en
Back to the list

Ethereum for a decentralized identity system - The Cryptonomist

source-logo  en.cryptonomist.ch 14 September 2021 12:09, UTC
Listen this article
download

The Ethereum Foundation and the Ethereum Name Service will work with Spruce to create a decentralized identity verification system.

Summary

Who is Spruce and how it will work with Ethereum

Spruce is an open source software company focused on protecting user privacy by providing solutions based on decentralization.

The team responded to a call for proposals from the Ethereum Foundation to design a system to allow users to log in using their Ethereum accounts.

Spruce’s proposal was the most convincing.

Ethereum and Spruce will cooperate to protect users’ privacy

Protecting data

The project that the Ethereum Foundation and Ethereum Name Service will implement with Spruce aims to protect users’ data and privacy. Today, many of their data are in the hands of web giants: Google, Apple, Microsoft, to name but a few.

Spruce will have to create a system whereby these services can be accessed with Ethereum accounts. The Ethereum blockchain already has thousands of registered wallets that record and sign transactions. Its security is proven.

Spruce, for its part, has transformed the concept “Not your keys, not your bitcoins”, into “Not your keys, not your identity”.

From the Spruce team they say:

“We build cryptonative tools that help users manage their identity and data across platforms, such as our recent implementation of EIP-712 signing in Rust. We look forward to applying our years of experience in decentralized identity to this work”.

Spruce’s project is certainly not new. As the team points out, there are other cases where logging in with Ethereum accounts is already a reality, for example on Gitcoin and OpenSea.

This allows users to be password-free while maintaining high security. 

The Ethereum Foundation and Ethereum Name Service intend to extend this possibility to other services. This will allow users to own their digital identity without handing over data to web giants, and with greater privacy protection.

How the decentralized identity project on Ethereum will be implemented

Spruce does not intend to do this alone. The project will be implemented together with the Ethereum Foundation and the Ethereum Name Service. In addition, the team has asked its community to collaborate by joining discussions on Discord and making proposals:

“We will be working closely with the teams at EF and ENS, ensuring that development will happen in the open, ample consideration is given to existing bodies of related work (existing implementations, EIPs, OpenID, IETF, W3C, etc.), and that the final result will be friendly to implementers while remaining vendor-neutral”.

en.cryptonomist.ch