Polkadot DID Resolver Driver

[justraman]

Project Abstract

The Polkadot DID Resolver project aims to bridge the Polkadot ecosystem with the broader decentralized identity landscape by implementing a W3C-compliant DID driver. This driver will enable seamless resolution of Polkadot-based DIDs and enhance interoperability with other decentralized systems. By leveraging Polkadot’s identity pallet, the project will simplify access to on-chain identities without requiring specialized Substrate knowledge, making it accessible to a wider audience of developers and applications.

Grant level

• Level 1: Up to $10,000, 2 approvals
• Level 2: Up to $30,000, 3 approvals
• Level 3: Unlimited, 5 approvals (for >$100k: Web3 Foundation Council approval)

Application Checklist

• The application template has been copied and aptly renamed (project_name.md).
• I have read the application guidelines.
• Payment details have been provided (Polkadot AssetHub (USDC & DOT) address in the application and bank details via email, if applicable).
• I understand that an agreed upon percentage of each milestone will be paid in vested DOT, to the Polkadot address listed in the application.
• I am aware that, in order to receive a grant, I (and the entity I represent) have to successfully complete a KYC/KYB check.
• The software delivered for this grant will be released under an open-source license specified in the application.
• The initial PR contains only one commit (squash and force-push if needed).
• The grant will only be announced once the first milestone has been accepted (see the announcement guidelines).
• I prefer the discussion of this application to take place in a private Element/Matrix channel. My username is: @_______:matrix.org (change the homeserver if you use a different one)

[github-actions]

CLA Assistant Lite bot All contributors have signed the CLA ✍️ ✅

[justraman]

I have read and hereby sign the Contributor License Agreement.

[keeganquigley]

Thanks @justraman this looks really good, I'm happy to support it. Will mark as ready for review and ping the rest of the committee.

[keeganquigley]

@justraman could you also please complete KYB verification for Snowpine Labs?

[leonardocustodio]

Ok, kyb has been sent 😁

[semuelle]

Thank you for the application, @justraman, and sorry for the long wait. I think identities on Polkadot are way underutilized, so I'd be happy to support projects in this direction.

Could you explain a bit what the purpose of PolkaIdentity is, and what need to you have for W3C-compliant identities there?
Lastly, you state that you have not started development, but also put everything into one milestone. I think it might be better to break the roadmap up into two or three milestones, so we can review the work while it's going on and possibly provide some feedback.

[leonardocustodio]

Hello @semuelle ,

I will answer the part that concerns to me as I'm the maintainer of PolkaIdentity

Could you explain a bit what the purpose of PolkaIdentity is

The purpose of PolkaIdentity was to make it easier for people to have their on-chain identity registered in a fully automated way and with trustable resources to verify any data the user inputs on it.

Polkassembly was already doing that when I decided to make PolkaIdentity, the reason why I chose to make it was when the People Parachain was created, when that happened, it naturally broke every single integration Polkassembly had with the Identity pallet and as their focus is governance and not identity it took them a while to fix it.

Because of that I decided that a dedicated service for identity could be a good idea as we would be able to accelerate the development when integrating the identity pallet as that's would be our main goal.

The website can be found at https://polkaidentity.com and there is a thread about it at: https://forum.polkadot.network/t/polkaidentity-a-friendly-on-chain-identity-service/9702

Also the referendum that made it a registrar can be found at: https://polkadot.polkassembly.io/referenda/1192

and what need to you have for W3C-compliant identities there?

PolkaIdentity doesn't need W3C-compliant identities at all. It works fine and it will keep working fine, PolkaIdentity goal is focused on "making" the identities and not "using" them.

The W3C-compliant identities are for people looking to "use" the identities, making it easier for anyone to develop a product using them and thus increasing its usefulness regardless of which registrar created it.

As a result of more people, companies, products using on-chain identities we can naturally expect more people going for registrars to make their identity and that's why PolkaIdentity was mentioned here and why we have interest on keep maintaining the driver after the grant is delivered.

I hope that clarifies a bit

[semuelle]

Thanks for the clarification, @leonardocustodio. It would be nice to for someone to also comment on the latter part of my comment, though.

[justraman]

Hello @semuelle,
I’ve taken your suggestion and broken it down into three milestones to allow for better progress tracking and feedback