How many email account does an average person have these days? What about the number of social networks we are all part of? An average person has accounts created in at least three social networks and users two or three email ids. Apart from email and social media accounts there are many other websites that we visit on a regular basis to access resources or for entertainment. Not to forget bitcoin wallets and exchanges.
A lot of these websites require the users to login to access content or to interact with the platform. As the number of applications we use increases, the number of login credentials we need to remember will also increase. We may think of a couple of solutions to overcome these issues.
- Use the same login credentials for all applications
- Use social media sign-in for all applications
They are both easy and simple solutions, but relying on either one of those is not an intelligible thing to do. If we use the same login credentials for all our accounts, we will be leaving them all vulnerable to attacks. Even if a single account gets compromised, it is as good as losing control over all our accounts on the internet. Hence, it is not advisable to have the same credentials set for all the accounts.
The social media sign-ins using Google, Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, we will end up sharing our browsing history and other relevant data with these big companies who will in turn use them for to make more money by sending out targeted ads or selling personal information to other advertising companies. Not many are comfortable sharing their personal information with these big corporates.
When we group our whole internet activity together and look at the macro view, we will realize that our entire persona is out there, scattered across the ether. Our persona on the internet, especially our social media activity, number of friends we have on those platforms, number of entries in our address book can be interpreted as our trust networks. Majority of the people on our account are there because they know us as a real person, or they have interacted with you at one point or another in the real world. It can be used to create a digital identity system that assigns and verifies our identity, similar to government issued identity cards or social security numbers, but only decentralized.
Passcard is one such project which is making it happen. With Passcard account, we don’t have to remember passwords or bitcoin wallet address anymore. Passcard is your online identity, it can be used to log into websites, receive bitcoin, share contact information and much more. Still in the initial stages, Passcard makes use of bitcoin Blockchain technology to create a verified online profile of the user. Once the profile is created, it becomes one’s identity on the internet. Being developed on Bitcoin technology, it is a secure, open source, decentralized platform that puts users in the driving seat. Only they have the authority to decide what they want to do with it, what information goes on the Passcard and choose the applications and services they wish to use.
As part of One Name project, people can create their Bitcoin username and profile on Blockchain. Until now Blockchain and bitcoin were known for anonymity (more like pseudonymity), but One Name is taking a completely opposite approach to assign identity to the random looking string of characters of wallet address or hash keys. Once you have a Passcard, people can use the One Name identity to send bitcoin instead of using the long wallet address or scanning the QR code.
Built on BNS – Blockchain Name System is similar to internet’s Domain Name System or DNS, Passcard is being constantly developed to add new features. The company envisions Passcards to become a form of universally accepted identity in the physical world too.