Zero-Knowledge Proof in Web3 Identity | Kev Silk - Ankr

all right we're all set hello everyone thank you all for joining the last session of the day so I appreciate you all sticking around I I'm excited to be here at e Denver uh my name is Kev silk I'm a senior product manager at ankor we're a globally distributed blockchain infrastructure company but today I'm thrilled to talk you all about how ZK proofs and blockchain Technology are going to transform ownership of our digital identities away from corporate networks back to where they belong into the hands of the individual users of the internet now in order for me to paint the picture for how ZK proofs make this possible and the true value of ZK proofs I think it's important to consider and remember how our digital identities are currently used and stored in the web 2 world now this is the web 2 that we've known for the last I don't know 20 22 years right we have different logins different passwords for the platforms that we use and although we don't need to pay in the form of currency or or a monetary currency for that matter you know nothing in life is free that's something that I believe and there's trade-offs with everything so what we lose to navigate these Platforms in a free way is our digital identities and what do I mean by that well while we're on these platforms every move we make every click of the mouse click of the keyboard is a data point and when you combine all those data points together it creates your digital identity and when we have different platforms that we use this means that we have fragmented and numerous digital identities spread across the web and not only that the different platforms that we use all of their servers are stored on centralized databases right which means they're vulnerable to hacks and exploits from malicious actors and the world is becoming more digital by the day right when we look around we're all on our phones we're all on our laptops which means our digital identities are becoming just as important if not more relevant than our physical passports or our social security cards now the real danger here is that as the world becomes more digital we don't own our digital identities at least in the web 2 world that's a severe concern which is why we all love web 3 right it's why we're all at eth Denver because web3 and blockchain Technology creates a shift it transforms the users of the the internet from products being sold to True owners to Consumers it allows us to navigate the web in an anonymous way we're able to interact with decentralized applications we're able to transact in a peer-to-peer manner we're not being tracked we own our data we're creating content that we own but with that being said there's tradeoffs with everything right so what we gain and this level of being able to interact in the web in an anonymous way we lose application security and what do I mean by that well wallets can be targets for hacks and dii platforms can be targets for rug poles and other scams and it's it's not the fault of the platforms it's not the fault of the chains or the daps it's just the inherent nature of web 3 we gain more power to the consumer with less security so basically the tradeoff here is consumer data privacy and application security but what if there was a way that we could have both right what if there was a way that we could Empower daps and chains to have that web2 like kyc security without giving up consumers digital identities that's the missing step wrong slide which is right there if we can somehow create web 2 like kyc security that integrates ZK technology it will Empower daps to build a more safe user experience while maintaining users the ability to own and control their digital identities now what this could look like is something like this now ZK proofs from a high level as we all know basically allows you to prove you know something without relaying what that something actually is right it's like me going to my bank and proving that I am in fact an account holder without relaying my social security number or my account number right so if we incorporate this level of ZK web2 like kyc security it will Empower daps or chains to create rules for entry for instance you need to be above the age of 16 in order to enter but it will allow consumers to prove they do in fact meet that policy for instance they are above the age of 16 without revealing that their name is John that they're an American citizen that they're actually 19 and that they live on 132 Broadway Street Denver Colorado it's a win-win situation for both parties it allows daps to build safe and secure environments removing malicious actors incorporating kyc and AML and it also empowers consumers to be able to maintain ownership of their digital identity so having that true web 3 fi now something like that is possible something like that is actually live out in the market right now which leads me to my next slide which is Anchor's latest Innovation our latest product launch about a month and a half ago anchor verify anchor verify at its core is a ZK privacy Authenticator tool it allows daps and chains to create policy rules for entry that users need to prove that they meet but the real Innovation the real power of anchor verify is the fact that we enable consumers to create their digital identities and prove they meet those policies without giving up any irrelevant information that isn't important to the policy so maintaining ownership of their digital identity and we do that through our partnership with kyc protocol synapse so essentially how it works is consumers create their digital identity with synapse they connect their wallet address and they Implement their passport information all of that information is stored on a smart contract held by synapse synapse is the only controller the only holder of that information the anchor verifi nodes the decentralized set of nodes that we have checks the Merkel route of the smart contract stored on synapse to ensure that users do in fact meet the policies the daps and the chains don't have access to that digital identity all they know is that consumers are truly Meeting those policies now there's a lot going on in this screen here but let me break it down for you this is essentially how anchor verify works on the left hand side is where consumers create their dig digal identities so as I've mentioned they go to a u UI that's controlled by synapse they connect their wallet address they put in their passport information they create their digital identities on the right hand side we have the daps or the chains so all of our clients at anchor verify have a simple UI and they're able to create any type of policy that they want now in this case it's the user needs to be based in the US and they need to be over the age of 18 now when a user wants to prove that they meet a policy for this chain or this dap they submit a proof request on the anchor verify UI which means they are requesting proof to meet that policy and when they do so the anchor verified node checks the smart contract the Merkel rout of that smart contract held by synaps to ensure that this wallet address does in fact meet this policy it doesn't look for any other information and it's key that ankor does not store this information nor does the daps or the chains and if and when the user does meet that specific policy we send the proof back to the consumer to hold in their wallet and to the DB or the chain so the consumer can enter again it's a win-win situation here because it allows daps to create these policies that web to like kyc security without the consumer data issues it allows consumers to hold on to their digital identity when I think of a user experience what's key to a user experience safety ownership of one's digital identity but also convenience a convenient user experience which is why with anchor verify when a user submits a proof and proves that they meet a policy they only need to do it once they don't need to continuously prove policies this provides a more convenient user experience for the consumer which of course makes the daps and the chains more valuable and speaking of a convenient user experience one of the things that's very important is how do we Empower developers to provide a convenient user experience as well as a safe user experience which leads me to my next slide now in order to drive Mass adoption in web 3 we need to of course bring ownership of digital identities back to Consumers but we also need to have a quality and convenient user experience now what you're looking here on the left hand side is the login with Google feature right now this has nothing to do with kyc but it's a convenient feature right when I'm on Spotify or YouTube and I don't have to go to another UI and I can easily just log in with Google it's convenient or the uh pay with Apple pay right it's convenient if I'm on uh any type of website where I'm buying something and I don't need to go and grab my wallet and plug in all my credit card information although it only take about three minutes it's just convenient to pay with Apple pay and the reason why I bring this up is because we incorporated a feature within anchor verify that's called sign in with anchor verify and what this means is daps and chains don't have to force their consumers to leave the UI they can stay right then and there so for instance if a consumer say hasn't created their digital identity yet and they access a specific chain or AAP that's a client of anchor verifies they don't have to leave the UI they click sign in with anchor verify and everything that happens here on the back end is hidden behind this UI meaning they can actually submit their passport information create their digital identity right then and there or if they already have their digital identity and they just need to submit a proof they can do it right there again everything that happens here is hidden by this UI and then of course the other situation is if they already have their digital identity and they've already submitted the proof all they have to do is just log in it's a safe secure and convenient user experience now I can talk about inkor verify all I want but I I want to drive some evidence or proof no pun intended of this actually being used and the True Value that it has so we partnered with eclipse eclipse is an svm chain that's on testet right now it's coming to mainnet very soon and they wanted to incorporate a a true security around their protocol they wanted to they wanted to empower consumers to own their digital identities while empower the developers who will soon be building highquality decentralized applications on Eclipse to provide that level of security and safety and remove malicious actors but they didn't want to have fragmented digital identities they didn't want to have the poor consumer data privacy of web 2 so they integrated anchor verify and by integrating anchor verify every dap that will soon be deployed on Eclipse automatically gets to be able to leverage this security protocol which means their application becomes automatically more valuable because it's a safe and secure environment where people on the platform automatically get kyc and AML but they maintain ownership of their digital identity and not to mention that these developers and these daps don't need to build that security protocol inhouse they get it automatically it allows them to focus on their projects rather than building an additional tool to make the user experience more safe that's key and it's a domino effect right let's start with a clipse eclipse is empowering developers with this tool which attracts the top developer talent to Eclipse Builders will want to go there and consumers will feel a safe environment which of course will attract more consumers to these deps driving more interactions which of course drives more revenue for the deps which ultimately makes the eclipse blockchain more valuable and there's numerous industries that we started to gain traction from from this specific solution and it could go from anything from supply chain to retail to sports to entertainment because the level of customization that these daps and these chains or these projects that will soon be building in web 3 it's endless they can build any type of policy that they want whether it's citizenship or age residency college degree anything at all the level of customization that they have is very important because each industry will soon have their own specific compliance requirements that they need to meet which leads me here Enterprise use cases are probably the most most important when it comes to Anchor verify and in fact they're the most traction that we've gained thus far starting with daps and blockchains of course as I mentioned eclipse and chains themselves they'll be able to provide the value to the daps building on top of them by not having to force them to build these types of privacy authenticator tools by themselves but Banks is also a very important one it's one that we start to gain a lot of traction from and the reason for this is because any bank across the globe not just in the United States of course they're all starting to move into web 3 right we've started to see uh grayscales Bitcoin uh ETF and JP Morgan lately just announced announced excuse me plans to move into the blockchain space but Banks know that they will need to meet compliance they will need to meet the regulation for the Securities laws for their specific jurisdictions which means they're going to have specific rules that they will need their their consumers their clients to be able to prove about themselves and that's exactly what anchor verify allows them to do without giving up the ownership of their digital identity that is what allows them to move into the blockchain space and provide that level of security and for government government level projects this goes from anything from from voting on presidential elections if you need to prove that you're a specific citizen of a country or even Regional levels this type of security is very important for these top Enterprise use cases and this is what we've started to see some from some of Anchor's biggest Partners Microsoft tensent all of the biggest names in the space of course are starting to move in and they know that in order to do so they need to provide a a secure and safe but also convenient user experience to attract developers to go and build on their platform and to attract consumers to feel safe to know that there's a far less chance for them to get hacked or to fall for a rug pool right because at the end of the day as i' mentioned before the world is becoming more digital and it's imperative that we take control back away from corporate networks the ownership of our digital identities and that's exactly what ZK proofs and more specifically anchor verify empowers individual users of the internet to be able to have thank you all appreciate the time if anyone has any questions I'll be here for the rest of the week um and thank you all