Masa Finance has launched the primary soulbound id protocol for the Ethereum mainnet, in accordance with a Jan. 17 press launch shared with Cointelegraph. The protocol will enable for standardized soulbound tokens to be minted on Ethereum for Know Your Buyer verification, credit score scores and different use circumstances.
Soulbound tokens are tokens that can’t be transferred from one pockets to a different. The idea was popularized via a blog post from Vitalik Buterin, who argued that these tokens might be used to indicate governance rights for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols or to show that an individual has attended an occasion.
Talking to Cointelegraph, Masa Finance founders Brendan Playford and Calanthis Mei argued that soulbound tokens will develop alternatives for DeFi customers to construct credit score and get loans. Mei defined it as such:
We wish to assist folks faucet into [an] on-chain credit score system with a Web3 credit score rating, with the info sources that we’ve got aggregated throughout Web2 and Web3 representing and serving to folks construct their creditworthiness on-chain. We’re presently working with a number of lending companions in extending DeFi loans to these people who’ve minted a Masa credit score rating report.
She emphasised that Masa soulbound tokens should not merely hooked up to a standard credit score rating. The protocol goes past conventional finance to include each Web2 and Web3 exercise. Mei mentioned that over 10,000 information factors are utilized in a Masa credit score rating, together with a consumer’s FICO rating, Plaid transaction information for credit score and debit playing cards, Web3 pockets transaction historical past, centralized alternate balances, and different information.
Mei believes this method will result in “risk-based underwriting” in DeFi, which she says has beforehand not been potential because of the lack of id protocols on blockchain networks.
The founders additionally mentioned there’s one different use circumstances presently accessible for the protocol. Other than representing a credit score rating, the second use case for the protocol is .soul domains. These are much like ENS names, however with the additional benefit that they are often linked to numerous Masa id traits. Playford defined that “customers can hyperlink completely different attributes, use their pseudonym to confirm themselves, present that they’re verified in Web3 with out doxing [their] full identify, for instance.”wo 80 / ch 501
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Playford famous that .sol domains might be transferred from one pockets to a different. Nevertheless, the attributes related to them will turn out to be unattached if the area is moved. Due to this fact, customers can not “purchase” the id or credit score rating of one other particular person.
In line with the founders, a 3rd use case might be id verification, a function the corporate is releasing underneath the identify “Masa Inexperienced.” It’s going to permits customers to mint a Masa Inexperienced token to show their id, which the corporate believes will assist customers to show they’re actual people, not bots. In line with Mei, this may assist to get rid of bots in play-to-earn video games and different apps the place the group desires solely actual people to take part. The corporate says Masa Inexperienced might be accessible as a “quick comply with throughout the coming weeks.”
Masa isn’t the one soulbound token protocol to be applied on a blockchain community. Binance has launched its personal model, known as BAB, which can be utilized to prove a user’s identity. Nevertheless, BAB is presently solely accessible on BNB Chain. Masa seems to be the primary soulbound token protocol accessible on Ethereum.
