Decentralized digital identities and credentials are key to mass Web3 adoption

As the world of Web3 emerges, so too does an exciting opportunity to emphasize the importance of trust and security in a digital world. Digital identity and credentials play a significant role in helping users manage their IDs and control their personal information securely.

Digital identifiers can include national ID information, personal emails, phone numbers, cryptocurrency addresses, Discord accounts, bank logins and anything else related to a person and their identity.

Digital IDs have been around for a while and have had a major impact in Web2, but their role will significantly increase with the mass adoption of Web3 applications.

In Web2, usernames and passwords have become ubiquitous, with almost every online service relying on them as access credentials. However, this approach has resulted in numerous security issues, such as storing data on private servers beyond user control that may have inadequate security measures. Consequently, individuals have limited control over their data and can only hope their information remains safe.

One might think that tech giants are more careful with user data, given their financial and technological resources, but the reality is different. In 2021, a user of a low-level hacking forum posted the personal data of more than 500 million Facebook users, including their full names, locations, phone numbers, email addresses and biographical information. This is the personal data of about 6.3% of the world’s population leaked by individuals who are hacking for fun.

How Web3 is changing digital identities

The emergence of Web3 and the Metaverse presents an opportunity to change how we approach personal data. With the advent of decentralized identities (DIDs), web users can have complete visibility and control over their data. In some cases, these identities can serve as a means of establishing the legitimacy of online profiles, professional credentials and more. This shift toward decentralized DIDs presents a promising alternative to the current standard.

Thanks to blockchain technology, Web3 offers better security protocols and brings the idea of self-sovereign identity that allows immutable interactions across the web.

Caria Wei, CEO of Nuvo, a proof of membership community engagement platform explained:

“Decentralized ID (DID) allows individuals to manage and share their digital identity securely while community participation is crucial in establishing trust, ensuring inclusivity, and promoting adoption of the technology.”

Nuvo is a privacy-first, decentralized credentialing and identity framework with an extensible reputation-powered ecosystem.

Through Nuvo, users can mint their NuvoID, which uses Soulbound nonfungible token (NFT) technology, to cement their online identity as their own. Nuvo offers single sign-on capabilities, enabling users to sign in through whichever identifier they choose.

For those unfamiliar, a soulbound token is a publicly verifiable and non-transferable NFT representing an individual’s credentials, affiliations and commitments. These tokens are added to a user’s address but cannot be sold or transferred. The token helps users share their reputation with online communities, including employers, academies, organizations and more.

Migrating to Web3 may seem risky and lacking in security for novices unfamiliar with trustless environments, but decentralized networks can be much safer. Nuvo leverages its infrastructural technology and partnerships to let users create solid decentralized IDs and have complete control over their personal information.

Nuvo is an econode incubated by Layer-2 protocol Metis, and started in June last year as Matrix RPS (Reputation Power System). It rebranded earlier this year to Nuvo and updated its whole product suite to better accommodate developers, partnering projects and end users.

Nuvo has a back-end and front-end infrastructure:

• Its back-end platform, called NuvoOne, enables developers to create domains, smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), and issue the NuvoBadges, which allows users to showcase their contributions and achievements.
• The front-end platform NuvoMe lets users engage with the Web3 world through three main products: NuvoID, NuvoBadge and Reputation Power.

The Nuvo ecosystem brings security and privacy to personal data on Web2 and Web3, promoting membership engagement and creating a framework for digital reputation.

DIDs to benefit companies and organizations

Besides being a valuable innovation for end users, DIDs will ultimately benefit companies and service providers as well. DIDs introduce a new paradigm for identity and access management by enabling users to manage their online identity via a secure and trusted system. Organizations will benefit from this technology in many ways, as it can provide more security over users’ data, reduce costs associated with centralized identity, enable greater access to resources, and enhance organizational transparency.

Thanks to their model, DIDs can offer increased scalability, allowing organizations to quickly and easily add users to their networks without manually registering each one. Also, DIDs can enable the secure exchange of data between users and organizations, which is indispensable in today’s data-driven world.

By utilizing blockchain and Web3, companies can save expenses associated with the development of ID infrastructure and significantly reduce the risk of data leakage or security threats. Businesses might be nervous about adopting new technology, and rightly so. But the security and monetary benefits that Blockchain brings are undeniable. The real risk might be the one of being left behind.