Math Show Series #023 — Digital Identity — Giving data ownership back to users
Host Cici:
I’m Cici, the host of the Math Show tonight.
The first round of MathWallet x Unstoppable Domains raffle events was welcomed.
So we invited Business Development Partner Bennett Phillips to Digital Identity — Giving Data Ownership Back to Users.
Bennett Phillips:
Our vision is to help users achieve these things through the power of blockchain technology. You can think of us as the “Identity Layer” of crypto.
At present, the number one use case for our NFT domains is to make your crypto wallet address(es) more human readable, shareable and social
Similar to the early days of the internet, when you needed the IP address of a webpage if you wanted to visit it, most crypto operates that way now with long strings of text for your wallet address.
And that wallet address represents who you are in the world of web3. In a way, it is your web3 identity.
And while we’re at it, what do we mean when we say “web3”?
This term is thrown around a lot, but seldom defined. So let’s try this:
Web1 was primarily just about users receiving content. A user could access information to read, watch, download, etc. — very one directional
Web2 introduced things like social media and the app economy. This is often referred to as the “read/write” internet, because we the users were no longer just consumers (readers) but could also provide content and value to the internet (write)
Web3 brings us into a new era where we can read, write, and OWN our personal data and personal assets.
So you can see, having an NFT domain as your digital identity is about much more than just making it easier to send and receive cryptocurrencies from other users. That is the most common use of Unstoppable Domains today, this is true, but the future is much more ambitious and exciting.
Users who are keen to learn more about NFT domains should consider our Unstoppable Learning Hub — We try to keep this updated with all the latest information.
So, we’ve established a bit about digital identity, but let’s go further.
As we see it, the internet today has two major problems for users (probably more than two, but there are two we can help with)
Problem #1 — There are hundreds, maybe thousands of instances of “digital you” online. Every time you create a new account on a website, app, etc., there is another “you” that you have to manage.
Problem #2 — Even though you created all these “digital you’s” you own none of them!
Several giant companies harvest all of our data that we generate when doing online activities, e.g. buying things, searching for things, sharing things, liking things, etc.
They harvest this data and monetize it for themselves. We get nothing other than maybe some personalized ads.
So we have many versions of ourselves, which can be confusing, risky, even dangerous (identity theft, etc.)
Imagine having a different identity every place you went in the real world! Nobody thinks about this in the digital world because we’ve just gotten used to it, but it’s no less absurd to have hundreds of digital identities than it would be to have hundreds of IRL identities.
Allow me to get to the point. Your NFT Domain from UD is your single digital identity. Rather than creating a new identity on each app you join, you bring your identity with you!
For more information, check this video — https://unstoppableweb.co/NFT_Domains
This is the future we envision for web3. We believe steadfastly that web3 will be mainstream. And when it is, we will all only need to manage a single digital identity. Even better, all of our personal data will belong to us!
Login with Unstoppable is already possible on hundreds of dApps, and we’re growing rapidly.
So when the rest of the world catches on (major social platforms, eCommerce sites, etc.) and these apps and websites want to know our personal data (where we live, if we own a home, if we’re married, etc.) — they will need to incentivise us to share that information via our domain and crypto wallet rather than just buying our personal info from giant tech companies.
In summary, today you can connect all of your crypto wallets from any major blockchain to a single domain name as well as log into many popular dApps, then you can transact (send and receive) crypto using this domain. Great wallets like MathWallet become even more powerful through the use of human readable names.
In the future, we envision you’ll be able to do all kinds of other things like verifying your identity, authenticating educational and professional credentials, recording customer loyalty to your favorite product and service providers so you can receive rewards and incentives, and much more!
It is also possible to build a decentralized website using NFT domains from UD. What is a decentralized website? It is a website that stores the associated files on IPFS (decentralized) so that the site is uncensorable, irrevocable, and totally self custody.
Nobody can take down your site or revoke your access to it. We have some great information on our website about how to set up a site on your domain. You can even set up a simple informational page of your own with no coding skills whatsoever.
Host Cici:
We have some questions selected from our community members here.
1. You have mentioned that purchased nft domains could be used for websites, however traditional websites need domain along with hosting. How does this work on web3 and do I need to buy hosting for the nft domain before I can start a website with the nft domain?
Bennett Phillips:
With a decentralized website, the files are hosted on IPFS. We have some great information about how to build your web3 website. In short, there is potentially a small fee to use pinata.cloud (IPFS) depending on how much data storage the user needs.
Host Cici:
3. Did Unstoppable Domains consider the multi-chain ecosystem from the very beginning? Which chain ecosystem has the most users growing?
Bennett Phillips:
In the beginning we were focused on ETH, but quickly realized we could support so much more. I don’t have immediate access to data about which chain has the most users growing, but I can try to get that for you.
We believe it is important to support all major blockchains. Much like the internet is today, when web3 reaches mass adoption, the average user isn’t going to think much about the underlying technology. At the end of the day, we just care about our own user experience and what the technology can do for us. So if your single digital identity is able to interact with multiple blockchains without any inconvenience for you, the user, then we can truly go mainstream.
Host Cici:
4. There are now a number of domain Web 3 based sites. What makes Unstoppable Domains different from all of these?
Bennett Phillips:
I’m assuming this question means other NFT domain providers.
If that’s correct, here are the things that make us different:
1. Our domains are owned for life. There are no renewal fees ever
2. We have the largest user base, which positions us well to be the primary web3 identity provider and scale faster
3. We have zero minting fees or other gas fees for managing your domain
4. We are well positioned for major partnerships with dominant tech companies who are also working on web3 — one of the reasons we’re better positioned than other NFT domain providers to do this is because we protect trademarked names of major companies
5. Our team is second to none. Our business development team come from rich backgrounds at top performing companies, and we have executives from places like AWS, IBM, Google, Twitter, and more, including an engineer leader building our identity product who holds the record for most patents issued to an IBM team member (over 600 patents to her name)
6. We have backing from very powerful investors and the networks that those relationships bring to us
7. We support every major blockchain. Some other NFT domain providers also offer this, but not all of them do.
I believe those are our major differentiators.
Host Cici:
5. Are there any incentives or plans for ecological development after Unstoppable Domains?
Bennett Phillips:
It will be done in two ways.
1. Our marketing and social teams will continue connecting with individual users through the usual channels
2. Our Business Development team (now over 20 people) will continue building strong partnerships with top-tier companies like MathWallet. And not only with web3 native companies. We have team members focusing on partnerships with global universities, entertainment brands, sports entities, traditional FinTech companies, cities and governments, and much more.
And of course, like any web3 company, we are made stronger by our users participating in our community. Great partners like MathWallet and active users and supporters like the people in this chat are invaluable to us!
