Aaron MunguiaThe dilemma of decentralization, privacy, and trust in a future without intermediaries.
The Web3 It promises a decentralized, secure, and intermediary-free internet. However, the big challenge remains identity verification. How can we trust that anyone interacting in a decentralized environment is really who they say they are?
In traditional systems, identity is validated using official documents, centralized registries, or institutions that act as trusted arbiters.
In the Web3, that arbiter doesn't exist: power is distributed among millions of nodes. This is where self-sovereign identity (SSI) comes into play. According to the standard W3C, individual identity holders create and fully control their credentials, without being required to request authorization from an intermediary or centralized authority.
The Web3
Web3 is a proposal for a new type of internet based on decentralized blockchains, like those that underpin Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The idea was popularized by the internet personality and creator of the newsletter “Not boring”, Packy McCormick, and proposes “an internet that is owned by developers and users, coordinated with tokens.”
Its proponents envision applications such as decentralized social networks, video games play to learn and platforms of NFT that allow people to buy and sell fragments of digital culture, with the promise of reducing the power of traditional intermediaries and paving the way for a more direct and participatory digital economy.
The use of Web3 has also been proposed for everyday activities in a decentralized environment, such as intermediary-free asset exchanges, lending and savings platforms, virtual environments for social interaction such as metaverses, decentralized finance, and, of course, a self-sovereign digital identity.
Main challenges
Fragmentation of standards: Although there are initiatives such as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), there is no global consensus yet. A user may have a valid credential on one blockchain, but not recognized on another.
Privacy vs. Verification: Validating age or citizenship without revealing full personal data requires advanced methods such as zero-knowledge proofs (zero-knowledge proofs). These allow you to demonstrate that you meet a requirement without showing more information than necessary.
User experience: Many workflows are complex. If adoption requires advanced technical knowledge, massive growth is slowed.
Emerging solutions
Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs): allow you to demonstrate attributes without exposing sensitive data.
Encrypted biometrics: Projects like Private ID integrate biometrics and blockchain to strengthen security without compromising privacy.
Academic systems like BioZero: decentralized biometric authentication using compromise cryptography (Pedersen commitments) to validate identity without revealing data.
The near future
Verification in the Web3 It's not just about technology, but about trust and digital sovereignty. The challenge is to strike a balance between decentralization and security. decentralized digital identity must ensure that users control their data, but without sacrificing the trust that platforms and communities need.
The Web3 It will only provide a better internet experience if it solves the identity problem. And the answer isn't in copying traditional models, but in creating new solutions that unite privacy, interoperability, and trust.
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