[Cryptography] Eudaemon: A peer-to-peer electronic identity system

[Agathos]

Dear iang,

Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

I believe many of your questions would be answered in the whitepaper at
https://eud.ninja

You can also try the proof of concept at downloadable from:
https://codeberg.org/agathos/Eudaemon/ 
or from
026c5d5a62607803244c5ee8f2090bd6d1c091985dd864563485be927aeb16bf

Replies to your questions inline below.

On Sun, Apr 23, 2023 at 11:08:54PM +0200, iang wrote:
> 
> On 22/04/2023 02:25, Agathos wrote:
> > By combining a small-world trust network, a peer-to-peer storage system,
> > a fungible reputation, and personal blockchains, we create a
> > peer-to-peer electronic identity system for individuals to secure and
> > assert their identities and histories without requiring a central
> > institution. At the core of this system is proof of human (PoH), a peer
> > consensus mechanism based on asymmetric key signing and threshold
> > signatures<sup>[1](#1shamir1979)</sup>, which prevents any M-of-N peers
> > from claiming authority over an individual's identity. Trusted peers act
> > as relays to the greater network and provide storage and propagation of
> > messages allowing for persistent serverless digital identity and digital
> > interactions.
> > 
> > We anchor identity and associated data to our social peers using the
> 
> 
> What do you envision is in the "identity and associated data" ?

Any data that is important to yourself and/or your peers. Direct
messages, group messages, key backups, arbitrary data backups, secrets,
personal attributes, trust topology and even media. Though I would not
recommend dumping an entire family video album on the current prototype
system.

As the blocks only need to propagate to your trusted peers, and not a
classic global blockchain, the modal is far more scalable and accessible.

Heavy blocks such as media can also be pruned over time.

> 
> > robust and easy to recover data structure that is a personal blockchain
> 
> 
> What is a personal blockchain?  I am guessing that it is where each person
> constructs a blockchain-like distributed store with all of her trusted
> partners?
> 

From the whitepaper:
-
A personal blockchain can be thought of as a chain of actions with each action
taken being hashed and amended to the previous block.
-

Sending a message, trusting a friend or publishing your latest trust
topology all constitute actions that are used to form discrete blocks.

Your trusted peers process and validate your blocks.
You process and validate your trusted peers blocks.

> 
> > to solve identity sovereignty and data loss problems simultaneously.
> > This solves the general key management problem by providing secure
> > backup and recovery of seed phrases and private keys from trusted peer
> > groups without the need for a central authority.
> 
> 
> Does this mean the trusted partners can recover Alice's "identity" without
> her permission?  If so, how is that mitigated?

Correct. It is mitigated by the user choosing good guardians. And by
allowing the user to remap their guardians at any time as the nature of
the trust of their peers changes over time.

From the whitepaper:
-
Guardians can be remapped at any time by issuing new sets of SSSS shards.
As long as the majority of trusted peers remain honest trust can safely be 
remapped and untrusted peers can be expelled. Honest peers drop their old 
shards and accept new shard sets rendering the old shards useless.
-

> 
> > Personal blockchains
> > are used instead of a classic central blockchain so no initial tokens
> > need to be mined or purchased before being able to participate. The
> > system enables creation of identity at birth, the restoration of
> > identity and personal blockchain in the event of identity/device loss
> > and the autonomous execution of digital legacy/will at death. We propose
> > that this, when used in conjunction with traditional blockchain
> > networks, will allow for widespread adoption of blockchain technology.
> > ...
> 
> 
> In general the system bears close alignment to my design/theory. However
> where it differs is (assuming I am correct in understanding) that you
> postulate each person being the center of their network, and branching out
> to trusted others.  Whereas my work starts from assuming a trusted group to
> which a person joins.  Have you considered groups?
> 

Could you please refer me to your recommended resource, paper or prototype that 
encapsulates your design/theory, I would like to read it first before
commenting on where our models differ?

> What is the business model by which you intend for this to promulgate?

I do not have a current plan for monetisation or business.

As it does not use a central/global chain all the typical blockchain
monetisation models do not work. I cannot do as Satoshi did and mine
early and sit on the coins. I cannot do a pre-mine or an ico.

The core protocol is quite immune to external monetisation.

It is our gift to the world.

> 
> iang
> 
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