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How LifeID Will Introduce Self-Sovereign Identity to the Globe [INTERVIEW] 🚨 This article is 6 years old...
How LifeID Will Introduce Self-Sovereign Identity to the Globe [INTERVIEW]
3 min read
Updated: Apr. 9, 2020 at 6:43 pm UTC
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Since the internet’s inception, users have given away personal information to websites without realizing that it could be kept in centralized storage and monetized without their consent.
Democratizing Identity Layer Solutions
Seattle-based LifeID is aiming to disrupt online identity by enabling individual users and blockchain networks to take ownership of their digital identities through a decentralized platform for managing personal information.
Through blockchain, LifeID is introducing self-sovereign identities as a fundamental part of users’ online interactions.
In an interview with CryptoSlate, CMO Joshua Shane said:
“As our data and metadata become more of a commercial source of monetization for third parties, we have less control over how our identity is represented in the world. The mission of LifeID is to give everyone the set of tools they need to allow them to control all of the data that they use in every transaction.”
Through the LifeID platform, users can manage their identity information and process “verified claims” on other decentralized applications (dApps) or blockchain networks. Verified claims prove user information is accurate in any online interaction requiring identity input.
Depending on the context, creating identity claims requires a small fee due to transaction (gas) costs. According to Shane:
“The fee schedule is based on blockchain transaction as well as giving back to developers who wrote the application to send the transaction to the blockchain. As a result, yes there are some fees there, but they are much lower than existing fee structures.”
LifeID will launch on the RChain testnet and fully transition to the RChain mainnet in the future. Due to the scalability benefits, LifeID has decided to build its long-term infrastructure on a third-generation smart contract platform with higher transaction speeds and throughput.
When asked why LifeID chose RChain over other competing smart contract platforms, Shane said:
“The challenge that everyone developing dApps is facing surrounds transaction scaling. For us, scaling globally is key because we want people to be able to use their identities across computational domains and network domains, but also geographic domains. Our partnership with RChain is about ensuring that, when we launch, we have a blockchain that can do 40,000 transactions per second around identity, which is necessary for a global, robust identity solution. In addition, we are working with them as their identity layer for their ecosystem.”
The RChain mainnet will use LifeID as an identity-layer solution upon launching in Q1 2019. With plans to release a mobile application, LifeID utilizes users’ phones to act as entry points for holding digital identity information.
The blockchain-based LifeID protocol provides decentralized identity transactions while securing personal data with the user, enabling GDPR compliance through a privacy-first design.
“The way we approach this is that, currently, your phone is the most secure device you have access to. We say, ‘Look your phone is biometrically related to you, whether its facial recognition or a thumbprint and that is the endpoint through which you access the ecosystem.’ If someone steals your phone, we have mechanisms to protect and recover your data.”
Private keys are issued to each user upon identity creation and are easily recovered or rotated through backup processes, such as a backup using a trusted organization. The identity platform is blockchain-agnostic and can be used by both individual users and integrated into third-party dApps and blockchain networks. Shane elaborated:
“We will have an end user app available for users to sign up and register their various IDs to manage their commercial and economic lives, however, we primarily envision third party companies leveraging our APIs and SDK to enable this new paradigm of user-owned identity.”
According to the company roadmap, LifeID plans to release iOS and Android versions of its application in Q4 2018.
For more information about LifeID, you can visit the official website and/or read the whitepaper.
