Masa Finance has launched the primary soulbound identification protocol for the Ethereum mainnet, in response to a Jan. 17 press launch shared with Cointelegraph. The protocol will permit 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 could possibly be used to indicate governance rights for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols or to show that an individual has attended an occasion.
Chatting with Cointelegraph, Masa Finance founders Brendan Playford and Calanthis Mei argued that soulbound tokens will broaden 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 are usually not merely connected to a conventional credit score rating. The protocol goes past conventional finance to include each Web2 and Web3 exercise. Mei stated that over 10,000 knowledge factors are utilized in a Masa credit score rating, together with a consumer’s FICO rating, Plaid transaction knowledge for credit score and debit playing cards, Web3 pockets transaction historical past, centralized alternate balances, and different knowledge.
Mei believes this technique will result in “risk-based underwriting” in DeFi, which she says has beforehand not been potential as a result of lack of identification protocols on blockchain networks.
The founders additionally stated there are two different use circumstances presently obtainable 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 advantage that they are often linked to numerous Masa identification traits. Playford defined that “customers can hyperlink totally different attributes, use their pseudonym to confirm themselves, present that they’re verified in Web3 with out doxing [their] full title, for instance.”
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Playford famous that .sol domains may be transferred from one pockets to a different. Nevertheless, the attributes related to them will turn into unattached if the area is moved. Subsequently, customers can’t “purchase” the identification or credit score rating of one other individual.
Based on the founders, the third use case is identification verification, a function the corporate has launched underneath the title “Masa Inexperienced.” It permits customers to mint a Masa Inexperienced token to show their identification, which the corporate believes will assist customers to show they’re actual people, not bots. Based on Mei, it will assist to get rid of bots in play-to-earn video games and different apps the place the group needs solely actual people to take part.
Masa is just not the one soulbound token protocol to be carried out 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 obtainable on BNB Chain. Masa seems to be the primary cross-chain soulbound token protocol obtainable on Ethereum and Celo.
