability. This concept is central to the vision of unified digital identity in decentralized ecosystems. - SSO (Single Sign On)
- An authentication process that allows users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials, improving user experience and security.
5. Processes & Operations: How Digital Identity Actually Works
The key operations and workflows that make Web3 identity systems function.
- Issuance/Issue
The process in which the issuer, based on the specified Credential Schema and the holder's raw data, issues a credential to the holder. - Verification/Verify
The process in which the verifier generates a Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) based on the question set configured for the credential and the holder's Verifiable Credentials, and then validates the ZKP through an on-chain contract. - Verification Program
A complete verification scheme created and managed by the verifier within the Verifier Dashboard. - Credential Verifications
The process by which a verifier checks the authenticity, integrity, and current validity of a digital credential presented by a holder without assessing the truth of the claims themselves.
6. Ecosystem & Infrastructure: The Broader Web3 Identity Landscape
Understanding how Web3 identity fits into the larger decentralized ecosystem.
- Identity Oracle
A trusted service or system that provides verified identity information or claims to other systems, often in decentralized contexts. Identity oracles serve as bridges between off-chain identity data and on-chain verification needs. - Identity Layer
The foundational protocol or infrastructure that enables creation, management, and verification of digital identities and credentials in a decentralized ecosystem. - On-Chain Reputation
A transparent, immutable record of a user's reputation data stored on a blockchain, enabling decentralized, interoperable, and verifiable credibility across platforms. This creates portable trust that users can carry across different services. - Privacy Preserved
A principle and practice in digital identity systems that ensures users control their personal data and only disclose minimal necessary information, often using cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge proofs. This is fundamental to the philosophy behind modern identity solutions. - SSI Wallet
- Self-sovereign identity (SSI) is an approach to digital identity that gives individuals control over the information they use to prove who they are to websites, services, and applications across the web. In zkMe, the SSI Wallet refers to the zkMe account system.
- DFS (Decentralized File Storage)/DStorage
- A method of storing files across multiple nodes in a decentralized manner to enhance security, redundancy, and accessibility without relying on central servers. A decentralized storage system used to store Verifiable Credential data after encryption, supporting cross-device access and ensuring data privacy and security.
Conclusion
Understanding these terms is like learning the vocabulary of a new language - the language of private, secure digital identity. This guide has taken you on a journey from the specific world of AIR Credential to the broader Web3 identity ecosystem, revealing how interconnected these concepts truly are.
Ready to dive deeper? Start exploring how these concepts work together in practice, and consider how you might use them in your own projects or daily digital life.
About zkMe
⭐ zkMe builds web3 protocols and infrastructure for compliant, self-sovereign, and private verification of user credentials. The only web3-native solution for dApps to fulfill user due diligence (KYC) in zero-knowledge natively onchain, without compromises on the decentralization & privacy ethos of web3.
🔖 Use Cases: zkKYC, zk Credit Score, zk GPS Geoblocking, zk Investor Accreditation, Onchain AML, Anti-Bot/Sybil Protection.
🚀Trusted by over 80 projects and with over 1.5 million user credentials, backed by Multicoin Capital, OKX Ventures, Robot Ventures and more. zkMe is the leading onchain compliance provider.
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