Digital identity and reputation on RGB

[sabina-sa]

Looking at RGB, I see much untapped potential for truly private digital identities and reputation infrastructure. RGB allows voluntary disclosure of provable facts. The disclosure can also be selective (and RGB allows to know whether the disclosure was full or selective). Hence, the whole history of somebody’s interaction with the RGB ecosystem can become a collection of cryptographic proofs on various topics of one’s daily life.

Some of my early thoughts on what can be implemented:

1. Loyalty programs without registration requirements

So far, loyalty & customer retention programs were associated with much hassle on both buyer side (registration & key management) and seller side (setting up & managing the infrastructure). Now they can work seamlessly without registration, and even include “alliances of shops” without the need to exchange customer data between them. You can forget about GDPR too.

Example claim request: “prove that you had shopped with us or our partners at least once during the last month and receive a cashback”.

2. Generation of transferrable, provable and sellable data

Your data collected by e.g. a fitness program will come in universally transferrable format. You can use this provable data with a different fitness program, with a third-party supplemental nutrition program, with your doctor, your personal trainer, your health insurance company, or even sell your data to a sports equipment company, or donate it to health institutions to promote research.

3. Buying customer-related data, generated by third-party, directly from the customer

Databases (and especially the whole history of transactions) for good, paying customers of third parties are valuable. They allow targeted promotions (either through communication channels or through discount policies). They show patterns of behaviour that may have value for market research and product design. Certain aggregate data may have scientific or commercial value, like health monitoring or geolocation information. Now all data, generated by various sources, can be bought by interested parties directly from the customer.

Example claim request: “show all transactions that you have made with dentists / computer shops / restaurants”, “show all data collected about your heart rate by the third-party application HeartMonitor”, “show your full transactional history on the XYZ exchange”.

4. Screening and risk-management for leisure activities (dating, festivals, events, parties, group trips & hikes)

There can be various user-defined standards, taking into account the quantity and the quality of provable past experiences.

Example claim request: “show that you have participated in at least three similar events in the last two years”.

Overall, developed ID and reputation systems on RGB will make the hoarding of data by businesses less relevant. Information will be stored privately with their owners, the sovereign individuals, and will be provided or sold to businesses, on the “on demand” basis. The role of government-affiliated certifiers will become limited, since provable data will be generated through the normal, daily interactions. For example, the provable fact of participating successfully in a series of hackathons can become a more meaningful proof of “sufficient age” than a passport certificate, and a better proof of “sufficient education” than a certified university degree.