Project Update: February to Mid-March
2021 moving faster than 2020, that's for sure!
Thanks For Following Along
We'd like to start off by saying thanks for subscribing to the newsletter. We missed a newsletter or two in there due to some relocations in February, but we're both settled and back at it.
This week's update will be focused on our updated website (and some of our reasoning), as well what we set out to achieve with the early demos we made public.
For next week, we're excited to share a thought piece elaborating on why we believe so strongly that privacy and security be self-sovereign and not some feature that is "provided" by companies or service providers.
Please reach out if you have questions or feedback, we're always looking for community feedback as we build out the protocol.
Project Updates
We've updated our website! In wrapping up 2020, we decided to focus our messaging on encryption and developers, while still trying to inspire generalists with a user-facing page
Stoked to have the support of our friends over at SKALE! Early in February we were featured as part of their SKALE + community campaign. Check it out here!
We finally launched a Project-only Twitter Account, give us a follow!
We also posted a new white paper, detailing the handshake protocol…if you’re curious as to how it all works, you can find it on our site!
Engineering Updates
We have to basic demos live on the new website!
Note: Both demos are live on Skale's Testnet, and require some faucet-provided test SKL to run, which is free. Instructions are on our website.
For developers, you can add the protocol to your app or website by injecting only a few lines of code. This will allow your app to live decentralized, and store data on IPFS, while maintaining permissions and access management
For users, you can register a crypto address, create a profile you own, and interact with a mock-up stateless e-store. Take full control of everything associated with that address using MIA, our open-source dashboard (in alpha)
Coming soon
Thought Piece: Self-Sovereignty as a Standard, and why it's important
Expanded administration - assign secondary accounts
Encryption - Testing and GoLive
Guer.co, V3.0
Wrapping up 2020, we concluded that we needed to hyper-focus the protocol, and emphasize the importance of a Web3-native, decentralized version of TLS. It was simple to see that there were two camps that benefit from our work:
developers, who want to best secure their users' data and privacy, and,
end-users, who really stand to benefit from improved security
It's difficult to omit some of the big-picture implications that drive our innovation, like true data custody in a remote world, but we recognize that our first adopters need to be other developers.
Putting Developers First
Today, most developers (even "full-stack") have to focus on certain technologies and languages; the entire ecosystem is simply too complex. This specialization has accelerated innovation in our online, connected world, but also pushes more niche technologies like security to the fringes. When building, it's easy to use libraries like OpenSSL to enable TLS, but rarely fully understand how TLS works.
Our new developer-focused page draws awareness to how risky location-based identity can be, and why it's so important to decentralize our end-to-end security. We explain at a high-level how the protocol works, and some of the immediate benefits, like easily maintaining backwards compatibility with Web2.
We also introduce the concept of "stateless" applications - a website or web application that "forgets" users, every time. Developers can focus on securing and finalizing their application code, and allow users to connect their own data when in use. This is the sort of game-changing use case that Web3 native security will enable.
Everybody Wins
It is important to retain the allure of the bigger picture - the end user experience. Web3 provides users an opportunity to claim their digital footprint, starting with their digital identity. This allows anyone to bring their data and identity to web applications, rather than have both stored by private parties in centralized systems.
This is the opposite end of the stateless application; end-users providing websites temporary browsing history, so they can experience customized browsing experiences and control their privacy and security, rather than choose from options provided to them.
The Deal with Demos
The demos serve both as a first-taste experience and a crypto on-ramp. We're deployed on Skale's Testnet, providing both developers and end-users a low-friction sandbox to experience Web3 with self-sovereign digital existence.
For developers, this is a simple application interface that empowers existing applications to import identity and user data stored on decentralized storage networks and the blockchain.
For users, this is registering an Ethereum address (on Skale) as the beginning of your digital identity. Once registered, users can create a profile, including images and media, and control what, how, when, and with whom that data is shared. It allows anyone to experiment with a stateless e-store, as well as our file explorer + identity manager.
