ETHPrague 2024

The future of digital identity
05-31, 16:30–16:55 (Europe/Prague), Root Stage

Modern advances in programmable cryptography (ZK, FHE, MPC, TEEs) allow for new design space in the area of digital identity. The talk explores the current state of the art of these intersections.


My talk will be based on my article: https://dcbuilder.mirror.xyz/myIlus8pl6SbyuUR4ufGf9OYRps8hCGqeZHNYce3i94

Copy-paste of the TL;DR section there:

  • The current digital identity status quo sucks (who would have thought)
  • New cryptographic primitives like ZK, FHE, MPC, and TEEs have opened new doors
    There has been an explosion in the mechanism design space thanks to building blocks like:
  • ZK Email
  • zkLogin
  • TLS Notary
  • World ID (Proof of Personhood)
  • Sybil-resistant web of trust systems
  • Rate Limiting Nullifiers (RLN)
  • Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure (MACI)
  • Attestation protocols
  • ZK KYC
  • ZK Co-processors
  • Storage proofs
  • Proof Aggregators
  • Proof Marketplaces
  • Oracles
  • Intents
  • Prediction Markets
  • ZKML

The digital identity pipeline of the new age

  • Data and data provenance proofs
  • Attestations and provable off-chain compute
  • Proof Aggregators and proof marketplaces
  • Intent-driven interactions
  • Provable inference
  • Standardization is going to be a challenge
  • The future of digital identity has never been more exciting

I'm a research engineer at the Worldcoin Foundation, where I am an engineering manager for our grants program (worldcoin.org/rfp, worldcoin.org/community-grants) and I also lead the technical partnerships side of the World Chain (worldcoin.org/world-chain), our upcoming OP-Stack L2. I'm passionate about ZK cryptography, Ethereum, digital identity and lots of other related topics. github.com/dcbuild3r, dcbuilder.dev