Whenever I explore technology that's new to me, whether it be learning how decentralized apps work or what an open source tool does, it's seeing the technology in action that helps me understand whether or not it can impact me and my every day life. This is why every month at TBD, what better way to learn about our technology in action than from innovators using TBD's technologies today.
Have you ever watched a creator’s video and thought, "Where did she get that top?" or "I need that protein powder"? You scroll through the comments, only to see the infamous "link in my bio" comment. You rush to click the link, and you're hit with-page not found 😒. I remember once being so desperate that I took a screenshot of the item and reverse-searched it on Google Images. I found something similar but not what I wanted. SO frustrating. Eventually, I gave up and kept on scrolling.
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) has introduced a new rule banning fake online reviews. This rule, which penalizes businesses and individuals involved in the sale or purchase of fake reviews, represents a much needed step in promoting trust online. But while enforcement is crucial, there's still a challenge of identifying which reviews are legitimate. This is where Verifiable Credentials (VCs) can provide a solution.
At the recent California DMV Hackathon, the Block team, represented by members from Square and TBD, won the Best Privacy & Security Design award for building a prototype of an instant age verification system. This solution utilizes mobile drivers’ licenses (mDLs) to provide secure, privacy-centric transactions for age-restricted purchases with Square’s Point of Sale (POS) system.
In this post, we’ll explore the core technical components behind our solution, which centered on using TruAge technology to enable seamless, secure age verification.
tbDEX is an open messaging protocol that enables liquidity seekers to connect with liquidity providers. This means that as a liquidity provider, your business can be the backend supplier in several payment applications.
Performing KYC on repeat customers every time they attempt to transact with you from a different payment app would be a pain. To avoid this, you will use the Web5 SDK to issue a Known Customer Credential (KCC) to a customer, Alice, who you have already completed KYC on. You will store the JWT representing the KCC in Alice’s Decentralized Web Node so that she can present it to your business from any payment app.
With October blazing through, we're greeted by pumpkin spices, the aroma of fall leaves drifting in the rain, and of course, the much-anticipated Hacktoberfest. Whether you're a seasoned contributor or new to open source, there's something for everyone.
At TBD, we are committed to building a decentralized future where users have greater control over their data and organizations can interact in a more open, trustworthy, and secure way. Open standards are the foundation of this vision, enabling the seamless collaboration and interoperability across systems.
Everything we do at TBD is enabled and strengthened by open standards. Our most notable projects, Web5 and tbDEX, are deeply rooted in these open standards. The frameworks for decentralized identifiers (DIDs), verifiable credentials (VCs), and the protocols that facilitate their sharing form the backbone of our work.
"Dap me up!" is a colloquial term followed by a gesture used in Western cultures to greet people or express solidarity. At TBD, we're adding a new meaning to this phrase with Decentralized Agnostic Paytags (DAPs), an open source approach designed to simplify peer-to-peer payments across various applications.
"Verifiable Credentials seems niche. Only a small group of technologists would be interested in this," a conference attendee declared after I enthusiastically described my company's work in the Global Payments and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) ecosystem.
This comment gave me pause. Less than a year ago, I first encountered Verifiable Credentials (VCs) - a W3C standard for digital credentials that state specific facts about individuals, organizations, or entities. My initial reaction was similar to the conference attendee’s response. However, after interviewing SSI builders on a weekly livestream, my perspective changed dramatically.
While VCs are relatively new and primarily explored by SSI enthusiasts, their benefits extend far beyond this group. Many of the services and products you use today already rely on them – even if you don't realize it.
From healthcare to content creation, finance to travel, VCs are changing how we share and verify information. Here's a look at seven real-world applications of VCs that may surprise you:
Following the successful launch of tbDEX 1.0 in Rio de Janeiro, TBD embarked on a roadshow across Africa, visiting Accra, Nairobi, and Cape Town. Our mission was to engage with local developers and share tbDEX, an open source protocol for global payments.
Remember your first username? If you were anything like me in the early 2000s—too young to surf the web but excited about the possibilities of connecting with the rest of the world—your username probably makes you cringe today.
When blockchain technology was first introduced a decade and a half ago, it made the possibility of a decentralized web seem viable to a mass audience. Since then, blockchains have proven themselves to be a poor solution to the majority of data storage problems outside of bearer assets - i.e. Bitcoin - because blockchains grow continuously without any ability to delete data, which just doesn’t make sense for things like personal data. But ‘blockchain’ isn’t synonymous with decentralization, and just because a blockchain isn’t the best solution for personal data storage doesn’t mean your app can’t be decentralized.
The first major version of tbDEX, an open source liquidity and trust protocol, has been released! 🎉 SDK implementations of the protocol are available in TypeScript/JavaScript, Kotlin, and Swift enabling integration with Web, Android, and iOS applications.
Digital identity shapes every facet of our online interactions. The quest for a system that balances decentralization, scalability, security, and user experience has been relentless. Today, I'm thrilled to share that TBD has birthed a new solution: the DID DHT method. This leap forward is not just a technical achievement; it's a foundational component for the more inclusive and trust-based digital world we want for tomorrow.
For many years, artificial intelligence primarily piqued the interest of academic researchers and enthusiasts within niche technological sectors such as robotics. Although respected, AI presented little practical application for the average person. That changed in June 2020 with the debut of a Large Language Model (LLM) called GPT-3. GPT-3 inspired organizations and individuals to use AI to accelerate their workflows, from coding and blogging to planning itineraries. Today, the potential of AI is so immense that Simon Westh Henriksen, the CTO of Kin, believes personal AI will be one of the most valuable digital assets we own in the future.
"Our current credit system says, 'Saddle yourself, so we can give you more to saddle.'" Eric Lapin, President of FormFree, stated during a recent TBD live stream. His comment sheds light on a fundamental paradox of the U.S. credit system: it often requires you to accumulate debt as a prerequisite for obtaining loans, leading to more debt. This systemic issue is underscored by recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which reveals that 1 in 5 applicants for mortgages, car loans, or other types of loans were rejected — the highest rate in five years. This trend disproportionately impacts Black and Latino applicants. Guided by their slogan, 'Democratizing lending for all people without bias,' FormFree developed a platform built with Web5 and AI to address these issues.
As we wrap up our very first self-hosted hackathon, we're thrilled to announce that out of 1,681 participants we have our top 8. These three hackathons have been a great learning experience, and an amazing opportunity to see what unique projects developers can build with Web5. In hopes of keeping the Hackathon open we came up with 6 categories, FinTech, Health, Music and Arts, Personal Data,and Empowerment & Enablement applications. Join us in celebrating our top 3 and best application per category.👏
It's winner announcement time! We're thrilled to have been a part of DevCareer's first-ever hackathon. DevCareer's mission is to cultivate new talent and make a difference in Africa through tech, and having that talent play around with our Web5.js SDK was an invaluable experience. The level of creativity resulted in us having not 3 but 5 winning projects! 🚀
The results are in! Out of 418 participants we have our top 3 projects! We were honored to sponsor a Web5 challenge with DIF Foundation. DIF (Decentralized Identity Foundation) is an engineering-driven organization focused on developing the foundational elements necessary to establish an open and interoperable ecosystem for decentralized identity. The challenge given was to build a decentralized web app utilizing Web5.js and Decentralized Web Nodes.
It was Friday night in New Orleans, and I was ready to kick off the weekend in true local style with a drink. I ordered my favorite wine on a food delivery app, but before the sale could be finalized, the wine store needed to verify my age. Seamlessly, they connected to my digital LA Wallet, and without sharing any extra details, my wallet confirmed I was 21+. Within 30 minutes, I was sipping my wine, in awe of the blend of tradition and cutting-edge technology - technology that I'm fortunate to work on, and also enjoy the convenience of.
"What can you actually build with Web5?" This is one of the most common questions I've heard as I enter my two-month mark at TBD. It's one thing to discuss the theoretical aspects of Web5, with its focus on decentralization and user empowerment, but it's another to see tangible, innovative applications come to life. This is why builders, visionaries, and project maintainers at TBD are excited to showcase Netonomy, a Web5 project built by Anthony DeMattos.
Join the decentralized identity hackathon to learn about the technology and build apps that shape the future of identity.
Today we unveil something special - our very own Recognition Program! ✨
Web5 prescribes that users maintain control of their content by decoupling their identity and data from the applications that they use. I'm frequently asked why major companies, who have made billions of dollars off of our data, would buy into this model.
Hey there, fellow techies! 🍁 With October rolling in, we're greeted by the crisp orange leaves of fall, the comforting aroma of pumpkin spice, and of course, the much-anticipated Hacktoberfest. Whether you're a seasoned contributor or taking your first steps into the world of open-source, there's something for everyone. And guess what? We've got some exciting news!
In today’s age of social media dominance, our online identities have become integral to both our personal lives and professional endeavors. From connecting with friends and family to building brands and businesses, platforms like Twitter and Instagram have given us the power to create digital personas that resonate with others where your user handle serves as a unique identifier in the digital world.
I wanted to learn more about how Web5 (and SSI in general) works and the benefits it could offer. To do this I created a simple project to create and store DIDs, and use them to read and write to a DWN using a protocol.
With the emergence of Web5 comes the exciting possibilities for individuals seeking more control over their online identities, data and content. With Web5, traditional authentication methods are no longer the sole means of verifying identity and ownership. Instead, users can leverage Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) to establish their digital presence while retaining full control over their data. Let's explore how this revolutionizes authentication and content ownership as we know it.
Web5 introduces a paradigm shift in the way we build applications. App-centric logins and data storage are replaced with decentralized identity and personal data stores.
While Web5 abstracts away a lot of the complexity of building decentralized apps, it would be nice to have a helping hand to answer all of your Web5 questions.
That's why we've created a Web5 Assistant in the form of a ChatGPT plugin. The Web5 Assistant is built on GPT-4 and was trained on all of our available documentation.
The Decentralized Identity Foundation organized did:hack, a decentralized identity hackathon designed for people to learn, collaborate, and think creatively about how decentralized identity technology can be leveraged to improve digital interactions in the future.
The 4-day virtual event included sessions from TBD, SpruceID, Dock.io, Aviary Tech, Trinsic, and Danube Tech - all providing educational sessions on ecosystem tools that enable decentralized identity and verifiable credentials.
Recently on the blog we talked about why decentralized identifiers (DIDs) are a practical solution to real problems. In that post we discussed some high-level concepts behind how and why DIDs could solve many of the identity and data problems we face today, but today let’s dive deep on a specific problem set DIDs could solve: parental controls and minors’ digital security.
It’s an inescapable reality for parents today that their kids will be online. There’s no avoiding the reality that minors are going to consume a diverse array of content and interact with others on the internet, but parents do want to have a say in what’s put in front of their children. Digital safety is already incorporated by some services - such as Netflix - and platforms - like iOS - but universal parental controls and safety monitoring don’t presently exist. That could change, however, via DIDs and a concept known as DID controllers.
Whether or not you know the term, you know the experience of using a Progressive Web App (PWA): it’s the slick experience that enables you to install a web experience to your native device and enjoy the speed of use of a website with the tight system integration of a native app. They allow for experiences like recreating Starbucks’ native app in web, or for creating a highly 2G-optmized experience like what Uber created for some of their customers. PWAs take advantage of native features such as on-device storage, push notifications, and even windowing without requiring the overhead of a native app and the ability to install them without going through an app store.
In the same way that HTML5 and PWAs changed the way users expected to consume their apps through the minor addition of manifest, an even larger shift has arrived in the form of Decentralized Web Apps (DWAs), which combine PWAs with Web5. While PWAs redefined the relationship between the client and server by enabling richer on-device experiences through native integrations, DWAs are going to completely redefine data storage for apps resulting in a seismic shift in user privacy, ease-of-use, and data portability.
The concept of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) was first proposed in 2015 by Drummond Reed and then became an official W3C standard in July of 2022.
Adoption has grown quite a bit in the last few years. Here are a few ways they are being used today.
You may know what a decentralized identifier (DID) is or even how to generate one, but you may be wondering: what’s the point of yet ANOTHER way to identify myself? To get a better sense of the why behind decentralized identifiers, we’ll discuss the real problems society faces today when it comes to identity, and why DIDs are an enormous practical solution to a pervasive set of problems.
The United States’ potential ban of TikTok is the latest and loudest warning sign of our increasing need for a decentralized internet. Consumers are quickly wondering where they’ll go for their short form video content if TikTok is taken away. Creators are faced with the reality that their income could immediately dry up if the most viral social media platform to date disappears. Lastly, businesses could potentially watch one of their most powerful distribution channels go up in flames overnight.
Web Assembly is a popular format for running binary applications in web browsers (with wide support).
This can have a few advantages but the interesting thing for us is that this can allow sharing of implementations of functionality: credential issuance, DID resolving, cryptographic functions, etc which you may not want to necessarily re-implement in JavaScript or TypeScript.
The SSI-SDK is an implementation of a lot of standards for self-sovereign identity, so it is a great candidate to expose via WASM to web apps.
Block recently partnered with the Human Rights Foundation to present Currency of Freedom, a series of fireside chats with humanitarians, activists, and leaders who shared their stories of relying on bitcoin for critical financial access.
Web 5 puts users in control of their own data. Right now your bank balance, credit card transaction history and the identity information on your utility bills are in dozens of databases owned by dozens of companies with dozens of terms of service you probably haven’t read.
The Verifiable Credential Selector (VCS) is an open source widget that makes it easy for you to gain possession of your data from Financial Technology (FinTech) apps. VCS uses Decentralized Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials so once you have control of your data, you can selectively share only what’s required - instantly rather than waiting minutes.
As stewards of an open source ecosystem, we welcome innovation from the community. To encourage new ideas from folks around the world, today we launch the TBD Open Source Incubation Program.
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is an umbrella term well-detailed by Christopher Allen, and inspired by many in the Identity community before him, in his 2016 blog post: The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity, which identifies Ten Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity:
When you hear the term 'credential', what comes to mind? Is it a driver's license, passport, birth certificate, college degree, state ID? The common thread of these forms of credentials is that they are physical items, verified by recognized centralized bodies like a government agency or accredited university.
So how do credentials translate into the digital world where within a few clicks someone can make a fictitious identity? Introducing... verifiable credentials (VCs), a digitally signed electronic credential that follows an open standard that lets you create, own, and manage your credentials across a variety of platforms.
At TBD, we believe in a decentralized future that returns ownership and control over your finances, data, and identity. Decentralized Identity is critical to our mission. It’s what puts people in control of their own data. It is the most private, secure, and user-centric way to facilitate information exchange and verification online.
We’re committed to an open software delivery model and therefore want to share our roadmap to Web 5.
Web 5 is a decentralized platform that provides a new identity layer for the web to enable decentralized apps and protocols.
In the current web model, users do not own their data or identity. They are given accounts by companies and their data is held captive in app silos. To create a new class of decentralized apps and protocols that put individuals at the center, we must empower them with self-owned identity and restore control over their data.