Soulbound tokens power new identity solution on Celo blockchain

A central focus for many in the Web3 community has been improving identity solutions available to consumers. Last year the emergence of soulbound tokens (SBT) introduced a new way for users to define themselves. 

Although the SBT hype quieted over the last months, they have not disappeared off the scene. On Mar. 1, the SBT protocol Masa Finance announced that it will deploy on the carbon-negative Celo blockchain to create a new identity solution. 

More than 10 million wallets active in the Celo ecosystem will be able to generate a Masa “Prosperity Passport.” This new Web3 identity solution allows users to mint a variety of SBTs related to their digital life, such as an authenticated user verification SBT, a credit score SBT, a community reputation SBT and a .celo domain name SBT.

Calanthia Mei, the co-founder of Masa Finance said nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were the first pioneers for Web3 user customization, and SBTs are the next breakthrough technology.

“Web3 has a trust issue, and SBTs represent a composable and scalable way to build a trust layer between projects and users, and users amongst each other. “

The “Prosperity Passport” solution also gives access to other utilities from Celo projects which have integrated the technology, such as micro loans and universal basic income.

Mei believes that the identity solutions provided by SBTs will help usher in the next 1 billion authentic users into Web3.

“We see SBTs as a way to build bridges for global economies, industries, and users to merge with web3 and truly usher in the new economy."

According to the announcement, the protocol already has 250,000 Masa Soulbound Identities minted, along with nearly 300,000 Masa .Soul Names minted.

Related: What is decentralized identity in blockchain?

At the end of 2022, MetaMask Institutional, Cobo and Gnosis DAO all teamed up to create an SBT project to bring exclusivity and identity verification to its users. Back in December, the Japanese financial firm Sumitomo Mitsui also revealed it is looking into SBTs for social reasons.

These new digital assets are thought to be a possible solution to future digital identity in the metaverse, along with digital citizenship.

While not directly mentioning digital assets, on Feb. 9, the European Union mentioned using zero-knowledge proofs for future digital IDs.