What is KILT Protocol?

When applying for online services that require divulging an ample amount of personal information, users have little control over what details to provide, and most times, in the case of unscrupulous individuals, this information can be falsified. KILT Protocol plans to create a world of trust in the digital ecosystem by creating secure, scalable, and decentralized digital identities.

What is KILT Protocol?

KILT Protocol is a parachain built on the Polkadot network that provides secure, scalable, and decentralized digital identity solutions in the ecosystem. KILT issues claim-based, verifiable, revocable, and anonymous credentials in Web 3.0. It provides user data sovereignty and interoperability for applications built on the network.

KILT leverages trust to foster new business models, as only trusted entities (businesses or individuals) can issue useful credentials. It sets up a framework for decentralized and digital identities (DID). It generates unique identifiers and creates, issues, and verifies digital credentials, using blockchain’s trustless and immutable nature to ensure data privacy and control over their data.

The protocol provides a Software Development Kit (SDK), allowing anybody to build applications and services on the KILT infrastructure. KILT allows users, groups, and businesses to provide information about themselves that is later confirmed by trusted sources. Claimers of attributes can decide who to share their data with and hide certain details for their privacy.

History of the KILT Protocol

KILT was founded by Ingo Rübe in 2018 after he recognized the possibilities blockchain holds in solving certain problems encountered in Web 2. The protocol’s original whitepaper as released in May 2019, with its tokenomics published in August 2021. Ingo Rübe founded BOTLabs GmBH, a blockchain consulting company in Berlin, Germany.

Ingo Rübe, realizing the potential of blockchain to address the issues of the autonomy and control of personal data, set out to develop identity solutions that could be generally accepted and implemented by businesses, corporate entities, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

After its inception in 2018, the protocol went under intense research and creative exchange, and in September 2021, KILT secured a slot on the Kusama parachain. It later moved to the Polkadot network in October 2022 to utilize the bank-grade security by companies wishing to integrate KILT in 2023.

What are Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)?

To understand the KILT Protocol, we have to understand certain factors that play an important role in the functioning of the protocol. An important part of KILT is Decentralized Identifiers, which are ways users identify themselves on the internet without banking on central authorities or bodies, such as the government or other firms. It is like a passport controlled by the user rather than one issued to the user by someone else.

With a DID, users can reveal their identity to various websites, apps, and services without forsaking personal information about themselves. It works similarly to digital driver licenses that can only be used by the license owner. Users can have different DIDs for different purposes. They could have a DID for online gaming sites, shopping sites, crypto platforms, and other services.

AssetDIDs

An AssetDID is a novel type of identifier that reduces the risk of unauthentic digital assets being shown on any blockchain network, giving the ecosystem an extra layer of verification. The AssetDID is a unique combination of letters and numbers obtained from an existing data point about the asset, which includes the asset-related standards, identifiers, and the blockchain on which it was built.

AssetDIDs allow public credentials to be linked to any asset on any smart contract or blockchain, describing the asset’s attributes or properties. Also, other users can read these credentials, which will be stored and made available on the KILT blockchain. This ensures the credentials always stay with the NFT, even as the ownership of said NFT changes.

With AssetDIDs, luxury goods, and other physical properties, by linking the physical item with and NFT or smart contracts.

How does the KILT Protocol Work?

KILT is proposing a new mechanism for handling user data. It does this by enabling the issuance and storage of internet credentials. For this to work, the user provides personal details about themselves, which the attester validates, and on the user’s demand, the attester issues credentials. These credentials are made up of the user details provided and validated earlier.

The user receives the credentials and then stores them locally, giving the user full control over the credentials and their personal data. This process works similarly to the real-world credentials issued by trusted authorities and bodies.

Once the credential is sent to the user, the KILT blockchain stores a checksum (hash) of the credential. With blockchain technology, users can now provide irrefutable evidence showing they own the documents to anyone they decide to show them.

KILT is designed to protect the user’s privacy and, as such, does not store user information on the blockchain. While the blockchain stores the hash values of the credentials, the user’s personal information is stored in the credentials in their possession.

When a user wishes to provide their credentials rather than submit their username and password, all they would have to do is prove their identity by transmitting their credential to the financial service they wish. The receiving service, known as the “Verifier,” can then validate the credential by computing its hash value and verifying its existence on the KILT blockchain if the verifier trusts the integrity of the attester that issues the credentials.

A digital wallet functions just like a physical wallet that allows a user to store and access various credentials for both online and offline activities. Credentials issued by attesters whom numerous verifiers trust are generally more accepted. Users (Claimers) on the KILT network are always in charge of their information and can decide when, why, and to whom to share their credentials.

This differs from the analog world, where all the user’s credentials must be shown. KILT restricts the information shown to only what is necessary while still allowing the hash value of the Credential to be checked on the blockchain.

The attester is not needed in the verification process on the KILT Blockchain; all the Verifier requires is for the KILT blockchain to validate the credentials. The attester has no role in the validation process, ensuring the privacy of user information while making the system scalable.

Features of KILT Protocol

KILT sets up a base layer in the Web 3.0 world for verifiable credentials. The developers see the platform as having numerous real-world business cases like DeFi collaboration with Polkadex and Fractal, DNA testing and Degenics, and other upcoming projects in gaming and climate change. To function in these different areas, the platform has been equipped with certain features, including the following.

Self-sovereign Data and Identity

To ensure trust within the network, the protocol applies three peer-to-peer roles: Claimer, Attester, and Verifier. A claimer can be an object, an individual, or an organization. An Attester is a trusted party that validates a claim to ensure the details the claimer provides are accurate. Lastly, the verifier links attesters and claimers by creating a demand on the network. The verifier receives the credential from the claimer that the attester previously validated to ensure the accuracy of the claim.

KILT Software Development Kit (SDK)

The open-source KILT SDK is written in TypeScript, a language for application-scale JavaScript, making it easier for developers to quickly and easily build dApps around new business use cases. Developers without experience can now use KILT to build a business around identity. With the open-source SDK, applications for issuing, holding, and verifying user credentials can easily be built and customized without extra expenses.

Polkadot Liquidity Mechanism (Polimec)

Polimec is an open-source blockchain system developed to help Polkadot projects that don’t have access to transferable assets on their network. It does this by providing these projects with liquidity. It functions like the ErC20 Smart Contracts mechanism but for issuing pre-currencies on Polkadot and Kusama since it powers Polkaverse projects to issue transferable pre-coins before they are live on the mainnet.

Security

The KILT blockchain uses a variant of the Proof-of-Stake consensus called Limited Delegated Proof-of-Stake to maximize the chain’s security. The LDPoS system has two major roles:

• Collators: They hold the blockchain data and collect transactions and building blocks. Their job is similar to Kusama and Polakdot validators.
• Delegators: Delegators back a trusted collator with a portion of their staked KILT Coins.

The KILT Protocol is provided with the Kusama Relay Chain as part of the Polkadot network. Transaction data blocks verified collators on the KILT network will be sent to the Kusama validators to be concluded and brought forward as the state of truth.

KILT Protocol Use Cases

KILT creates a framework for self-sovereign online identities is created, leading to more trust in the digital world. The blockchain enables people to show their identities without revealing their personal information. Developers could also use the platform to create identities and credentials for not just users but also for machines, services, IoT (Internet of Things) use cases, and anything requiring identification.

The KILT protocol can also be applied in the gaming, healthcare, media, academics, and energy sectors. Government agencies like BOTLabsGmbH, the protocol’s original developer, in partnership with Dena, the Ministry of Energy in Germany, aim to create a decentralized digital ledger. This ledger will comprise devices that produce and consume energy, like energy meters, heat pumps, and solar energy systems.

KILT Ecosystem

KILT is constantly searching for project collaborations that boost the growth of secure digital identity services that give users control over their data. This is due to the protocol being compatible with any blockchain-based project and corporate bodies providing digital services.

In the Polkadot ecosystem, KILT is partnering with several projects built on the platform, focusing on logins, zero-knowledge proof, NFTs, and verification of real-world assets. Some projects include:

BOTLabs GmbH

This is KILT’s initial developer. It is also in charge of other services on the platform, such as SocialKYC, DIDsign, web3name, Skateboard, and Account Linking. BOTLabs Trusted Entity (B.T.E) is a subgroup of BOTLabs GmBH and the one behind KILT’s Sporran wallet, Checkout Service and Enterprise Service.

Cypher Capital

Cypher Capital is a leading multi-strategy crypto investment firm based in the UAE. It focuses on venture capital, public markets, nodes, and mining. Cooperating with globally acclaimed Web 3.0 founders, Cypher Capital uses its global relationship and industry expertise to guarantee the platform’s long-term success.

Polimec

Polimec is a decentralized, community-driven funding project developed by the KILT team to boost Polkadot ecosystem projects. Polimec will enable fundraising lawfully and sustainably, using Deloitte KYC credentials developed on KILT.

KILT Governance

The protocol is built to be decentralized and see maximized data privacy and community participation in protocol development decisions. This enables KILT token holders to participate in the protocol’s governance by submitting proposals and voting on whether or not to implement them.

Proposals on the protocol can either be simple ones, like the transfer of funds in the case of a treasury grant, or complex proposals, like complete network upgrades. Whatever decision is to be made, the changes are applied directly to the parachain without needing a hard fork. As a result, decisions are carried out quickly on the protocol.

What is KILT Token?

The KILT Protocol was released in September 2021, and its native token serves three major roles in the KILT Protocol: payment, on-chain, and staking.

Payment Utility

The token serves as a means for claimers to pay attesters for digitally revocable credentials. The KILT token or tokens outside the protocol can pay for attestation services. Attesters are incentivized to accept KILT coins for services since they pay the transaction and gas fees in KILT.

On-Chain Utility

KILT Tokens can be locked for voting on on-chain government activities. Locking the token up longer enables conviction voting and increases voting power. The token is also used for transaction fees when anchoring credentials, DIDs, CTypes, and trust hierarchies on the KILT blockchain. Lastly, deposits encourage users to erase DIDs that are no longer needed, removing unnecessary data and defending against spamming.

Staking

Rewards play a crucial role in promoting the maintenance of the blockchain network by providing incentives to collators, who are responsible for storing the data of the KILT blockchain, gathering transactions, and constructing blocks. Rewards motivate delegators to support dependable collators by allocating their stake, fostering enhanced system confidence.

Tokenomics

The KILT Coin will have a limited supply, which will be slowly introduced into the system over time. There is a total supply of 150 million pre-minted coins that will be distributed as follows:

• One hundred million of these coins are allocated to the community.
• 4.5 million of the market supply will be reserved for crowdloan voting participants.
• Fifty million will be allocated to BOTLabs with a 60-month linear vesting.
• Thirty-four million (23%) of the total amount of coins generated at the Token Generation Event (TGE) will be in circulation following the mainnet’s Token Transferability Event (TTE). This amounts to about 10% of the completely diluted distribution.
• After completing the TGE, collators, delegators, and the treasury are paid newly minted tokens.
• The rate of the newly minted tokens will diminish over time.
• Therefore, the token’s distribution adds up to a maximum supply of about 29- million KILT coins.

Where to Buy KILT

KILT can be purchased on a few cryptocurrency exchanges. It is available on exchanges such as Gate.io. Users must sign up on the site, create a gate.io account, complete the KYC procedure, and then go over how to buy the token once their accounts have been financed.

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