Decentralized Identity: Your Reputation Travels With You - a16z crypto

Managing reputation information also requires publicly accessible data standards — agreed upon formats for, say, “what an attestation of a contribution looks like” or “how to formulate an on-chain record.” Structuring these inputs to reputation ensures interoperability, both (1) enabling people to meaningfully combine parts of their decentralized i... See more

If decentralized identity were widely adopted, people would be able to carry their full selves with them as they traverse cyberspace: their affinities and experiences reflected by what they’ve created, contributed to, earned, and owned online, no matter the specific platform. This would bring us closer to how things work in the physical world, wher... See more

ontextualizing information explains why you’ve earned or bought an artefact. Earning an NFT for a contribution to a project, for example, should provide context about why you earned it and what skills you demonstrated.

For the sake of logistical simplicity (and because different facets of a person’s identity naturally overlap and interact), it makes sense to store one’s relevant activities and contributions in a single wallet. But any given person isn’t solely a creator, builder, investor, or collector; they’re many things at once. Thus, we need some way to take ... See more

The wealth of information stored on-chain could even upend markets as big as search and discovery. A range of matching algorithms will be enabled by the openly queryable nature of decentralized identities; whereas previously, matching algorithms could only be developed by whoever had access to our data. Additionally, until now we’ve only been able ... See more

Once all this identity data has been recorded on-chain, we’ll need systems in place to map and interpret it so that it makes sense to the wallet holder and those they interact with. Since wallets are also used for mundane content storage and transactions, this task is especially challenging: wallets accrue a lot of noisy data.

To make decentralized identity useful and widespread, it is important to introduce on-ramps for people to record their experiences and affinities on the blockchain, such as their educational accomplishments, professional achievements, or fanships. Some companies are already tackling this challenge. Violet aims to authenticate off-chain, personally ... See more

Additionally, there’s a whole class of applications based around the use of reputation to incentivize new forms of creation or contribution. Currently, it is difficult to decipher who is a subject-matter expert and to recognize and reward them. With decentralized identities that track contributions across the internet, we will be better able to gau... See more

If decentralized identity is the future of the web, then the contributions that you accumulate in your crypto wallet — the articles you write, the content you curate, or the things you buy — will become very important.