What Is Kilt

KILT Protocol, built on Parity’s Substrate, is an open-source blockchain identity protocol for issuing self-sovereign, anonymous, revocable, verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers on Web 3.0. In addition, it provides the infrastructure that allows businesses and individuals to build on to monetize from the protocol’s features. KILT has recently won a Kusama Parachain auction. A significant milestone and one that proves the high-quality product that the team have delivered to date. Congratulations, KILT team.

KILT was developed by BOTLabs GmbH, founded by Ingo Rübe and the German publishing house Hubert Burda Media in Berlin, January 2018. KILT brings the old trust process in real-world credentials (passport, driving license, certificates, etc.) to the digital world, representing your identity while keeping your data private and in your possession.

The beauty behind the architecture is that your credentials can be validated without going through a central database. In addition, it is designed to be a fully decentralized permissionless blockchain network. That means that KILT is run for the community, by the community, with all decisions being made by KILT token owners.

Users can benefit from this by establishing their identity online without exposing their data to third parties. This could be registering for a website, platforms, social media sites, etc.

Value Proposition

➤ Self-Sovereign Data and Identity
Any entity can establish its own identity (without the consent of any other entity).
The Claimer is in control of their own Credentials
Users can choose which relevant Credentials to present to a specific Verifier

➤ Give everyday people a chance to control their own data in a trustless way
➤ Protection of user privacy
➤ Economy incentives for attesters to be trustworthy
➤ KILT provides a simple JavaScript SDK code that supports building applications without requiring any blockchain development skills.

What Issues is KILT Solving

➤ Currently, your personal data is at risk of malicious acts
➤ User data is stored in centralized silos, which is liable to hacker attacks
➤ Gathering and sharing of this data turns companies into powerful monopolies, which makes it extremely difficult for smaller companies to compete
➤ Exploitation of our personal data and identity
➤ Lack of accountability with personal data
➤ No decentralized trusted sources that can verify personal data
➤ Entities trusting other entities because of their status, their reputation, or just by definition
➤ Unable to trust entities with your personal data

How Does KILT Operate

KILT protocol allows the Claimer (user) to claim any kind of characteristic about themselves to a trusted entity that we call an Attester. So what happens here is that if Bob wanted his identity to be confirmed, Bob, the Claimer, would send it to the Attester for verification.

If the Attester considers this claim to be valid, he can certify it. Then, he hands out the certificate to the Claimer (Bob) and stores a hash value of the certificate on the kilt blockchain. (Note that the user identity is not stored, only a hash value that represents Bob identity.)

Once the Claimer (Bob) receives his certificate from the Attestor, he can present his credentials to the services he wants to use. These services may include site registration for any social sites, centralized or decentralized exchanges, Defi platforms, etc.

Before the Claimer (Bob) is allowed to use the services he is signing up for, the Verifier of that service will take Bob’s credentials and confirm it to the hash on the blockchain previously issued by the Attester.

This process is highly clever, as Bob holds complete control of his identity. Only a statement of validity (a blockchain hash) is stored on the blockchain.

Privacy Feature – When the Claimer (Bob) is showing his credentials to a Verifier, the Claimer can even hide all sensitive data that is not necessary for the verification. That’s how KILT protects the user’s privacy by design.

Revocable Credentials – If Bob’s credentials ever become invalid (e.g. expired driving license), the Attester can easily send out another hash of the certificate representing your driving license on the blockchain to show that it has been revoked. This is one of the key benefits why KILT Protocol use blockchain for their services.

https://medium.com/kilt-protocol/show-yourself-but-stay-hidden-45705158935

Where Can KILT Be Used

One of the fantastic things about KILT is that it can be implemented practically anywhere that requires a registration process or anything connected to the internet. As a result, users can hold and keep their identity private while still accessing their favorite sites. In addition, the convivence factor alone of not having to fill out online registration forms sounds like a dream come true.

KILT can directly benefit businesses to monetize and increase general efficiency and open new doors to products and features. Such businesses types include IoT, SaaS, Membership Models, AI, Cloud Environments, and Defi.
Please see below direct targets for KILT from a starting point:
➤ Government (DENA / German Ministry of Energy, and GAIA-X cloud storage)
➤ Gaming, eSports and “metaverses.”
➤ Carbon emissions
➤ Medical and genetics
➤ Academic credentials
➤ NFT’s
➤ Defi and DEX

KILT and Web 3 Foundation

KILT Protocol has received two separate grants from the W3F and has completed all milestones. Receiving a grant from W3F is an achievement alone, as only projects of high quality and potential will be accepted for the grant program. Furthermore, as the grant is paid out in milestones, W3F will stop the funding process if the code is not up to standard and does not comply with W3F terms and conditions.

Grant 1 – Revocable anonymous credentials solution
Grant 2 – Polimec: A Fundraising Mechanism for Projects within the Polkadot Ecosystem.

KILT plays a significant role with Web3. It gives the users back control over their identity. KILT will allow distributed entities (users, AI, smart contracts, machines, objects) to have an identity and disclose credentials among themselves. With decoupled attesters, the trust layer is abstracted, and new Web3 enabled business models can flourish in a trusted way.

Features and Benefits

KILT has an action-packed list of benefits and features. From speaking with the team, more information is still to be released for Token Curated-Attesters / Registry, Subtokens, Food Net, and many others.

➤ DID’s – Decentralized Identifiers
➤ Verifiable Credentials
➤ Self-Sovereign Identity ecosystem
➤ Claim Type (CTYPE)
➤ Polimec
➤ Portability across silos
➤ Sporran wallet
➤ SocialKYC
➤ Revocable Credentials
➤ Anonymous Credentials (with zk-Proof)
➤ Machine Identity

KILT Decentralized Identifier (DID)

A Decentralized Identifier – is simply a unique number that “identifies” your encrypted identity on the blockchain. KILT currently supports creating DIDs simply by using the address of the identity as the method-specific identifier, for example:

did:kilt:5GZ1ri8q2h7hXJHe9CnJVMAvGdRi3rbrrxfYBNHLwzH55daF

Your actual identity is then linked to this DID. An individual can add credentials (passport, driving license, SSN, birth cert, etc.) to this DID. These are then stored on the KILT Blockchain. This entry includes a signing key, an encryption key, and a link to the corresponding DID Document. It is important to note that when the identifier is registered on the blockchain, it becomes decentralized because the blockchain doesn’t store information in any one location; it’s spread across a network of computers.

Machine Identity – DID’s

DID’s also works for Machines, adding credentials for IoT devices, giving them a complete encrypted identity. This could be a credential, certificate or capabilities. And then, step by step, you add more and more credentials to that identifier, and then the device has an identity.

KILT SDK

The KILT SDK is a software development kit that uses JavaScript. The SDK makes KILT more accessible because big companies usually have some JavaScript developers, which allows them to use their own resources. Through the use of the KILT SDK, companies can build their project in just a few weeks. Incredible.

Self-Sovereign Identity Ecosystem

Self-sovereign simply means being in complete control of your own data. With KILT, the Claimer has full data sovereignty since they are the only owns of the certificate. It is impossible to restore the personal data from the hash; hacking the blockchain would be useless.

Claim Type (CTYPE)

A Claim Type (CTYPE) is simply a template used by a Claimer to create a Claim on the KILT Protocol. Anyone can create a CTYPE, which can hold different credentials for various types of verification purposes. Adoption drives standardization of a specific CTYPE, so the more people use it and trust it, the more clout it has and users it will capture. In addition, the more valuable a CTYPE is, the more likely it is to be adopted by end-users.

Polimec

Polkadot Liquidity Mechanism (Polimec) is an open-source mechanism designed to help get liquidity into Polkadot based projects that are not yet ready to sell transferable currencies on their own technology. Polimec is a side project of KILT Protocol in which they received a grant from W3F. Essentially what Polimec does is help new Polkadot-based projects to issue transferable pre-coins before the launch of their mainnet. There is currently nothing like this available within the Polkadot ecosystem, only ERC20, until now. Polimec will utilize the KILT Protocol issuance, proof and verification of KYC/AML Credentials. Also, Polimec does not have a native currency, so maintainers are only rewarded in Gas fees paid in the currency transferred.

Sporran Wallet

➤ Sporran wallet will be available on mobile and browser extension
➤ It will show KILT Coin balances
➤ Signs and sends transactions on the KILT blockchain
➤ Ability to hold credentials and DID’s
➤ Add contacts by scanning their public identity as a QR Code
➤ Create Claims
➤ Transfer KILT Tokens

Download here:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sporran/djdnajgjcbjhhbdblkegbcgodlkkfhcl/related?hl=en

SocialKYC

Individuals can use SocialKYC to identify themselves with internet credentials instead of traditional government credentials. The user’s identity is verified by proving control of their social accounts (LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Discord, Github, etc.), email address or phone number. Unlike Web 2.0 sign-in processes, SocialKYC forgets about user credentials as soon as the certificate is issued. As a result, personal data is not stored, siloed or shared.

Gaming

Gaming is another top use case for SocialKYC and KILT verifiable credentials.
➤ Developing registries for pairing players and tracking awards
➤ Issuing educational credits and age verification for youth gaming
➤ Providing KYC for rewards and payment systems
➤ Tracking performance across multiple game platforms and networks.

Portability Across Silos

Portability across silos is a feature that will allow users to use the same credentials across different layers (services). An example of this would be if an e-commerce site wanted to accept Facebook as a sign-in method, then just open your Sporran/SocialKYC wallet and log in. It is as easy as that.

Anonymous Credentials

Anonymous credential is a type of digital Credentials in which entities can obtain from trusted Attesters (issuers) and show these Credentials to multiple Verifiers without necessarily revealing any identifiable information. So even if the Verifiers collude, they cannot pinpoint the identity of the Credential presenter.
https://medium.com/kilt-protocol/show-yourself-but-stay-hidden-45705158935

Token Utility

➤ Community governance
➤ Incentivize chain security/staking
➤ Fees associated with CTYPEs, Attestations, Revocations
➤ Fees for Private Curated Registry, Token Curated Attester
➤ Transaction fees (store & revoke credentials)
➤ Off-chain services

Incentives

Please see the list of known participant incentives below.
Please note that there is more information to be released regarding participant incentives.
➤Validator rewards
➤Delegator rewards
➤Attester rewards

User Security

➤ Only hashes are kept on the KILT blockchain, so the user holds their personal data. The risk of a data breach is significantly reduced
➤ There is no centralized data silo; everything is decentralized, less attractive to hackers
➤ The cost of hacking decentralized systems is considerably higher than that of centralized systems

Roadmap

KILT Protocol is planning integrations with Phala Network (privacy and cloud storage), Subsocial (decentralized social network), GameDAO and Bitcountry (Gaming and metaverse).
Please see roadmap in the image below for further detail’s

Tokenomics

Total Supply – Inflationary
Pre-mined coins at TGE – 150m (100m for community / 50m for BOTLabs)
Initial Circulation Supply – 34m
Very low inflation rate (starting at around 5% and falling to below 1% after 6 years)
Block distribution rewards are designed to decrease and end 50 years from the Mainnet launch gradually. KILT’s established ledger and trusted relationships will allow the chain to be managed by external systems when this time comes.

Team

Team Size – 25
Developers – 7
Advisors – 8 / Experience: Swarm Markets, Parity Technologies, Microsoft, BlockKore)

Founder and CEO
Ingo Rübe is the founder and CEO of BOTLabs, the company that develops KILT Protocol. As CTO of Hubert Burda Media, he initiated the open-source CMS Thunder, and he was previously IT Project Director at Axel Springer. Ingo is a founding member of the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) and served on the Board of Directors of the Drupal Association.

Vice President of Business Development
Christine Mohan has 25 years of experience in software and digital media, working for startups and corporates, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Previously she was CMO of Web3 Foundation / Polkadot and co-founder of Civil Media, a blockchain syndication platform.

Operations Director
Matthias has twenty years of professional and leadership experience in developing and shipping digital services for the internet and media industry. Since the early days of the internet, he has been managing front-end and back-end internet services for high traffic and scalable products.

Partnerships

➤ Botlabs GmbH – KILT development team
➤ Subscan – KILT’s blockchain explorer, built for Substrate-based networks.
➤ Polkadex and Fractal are implementing KILT for managing their KYC credentials
➤ Galaniprojects
➤ Dena – German Energy Agency
➤ DeBio Network – Anonymous-First Appchain for Medical and Bioinformatics Services & Data
➤ Federal Energy Agency
➤ GAIA-X – Data infrastructure: an open, transparent and secure digital ecosystem, where data and services can be made available, collated and shared in an environment of trust
➤ Degenics – blockchain-based, anonymous-first DNA testing platform

Conclusion

It may take some time for the masses to truly understand the importance of keeping their personal data secure and free from exploitation. For this reason, it may take some time for KILT Protocol to gain traction. However, KILT are definitely are in pole position due to their team, backing, robust architecture and secured parachain. I can only assume that their DAPP’s will be of high-quality UI/UX, easy to use.

There is a significant advantage for businesses and industry, in general, to take advantage of ILTt from the get-go. Not just for monetization benefits, but the protocol offers a significant advantage for businesses to earn their customers’ trust by allowing the Sporran/KYC extension for registration purposes.

Another major plus is that KILT has successfully won a Kusama Parachain slot and is backed by W3F. Additionally, KILT is pursuing a parachain slot on Polkadot. More information on this to come.

In my opinion, this is a fantastic project with a great team, and it will do exceptionally well. Moreover, they provide a high-value use case that is badly needed in today’s world. As always, getting into these projects is key, so don’t sleep on it! (not financial advice, just my opinion)

Resources

https://www.kilt.io/
https://medium.com/kilt-protocol/show-yourself-but-stay-hidden-45705158935
https://www.kilt.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/KILT-White-Paper-v2020-Jan-15.pdf
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sporran/djdnajgjcbjhhbdblkegbcgodlkkfhcl/related?hl=en
https://pedroporky.medium.com/kilt-partners-with-government-entities-gaia-x-germanys-federal-energy-agency-dena-29dbe1e751a5