Parity Technologies is launching a Web3 individuality solution, which is a crucial missing element for mainstream Web3 adoption.
The new solution, “Proof-of-Ink,” will enable users to prove their digital individuality in a privacy-preserving manner through a unique tattoo serving as proof of digital citizenship.
Proof-of-Ink is set to launch in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to Gavin Wood, the co-founder of Ethereum, Polkadot and Kusama.
Wood announced during a keynote speech at the Web3 Summit in Berlin:
“We are able to deploy the baseline palette and launch the app at some point this year, hopefully in the final quarter […] We are aiming to launch the other two mechanisms next year.”
While Wood teased that one of the additional two digital identity solutions is further in development, he shared no details about their mechanics.
Mainstream adoption is crucial for any technological paradigm. Experts like Wood hope that Web3 adoption will create a more decentralized and user-centric internet, envisioned as a free public good to help humanity.
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Proof-of-Ink: What we know so far
Proof-of-Ink will require these algorithmically generated tattoos in a particular place of the body to add to the solution’s privacy element, explained Wood:
“The place is the same for everybody. This is part of guaranteeing individuality with all of that stuff that I just talked about privacy, through the idea of a unique design, signed onchain, using a trustless entity.”
For each new user tattoo, the blockchain will generate random numbers that create the algorithmically generated designs that are unique for all users.
Users will have to spend a small balance of Polkadot (DOT) tokens or potential vouchers that may be shared within the Web3 community before the application’s launch this year.
This will serve as a type of Sybil resistance against spam requests, explained Wood.
Gavin Wood keynote speech, Web3 conference Berlin 2024. Source: YouTube
Finally, Proof-of-Ink users will upload a video of the final three minutes of the tattooing process, which will ultimately serve as evidence of the person’s Web3 individuality.
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Web3 individuality needs privacy to avoid financial censorship
Digital individuality solutions could significantly bolster mass Web3 adoption as long as they can provide users with true financial privacy, said Wood:
“What we really want to be able to do is not have a signature associated with a transaction. Rather, we want to have a proof. A proof that does not identify us.”
According to Wood, famous whistleblower Edward Snowden was the first to raise the importance of financial privacy to avoid censorship. Wood explained:
Gavin Wood keynote speech, Web3 conference Berlin 2024. Source: YouTube
Other instances of financial censorship include Visa and Mastercard’s decision to suspend payments to whistleblower website WikiLeaks back in 2010.
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