Gitcoin Passport

Gitcoin Passport is an application built by Gitcoin on the Ceramic Network, where users can collect various ID verifications called "Stamps" on both Web2 and Web3 platforms. The purpose of creating Gitcoin Passport is to enable democratic decision-making in systems like Gitcoin's Quadratic Funding, which require users to be unique individuals. By proving that users are acting in good faith with a single ID, these systems can ensure legitimate results.

The need for robust and private identity and reputation systems in Web3 extends beyond Gitcoin's own use. Gitcoin Passport was built to allow all projects to benefit from a legitimate and neutral public goods funding ecosystem, and to meet the growing demand for such systems.

Gitcoin Passport is for:

- Individuals: Gitcoin believes that people are part of networks of relationships and communities. To achieve the best possible future, individuals should own and control their own data and have tools to carry their identity on the internet. Passport collects data points that help prove who you are and the communities you are part of, and it assists projects like Gitcoin in building the most transparent, legitimate, and fair governance systems.

- Projects: Play to Earn, Professional reputation and accreditation, and Digital Democracy all rely on a one-person, one-account system. This is currently an open problem area, and Gitcoin Passport is our first best attempt to establish a standard way of bringing evidence of humanity to these systems. By integrating Passport into your application, you can reduce the surface area for Sybil attacks, enable new mechanisms for achievement recognition and governance, and allow users to build reusable "reputation legos" that they can carry within the Web3 ecosystem.

- Communities: Allowing community members to self-declare their membership using Gitcoin Passport is a powerful new way to build towards the decentralized society that Vitalik, Glen, and Puja recently outlined in their paper. By giving users the ability to collect verifiable data points, we believe there is a powerful new democratic mechanism that can help the entire ecosystem thrive, one that represents not just their identity but also the identity revealed through their connections to communities. If you are a community with members interested in using Passport, please reach out to us.

The lifecycle of a Passport involves the creation and management of the Passport, as well as the collection of stamps:

- Creating and managing a Passport: Users can build their Passport independently of specific applications, adopting a self-sovereign view of their data. The core of the Passport is a self-sovereign data collection built on the Ceramic Network, following the specifications of DID (Decentralized Identifier) and VC (Verifiable Credential). This data is intended to have broad interoperability with any system that wishes to issue or consume VCs to establish a person's "personhood" through direct ownership of multiple accounts (e.g., Twitter, BrightID) and Web3 assets (e.g., ENS). The goal is to further expand this Passport to allow individuals to collect stamps that demonstrate their participation in various groups and communities. The lifecycle of a Passport involves steps such as presenting the Passport, creating and managing the Passport, and scoring and verifying the Passport.

When presenting the Passport, the user is prompted to connect their Ethereum wallet. It is important to note that the Passport is associated with the user's Ethereum address, so they should ensure they use the same address when presenting the Passport. Once the wallet is connected, the reader application can retrieve and read the Passport data from the Ceramic Network, verifying if the user is collecting the necessary stamps for the system to continue.

If a user does not have a Passport or does not have enough stamps to meet the needs of an application, they will be directed to the Passport application instance hosted by Gitcoin. This instance integrates the necessary identity and verification stamps to build the Gitcoin Trust Bonus. The user can continue to manage their Passport, link it to new services, connect stamps, and enhance their verifiable online identity.

The Passport reader application prompts the user to connect their wallet. Once the wallet is connected, the reader application can retrieve and read the user's Passport from the Ceramic Network, confirming their ownership of each stamp (verifiable credential) and ensuring that the Passport and verifiable credentials are read by applications that can request verification from the servers that issued the credentials.

To collect stamps, the user can connect to various ID providers (e.g., Google OAuth) guided by the Passport application. Each flow will request access to the user's account data to allow the Passport application to access it. Once the connection is established, the Passport application communicates with our IAM server and issues signed verifiable credentials. These credentials represent ownership of the connected account and can inform others that the user's Passport is the unique owner of the connected account. The verifiable credentials are stored in the user's Passport and can be used by third-party applications when the user presents their Passport.

It is worth noting that some ID providers may have their own verification processes that may take time to complete. However, once authenticated, users should be able to quickly collect stamps for that service.

If you have any questions about the privacy of your data, please refer to the FAQ.

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