Detailed Plan

Let’s envision the web where we can define world and digital entities and interconnect them in a meaningful way.

End-user’s perspective

Imagine where each person on the web can create & maintain their own online user profile in a form. One could input their nickname, first name, last name, height, weight, hair color, their address, their achievements or important life events, what car or smartphone or NFTs they own, which things they are currently selling. One could upload their actual picture, their 2D avatar image that they use on web forums, or 3D avatars that they use in games. People can create separate profiles for their pets, children, things, and link them all together.

All that and more can be described using existing, well-defined, semantic web ontologies like FOAF [1] (for describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects), GovML [2] (for describing public services and life events), etc.

And since the semantic web is a living, evolving, dynamic thing, anyone with a good sense of knowledge-organization could define their own ontologies and link them to the existing one.

A person could divulge as much as one would be willing. The data itself would be private & encrypted by default, and only you have the power to change that, if and when you want. You can make public all or only parts of your profile. You can leave the whole profile private and allow only parts of your profile available to certain websites. You may use your DID to login into your favorite social media site.

To achieve this, an app will be created using Atala PRISM, where people will be able to create their profiles.

Website’s perspective

Once integrated, the user profile pages would become obsolete. The user can edit the user profile within the Atala PRISM app, and the changes will be automatically updated to all the sites.

Websites will define which information they expect to get from the user as well as a description which will explain why & how will the information be used. They will also be able to tag which information is “recommended” to be shared by the user. E.g. social media sites will probably set the first & last name as recommended. Websites will need to handle the eventuality of users not sharing their information.

Upon visiting the websites, they will offer to the new users to connect/register via the proposed solution. After doing that the user will be notified about it and will be able to see which information the website wants. The user will decide what to share and what to keep private.

If or when the website will add additional information that will want to gather from you, then you will again be notified and explicitly asked for approval (unless you’ve set your profile as fully public, then the sites will simply get the info).

Websites will need to integrate the solution. For this case libraries for different popular server-side languages will be developed. In best case scenario everything could be communicated via REST between the website and the decentralized registry of user profiles.

Use cases

• first name, last name, user photo can be used in social media websites,
• social media managers will be able to manage different user profiles of their clients (clients will decide how much control they want to hand over, if any),
• nickname, different 2D and 3D avatars can be used in gaming (especially in connection with gaming-related NFTs like game characters and game items which can be used in different games),
• first name, last name, address, a list of items with the price tag and their condition can be used in marketplace & flea market platforms,
• nickname, height, weight, hair color can be used in dating sites,
• nickname and 2D avatar will be popular for use in forums,

Metrics

• The sum of realized production pilots or launches in 2022: the app + a couple websites
• Discovery of repeatable patterns in use-cases: registering, logging in, creating a user profile, connecting an app to a website
• The number of issuers, holders, and verifiers: tens of thousands within month of launch, and millions after adoption
• The number of verifications performed on credentials in production: millions per year

Expected public launch date of the app and a couple of sample websites is expected within a year. Real websites in the wild will integrate the solution within 6 months of library release.

Funding

Atala PRISM app development for web users: $15.000

PHP & JS library development for websites: $5.000

Total cost: $15000 + $5000 = $20.000

Definition of success

After 3 months: starting the development of the app & getting in contact with existing websites

After 6 months: starting the development of libraries & involving existing websites in the design

After 12 months: both app and at least one production-ready library with integration in sample websites as well as at least a couple of integration in real websites in the wild.

References:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_(ontology)

[2] https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/3-540-44836-5_12.pdf