Article and Cover Art by Hiro Kennelly | Edited by and trewkat 

Protocols that focus on DID, or Decentralized Identity, have been around for years, but many are still not known outside of their niche communities. That’s gradually changing, and programs like Gitcoin Grants help spread awareness. GG Round 19 is in full swing, and to aid you in your donation journey, we shipped a thread on how to boost your Gitcoin Passport score earlier this week. 

Now let’s take a look at some of the lesser-known DID projects involved with Gitcoin Passport which could help you to maximize your Unique Humanity Score: a 0–100 scale developed to measure our uniqueness as a human onchain. The higher the score, the more matching funds the projects you donate to will receive. What DID we do to get our score higher? Read on frens.

Idena

Founded in 2019, Idena is a blockchain with Sybil resistance built into the block validation system. Idena pioneered Proof-of-Person, which enables anonymous proof of uniqueness for each network participant; it “does not require any personal data sharing, does not reveal a person’s identity, and does not need a third-party identification center.”

To do this, Idena uses what it calls ‘synchronous validation sessions’ where prior validators and new initiates attend a ‘checkpoint ritual’ where people prove their personhood by synchronously solving timed puzzles which are hard for bots but simple for humans. The result of this is that each blockchain node is linked to a person.

Because of the built in Sybil resistance, you can get nearly 10 points added to your Gitcoin Passport score if you are an Idena validator.

Civic

Civic is the creator of the Civic Pass, an onchain identity management tool. Holders of a wallet-bound Civic Pass are required to go through a multi-step verification process, which can include proof of uniqueness, liveliness, reliance on ID documents, and location.

Unlike with Idena, you will be required to record a short video-selfie to prove uniqueness. After completing that step and a cute CAPTCHA that asks you if you have what is commonly referred to as a soul, you’ll be prompted to pay a small admin fee and gas fees for minting the pass.

You’ll want to do all three except for ID Verification, which Gitcoin doesn’t take into account for Stamp scoring. It took me 10 minutes (and two selfies!) to get my Civic Pass by completing Uniqueness, Liveness, and CAPTCHA verification, and I added six more points to my Passport score!

Holonym

A year-old project, Holonym is a provider of Sybil-resistance solutions built using ZK-SNARKS. Through the use of zero-knowledge proofs, Holonym seeks to keep private information private while allowing protocols to verify the uniqueness of the person behind the wallet address. Holonym accomplishes this because ZK-SNARKS enable the proving of the truth of a statement without needing to know the underlying information which generated the statement.

With Holonym, users can prove a variety of facts that help to demonstrate identity required for compliance, whether KYC, Sybil-resistant DAO voting, or receiving airdrops. Unlike with Civic Pass, you do need to provide a government-issued ID to earn this Stamp.

Phi

Grab your 8-bit goggles, boots, and sword, because Phi is a protocol built for questing! The platform hosts third-party campaigns, but also has native quests that encourage you to go explore the different corners of web3. They are even helping the world go bankless!!

In return for exploring and completing tasks, you’ll be rewarded with experience points (EXP). These points are what you need to boost your Gitcoin Passport score. So get questing, and then come back to Gitcoin Passport to update your score. Who says Sybil resistance can’t be fun!

Getting Philately With It

Philately is the term used for studying and collecting stamps, and with Gitcoin Grants Round 19 upon us, there’s no better time to get out your passport and start stamping. You’ll be ensuring you maximize your donation matching while exploring the world of protocols intent on making web3 a fairer, more democratic place. We don’t always think about decentralized identity as we go about our web3 life, and with protocols designed to keep identity in the background, hopefully we won’t have to.

Author and Designer Bio

Hiro Kennelly is a writer, editor, and shipper at Bankless Publishing, builder at BanklessDAO and DAOpunks, and a lover of people, Moloch, and degenerative cryptoeconomics.

Editor Bio

trewkat is a writer, editor, and designer at BanklessDAO. She’s interested in learning about web3, with a particular focus on how best to communicate this knowledge to others.

BanklessDAO is an education and media engine dedicated to helping individuals achieve financial independence.

This post does not contain financial advice, only educational information. By reading this article, you agree and affirm the above, as well as that you are not being solicited to make a financial decision, and that you in no way are receiving any fiduciary projection, promise, or tacit inference of your ability to achieve financial gains.

Bankless Publishing is always open to submissions for publication. We’d love to read your work, so please submit your article here!

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