Looking to solve Web3's identity problems once and for all, cheqd thinks it has found a solution with the launch of a new and decentralized platform for issuing and sharing digital credentials. 

Creds are a novel kind of decentralized identity token that gives users a private, secure and portable way to prove to others that they are who they say they are. Creds are unique, creating trust without revealing any personal information. 

The advantage of Creds, which are neither NFTs nor SoulBound tokens, is that they're private and revocable, and can be used across multiple platforms and communities by individuals to build up a trusted and portable reputation. Creds are issued to users who submit their cryptographically signed personal data to decentralized verifiers, but this information is stored off-chain where it remains private and secure. 

According to cheqd's CEO Fraser Edwards, decentralized identities based on NFTs and SBTs are still insecure as they can be linked to an individual due to the immutable nature of blockchain. "Creds are collectable, portable, secure and verifiable; it has all the best things that the NFT and SBT have with the addition of everything else they are missing," the CEO explained. 

Cheqd said Creds can solve a number of major challenges in Web3. Not only do they improve security, but they also help to address privacy concerns, boost user engagement and eliminate the distrust caused by the emergence of generative AI technologies. 

Preventing Scams

Of course, hacking is one of the biggest problems in Web3 today, and Creds can help to tackle some of the scams commonly used by hackers to gain access to their victim's digital assets. Creds enables projects and individuals to confirm their identity and ownership of assets such as handles and wallets, as well as their reputation. So someone who claims to be an admin on a project's Discord or Telegram forum can create a Cred to prove their status, building trust with other members of the community. This makes it much more difficult for someone to impersonate an admin, which is a scam often used by hackers to trick users into giving up key personal information. 

Creds also enable users to prove various other things about themselves, including their attendance at an event. Cheqd introduced Creds at the Nebular Summit in Paris, issuing them to everyone present as part of its technology demonstration. Using their new credentials, attendees have a way to prove they were physically present at the event, without revealing anything else about themselves. 

Sebastien Couture, Founder of Nebular Summit and Interop Ventures said Creds provide a unique and personalized way for attendees to experience ched's latest innovation. "We're excited to build from this first edition and use them to offer future benefits, like early registration to our events throughout the year," he said.

Enhancing Community Engagement 

In addition to building trust, cheqd said Creds can also be used as a tool to build stronger communities. An intriguing idea is to use Creds in gamified learning. For instance, projects can invite members to participate in educational courses or incentivized quests and earn rewards for completing them. Once the individual has successfully passed a course or finished a quest, this achievement will be verified and reflected by their Creds. As more people engage in this way, community trust grows as more of its members establish verifiable reputations.  

Cheqd's Head of Marketing and Community Eduardo Hotta said this will advantage projects and community members equally. "It's preferable to have a smaller number of real active community members or superfans than a group with thousands of bots," he stated. 

Unlike with other kinds of decentralized identities, which are often limited to a single platform, Creds are fully portable, meaning that someone with a verified reputation in one project's community can port this over to new communities they join to immediately establish themselves as a reputable person. Creds can contain multiple credentials, and users are free to decide which ones they wish to share with other users. 

Cheqd sees Creds as a key element of its wider plan to build a privacy-preserving payment and credential network in Web3, where users and organizations can regain control of their identity data and share it with anyone they want in a fully private and secure way. Its ecosystem of products and services also enables this data to be transacted.