cheqd, the startup that allows users and organizations to gain control and portability of their identity data, has announced the launch of Credential Payments, a new feature of its decentralized network and SaaS product, Credential Service. With its launch, organizations and individuals now have a way to get paid for providing their identity data while maintaining privacy, building infrastructure to create Trusted Data markets as an entirely new industry category.
Credential Payments is a pioneering capability for Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), enabling the settlement of on-chain payments for Trusted Data that is stored off-chain to ensure privacy. Thus, making it possible for users to exchange and transact their verifiable Trusted Data in a privacy-preserving way.
cheqd has built products and tools to help companies plug into the network's identity and payments functionalities. One product is Credential Service, a scalable solution that removes all of the complexity required to build or integrate decentralized identities into existing applications. For more complex features, there are an array of SDKs available for power users.
This paves the way for organizations to create new business models and has clear potential to boost the adoption of SSI by solving the market supply side cold-start problem.
Organizations now have a direct financial incentive to issue credentials/Trusted Data, as with cheqd network Credential Payments it's possible to create recurring revenue based on a credential being reused. As credentials become available to more verifiers and receivers at a lower cost than existing alternatives, more issuers will enter the market to increase their coverage. Since each side of the market has an incentive to get more organizations and users to join, a flywheel network effect is created.
SSI promises to be an effective solution at a time of increasing regulation pushing global organizations to be more responsible and accountable in dealing with users’ data. Businesses need a way to be compliant with upcoming regulations such as the EU’s eIDAS 2.0, which will govern electronic identification and support Verifiable Credentials as a means to exchange identity data and attestations. In addition, the rise of generative artificial intelligence has led to heightened concerns over fraud, due to its potential to create distrust at an enormous scale. More than ever, businesses need a reliable way to prove that someone is real using verifiable Trusted Data.
It’s for these reasons that cheqd’s research shows the global market for SSI could eventually reach more than half a trillion dollars in value. By offering its industry-first Credential Payments that allow owners of verifiable data to retain full privacy, cheqd sets itself apart from other identity networks. Already, it has forged key partnerships with more than 70% of the SSI application vendor market to date.
Example use-cases
There is a paramount of use cases for an identity network for payments but the two hottest ones are Finance and Education.
In Finance, regulations are being adopted worldwide for the crypto and DeFi industry with a heavy focus on enforcing Know Your Customer (KYC) or qualified investor status. Credentials allow DeFi protocols to set KYC and investor acceptance requirements whilst allowing users to re-use their information seamlessly, aiming to meet regulations whilst maintaining smooth user experience. Issuers of KYC and qualified investor credentials can now be paid for these whenever protocols need to check investor statuses.
And, in Education, certifying accomplishments and achievements can be used for providing more tangible trust around accreditations, with a price to establish trust.
To trust accomplishment credentials, verifiers need to be sure that the issuers are legitimate. Being able to pay to check a list of trusted issuer identifiers gives verifiers the ability to build higher levels of assurance in the credential presented to them and helps to prevent fraudulent actors. Verifiers can pay the issuers of said credentials, similar to the current operation of university registry offices for checking the veracity of degrees.
Going forward, cheqd is positioned to play a pivotal role in growing the adoption of verifiable, trusted credentials and ensuring that SSI breaks into the public consciousness.
About cheqd
cheqd (cheqd.io) is a privacy-preserving payment and credential network that allows users and organizations to gain control and portability of their data. cheqd builds upon Decentralised Identity (DID), Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), and Digital or Verifiable Credentials (VCs) with payment infrastructure to create Trusted Data markets as an entirely new industry category.
With its technology, cheqd is creating a new paradigm around Trusted Data economies such as reusable KYC in Web3, preference data markets, and others where the user is at the center. It empowers consumers and businesses with full ownership, portability, and control over their data and identities. In addition, this data can be transacted within a payment network that prioritizes individual privacy and market-first principles. The scale of distribution is unmatched as cheqd engages with organizations across Lending, Supply Chain, eCommerce, Education, Manufacturing, Gaming, and other sectors.
cheqd also features a decentralized reputation platform to incentivise and engage Web3 communities through quest or learning credentials, as well as protect users from fraud and scamming across Discord, Telegram and beyond.
