Unique Identity (UID), the first NFT for identity, has been announced by the Goldfinch community. 33K persons have completed KYC ("know your customer") through the Goldfinch protocol since it launched in July. We designed this first for Goldfinch's "trust through consensus" method (explained in the whitepaper), but we recognized it could benefit the broader ecosystem. As a result, members of this growing community are now qualified to create their own UID and make it available to the rest of the Defi community.
There are two key benefits of having an on-chain representation of personhood:
It makes DeFi accessible to a whole new range of real-world participants, including businesses and financial institutions.
Due to KYC and counterparty issues, many organizations today avoid dealing with DeFi. However, UID takes care of these concerns for them. We know this firsthand because numerous businesses already borrow with Goldfinch and would not have done so without the KYC checks. As organizations become more comfortable with DeFi, they may be able to generate a massive amount of additional volume.
Perhaps even more fascinating is the increased design space that DeFi now has. UID can be utilized to build more complicated governance (e.g. quadratic voting), referral programs, fairer airdrops, reputation, and more because it provides significant Sybil resistance.
How does it work?
When a user completes the KYC phase, Persona verifies that they have a legitimate identity that isn't duplicated. The user is entitled to receive their UID once Persona has validated their identity. They accomplish this by submitting an Ethereum transaction that generates the UID, which is a non-transferable NFT issued to their address. In addition to gas, there is a 0.00083 ETH fee (about $3) to cover the cost of Persona's service.
The user's UID may then be checked when they participate in protocols like Goldfinch, guaranteeing that they are unique and KYC'ed.
Obtain your UID!
Go to https://app.goldfinch.finance/verify to acquire your UID. After you've completed the KYC process, you'll be able to mint your UID. On OpenSea, you can see an example of how it appears.
To begin, UID will only be available to non-US residents but are planning to expand to the United States as soon as possible.
