Our Verifiable AI Learnings

Introduction

2024 saw the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, and at cheqd, we wondered about its impact on the world, the market, and ourselves. Would it be as simple as using MidJourney-generated images or would it be more transformative? (Clearly, we believed the latter).

At the start of the year we began exploring ways to combine our already established identity technology (DIDs, Verifiable Credentials, and more), our privacy-preserving payment network, and AI.

We started by pulling together hypotheses around the challenges and opportunities AI could introduce, then tested these in the market with prospective partners and clients. We joined associations such as Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), and published thought leadership pieces to share our insights. All of this helped us validate which of our hypotheses currently held, or would eventually hold, genuine demand.

After testing these solutions and establishing partnerships, we identified an area within AI where we could lead. This area lies within our core business of trust and reputation, which becomes even more critical in a world where content, agents, and other entities, can all be fraudulently generated, creating a pandemic of mistrust.

This led us to coin the term verifiable AI, or vAI for short, which has been adopted by the wider industry.

The next section is the culmination of our explorations in vAI and the wider AI industry, followed by more details on our journey and approach.

Our direction

Whilst we started out with a variety of solutions and hypotheses to perceived problems, as documented in sections below, we have since significantly narrowed down our focus. Based on lessons, interest and a deeper understanding of AI and its intersection with decentralised identity technologie and use-cases, we have identified the most compelling offerings as:

  1. Powering AI agents (with trust and data), e.g. Proof of verified or empowered agent, providing trusted data for these agents.
  2. Content Credentials, i.e. proving authenticity and providing provenance for data as it is originated, edited and published.
  3. Proof of Personhood, e.g. proof of humanity, but without resorting to biometrics or equivalent.

Each of these leverage cheqd and DIDs’ unique capabilities to embed trust and economic incentives into new systems and paradigms through our capabilities of Verifiable Credentials, Trust Registries, and privacy-preserving payments for Credentials, all ultimately powered by $CHEQ. These solutions contribute to the realisation of the original cheqd mission: to restore privacy, data ownership, and control to individuals, enabling transformational customer experiences.

Furthermore, these three areas we are either directly building solutions or are aware of our partners doing so. Given the colossal opportunity in these fields and to accelerate development, we partnered with DIF to launch a hackathon (ending 4 Nov) to fuel the building of solutions in these areas.

In the coming months, we will continue with a refined approach of publishing thought leadership, executing partnerships, and adjusting our product roadmap as necessary to ensure that, as AI is adopted, it remains trustworthy and verifiable.

Initial hypothesis

As the AI mania swept the market, we came together at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 to consider how AI would affect the world, our specific corner of it, identity and trusted data and vice versa, i.e. how trusted data may feed into AI. Based on our understanding of the market, we landed on those below with the associated rationale behind them:

  1. Content credentials – we were already seeing deepfakes and generated content causing confusion and being used in fraud.
  2. Verified datasets – biassed data or data already generated by AI was already skewing models, highlighting a need for a solution. 
  3. Localised clustering, compliance and energy – AI infrastructure operates best at scale and when localised, posing a challenge for decentralised AI networks  to compete with their centralised counterparts.
  4. Proof of personhood – cases of fraud were emerging rapidly, e.g. Arup Hong Kong being duped into sending HK$200m to fraudsters.
  5. Personalised AI agents – Agents had been spoken about for years to help users manage their data in the new SSI / DID paradigm, where they own their data since otherwise it would be overwhelming.

You can learn more about these use cases on our blogs.

Over the course of the year, we have presented these solutions to potential partners and clients, attended conferences and events, and observed the markets for shifting trends. We also contributed to industry association reports such INATBA’s “Report on Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Convergences”.  Our most valuable conversations have been with our partners where we could really dive into where the genuine issues are which we are specifically and uniquely positioned to address. 

Other areas to explore

Verifiable AI applications are vast and we are interested in use-cases under the umbrella or “powering AI agents” that we wish to explore further with the right partners and customers. “Smart” agents have long been discussed in SSI / DID circles based on the recognition that when given the choice to own and control their own data, it will be overwhelming for almost all individuals and therefore an intelligent, empowered and considered mediator (an agent) will be required to minimise the intrusion on the user’s life whilst maximising their experience, e.g. never having to close “cookie settings” on a website because the agent has already set your preferences as soon as you land. In crypto and Web3, agents are used adjacent to “intents”, largely focused around the ability for said agents to execute a series of DeFi transactions within a set context to achieve a desired outcome. “Intent casting” has similarly been used in SSI and DID circles to refer to the idea of sharing with the world a desire for a given product or service, at which point providers or marketplaces bid for your business, ensuring you always receive the best product or service for the lowest price. This new paradigm introduces a range of new challenges and opportunities. Ensuring:
  • Agents are consuming and operating upon trusted data from a verifiable source to make correct decisions.
    • Crucial to this and our core mission at cheqd, is providing economic incentives to secure, use and re-use the right data.
  • The agent or agents are empowered by the individual to represent them and make decisions on their behalf.
  • That others can recognise the agent is empowered and trustworthy when dealing with it.

If you’re interested, please get in touch through the form below.

Next steps

We’re preparing to announce other partners that we’ve been working with but have not yet made public. Expect announcements in the coming months.

In the same vein, we will be continuing our outreach to identify partners who can help us build this new world and support our understanding of the capabilities we need to deliver as a network.

Finally, we will keep publishing content and thought leadership as we develop our offerings with our partners.

If you’re interested, please get in touch through the form below.

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Sovrin mainnet shutdown: what it means for your ecosystem

Sovrin Mainnet Shutdown | cheqd Blog

Introduction

Sovrin has undoubtedly been one of the most influential projects in the decentralized identity world, bringing the fundamental concept of “Self-Sovereign Identity” to the fore. Not only was Sovrin a pioneer for building out the concept SSI itself, but it curated a community of like-minded individuals to come together and begin thinking about the broader issues regarding privacy, data protection and identity.

This community, established in part by Sovrin, has now become a beating heart of significant technological development and societal shift, taking an idea from inception to international implementation, laying the foundation for work such as the European Union’s eIDAS 2.0 regulation.

As such, we are genuinely saddened by the announcement of the potential closure of the Sovrin network next year. We recognise this will leave projects and ecosystems searching for a home. Therefore, we are committed to offering both financial and technical support to any projects considering migration from Sovrin, Hyperledger Indy-based networks, or any other network where concerns around future upgrades, adoption, development, or ongoing support may arise.

What next?

Based upon public announcements, Sovrin mainnet is expected to be shut down by the end of March 2025, possibly earlier, after which it will be unavailable, for both writes and reads. Transparently, we have also reached out directly to the Sovrin team to see if there are any other alternatives.

Owing to the historical significance of Sovrin and the current projects running on top of the network, cheqd is making available a grant scheme (in $CHEQ) to facilitate the migration of traffic across to cheqd by minimising any switching cost.

Within this scheme, we will be able to reference historic did:sov DIDs using the alsoKnownAs property within our did:cheqd method, creating equivalent DIDs potentially based on the same key pairs. 

Moreover, we will be able to support all of Sovrin’s functionality, including AnonCreds schemas, credential definitions and revocation lists through our AnonCreds Object Method, allowing for projects to continue operating as usual with minimal service disruption.

Further, as we have already done with Credo, we will be extending our support into ACA-Py to provide support for both major SDKs used by the Sovrin community. We will be in attendance at IIW and we will speak with the current maintainers of Sovrin to explore what might be the most effective solution for those projects built on the network, as they will need to find an alternative network to maintain business continuity.

A Grant Scheme

We will be providing a grant in our native token, $CHEQ, to fund transactions which require migration. This grant is primarily intended for those building on Sovrin, but we would also be happy to accommodate those looking to migrate from other networks or methods, such as did:web, did:ion or other networks to take advantage of the cutting edge functionality we provide (see following section) whilst it is open.

If you are interested in speaking to our team about a potential migration from Sovrin or another network, please fill out the form below, which will help our team curate the best migration path for your business.

Benefits of cheqd

Like we mentioned in our recent blog on Expanding cheqd into ACA-Py, cheqd provides a few improvements on Sovrin / Hyperledger Indy networks in terms of:

  1. Interoperability: Through cheqd support, projects historically on Sovrin can expand more easily to other credential formats such as VC JWTs, SD-JWTs or JSON-LD – as well as AnonCreds, with each being able to resolve to the same foundational DID method. This will allow projects to expand to meet EU ARF requirements as they develop further.

  2. Speed: cheqd is able to crunch over 5,000 transactions per second, improving on Indy/Sovrin’s ~4 transactions per second.

  3. Decentralisation: cheqd is able to support over 100 node operators (currently at 64), building on Indy/Sovrin’s maximum of 25.

  4. Trust Registries: cheqd supports ledger based trust registries through a “Verifiable Accreditation” model (see documentation here), allowing tiered hierarchies of trust to be built into its supported ecosystems.

  5. Monetisation models: cheqd supports “payment gated” DID-Linked Resources, which facilitate “Verifier pays Issuer” commercial models. This optional feature affords ACA-Py communities and builders a new way to monetise their product offerings, with payments available in MiCA regulated eMoney including for USD and EURO.

  6. Ecosystem: cheqd’s infrastructure is built on the Cosmos SDK, which is an actively maintained ecosystem with a healthy developer community and ~50 commits to main per week. cheqd itself then deploys multiple releases per year, always with significant feature releases, e.g. fee abstraction where users no longer need to hold the underlying $CHEQ token.

We’ve been building since 2021 and for a more in depth analysis of how cheqd compares against Hyperledger Indy and Sovrin, please see the comparison table in our documentation here. 

A tribute

It is important to touch on how Sovrin helped us get where we are today. Crucially, it is because of Sovrin that many of the cheqd team stepped into the world of SSI for the first time, with Ankur, Fraser and Alex all separately being in attendance of the Sovrin Meetup in May 2019, two years before the launch of cheqd.

cheqd - Blog - Sovrin Meetup Ticket
Our Sovrin Meetup Ticket from 2019, (scan for a surprise)

Moreover, Alex proceeded to write his masters’ thesis on the Sovrin model of SSI – which would, in turn, alter the entire course of his career trajectory into the newly established world of Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identifiers and Governance.

cheqd - Blog - Sovrin Shutdown - Alex' Master Thesis
A segment from Alex’s master’s thesis, framing his paper around the Sovrin model

In short, as a team, we owe a lot to the work of the Sovrin community, trustees and fundamental concepts and ideas that have shaped the way the world is moving forward with regards to trust, identity and self-sovereignty. And owing to this, we would like to extend our help to the community that helped us get to where we are today.

If you want to know more, please fill the form above or get in touch with our team.

Expanding cheqd into ACA-Py

Following cheqd’s successful integration into Credo (formerly Aries Framework JavaScript) in October 2022, we are excited to announce that we will be further expanding cheqd into the world of ACA-Py.

Introduction

Aries Cloud Agent Python, or ACA-Py for short, has been one of the most long-standing SDKs for decentralised identity since its inception. However, to date, it has been tightly coupled with Hyperledger Indy, making it challenging for ecosystems to grow beyond the scope of Indy-based networks.

In recent months, some of our partners have requested we help support cheqd in ACA-Py, largely driven by concerns about its tight coupling with Indy, a similar challenge that Credo users faced prior to its expansion. For these reasons we have decided to collaborate with the ACA-Py community and maintainers to extend its support for cheqd, bringing support for did:cheqd based AnonCreds and associated AnonCreds objects (as well as the capacity to support more credential types) to the ACA-Py agent and technical stack.

We also recognise that the latest announcement from Sovrin, potentially ending its service in 2025, may adversely affect ACA-Py users. As a result, in the coming days we will share our thoughts on how cheqd may be able to help the broader Sovrin community in a subsequent blog.

What cheqd can bring to the ACA-Py project

cheqd supports the W3C DID-Linked Resources (DLRs) specification, enabling it to support bespoke files on-ledger in a DID resolvable format. Through this innovation, cheqd is able to support custom Indy transaction types, such as AnonCreds Schemas, Credential Definitions and Revocation Status Lists as DLRs (see cheqd’s AnonCreds Object Method here). Additionally, cheqd will be able to bring new features to ACA-Py including DID-based trust registries and Credential Payments.

Accordingly, this will create a new DID Method and infrastructure option for ACA-Py communities and ecosystems, including benefits in terms of:

  1. Interoperability: Through cheqd support, ACA-Py can expand more easily to other credential formats such as VC JWTs, SD-JWTs or JSON-LD, with each being able to resolve to the same foundational DID method. This will allow ACA-Py to expand to meet EU ARF requirements as they develop further, in a similar evolution to Credo.
  2. Trust Registries: cheqd supports ledger based trust registries through a “Verifiable Accreditation” model (see documentation here), allowing tiered hierarchies of trust to be built into its supported ecosystems.
  3. Speed: cheqd is able to crunch over 5,000 transactions per second, improving on Indy’s ~4 transactions per second.
  4. Decentralisation: cheqd is able to support over 100 node operators (currently at 64), building on Indy’s maximum of 25.
  5. Monetisation models: cheqd supports “payment gated” DID-Linked Resources, which facilitate “Verifier pays Issuer” commercial models. This optional feature affords ACA-Py communities and builders a new way to monetise their product offerings, with payments available in MiCA regulated eMoney including for USD and EURO.
  6. Ecosystem: cheqd’s infrastructure is built on the Cosmos SDK, which is an actively maintained ecosystem with a healthy developer community and ~50 commits to main per week. cheqd itself then deploys multiple releases per year, always with significant feature releases, e.g. fee abstraction where users no longer need to hold the underlying $CHEQ token.

Through these improvements, ACA-Py can provide its existing consumers with greater scalability, performance and a far wider set of features which can be used for production environments, in conjunction with Hyperledger Indy or as a clear migration pathway off Indy if required. It is also for a similar set of reasons that Dock has decided to use cheqd’s underlying network rather than its own, demonstrating a positive consolidation and maturity of the blockchain based identity network market.

Cross-Community Support

ACA-Py and cheqd already share a close connection in terms of the communities building on both, with companies like DIDx, AyanWorks and Anonyome running Validators on cheqd mainnet, as well as working actively on ACA-Py-based projects.

As such, there is already a significant knowledge overlap between both cheqd’s network and the ACA-Py libraries. Moreover, ACA-Py would not be the first Aries-based SDK to support cheqd, with Animo Solutions leading an exceptional effort to broaden the scope of what was formerly Aries Framework JavaScript into Credo. This effort will help provide a blueprint for the implementers in terms of patterns such as the application of AnonCreds on cheqd and the mapping across of Indy-based logic to cheqd, hopefully reducing the time to completion.

The ACA-Py extension into did:cheqd will also dovetail well with the ongoing work from Danube Tech to build DID-Linked Resources into the Universal Resolver and Universal Registrar, which may also simplify the implementation, and accommodate support for a wider array of DID methods into ACA-Py through the integration of universal drivers.

Funding and next steps

With ACA-Py being brought under the umbrella of the Open Wallet Foundation (OWF), we will first begin to engage in efforts with the OWF community to secure support in helping build cheqd support into ACA-Py.

Next, we intend to work with the likes of DIDx, AyanWorks and any other welcome contributors to create an overall architectural plan, breakdown of milestones and a roadmap for the works.

As the cheqd Foundation, we will also look to provide appropriate financial and technical support to:

  1. Contributors to the cheqd integration effort into ACA-Py
  2. Hyperleger Indy Validators that would want to also explore running infrastructure on cheqd
  3. ACA-Py projects looking to expand to other networks and DID methods.

Please reach out to our team here, if you are interested in getting involved or run an ongoing project with ACA-Py with an eye on expanding beyond Hyperledger Indy.

cheqd and Dock Alliance: Meet the Dock Team

Say Hi to Dock

As announced earlier, cheqd and Dock tokens and blockchains are merging to form a Decentralised ID alliance. In this blog, we shine a spotlight on the key figures behind Dock’s success. The Dock team’s deep expertise in blockchain technology, business strategy, and scaling data-driven ecosystems brings a powerful synergy to this alliance.

Nick Lambert (Co-founder and CEO)

Nick has been working in the blockchain industry since 2011 and was the COO of one of the earliest companies working in the Blockchain space, MaidSafe. During that time, he managed the fastest crowdfund in history (at the time).

Nick has been the CEO of Dock Labs since 2020 and is passionate about decentralised technology and its ability to put individuals in control of their own data. He has a wealth of expertise in business strategy, marketing, cryptocurrencies and distributed networks.

Over the past decade, Nick has focused on technologies that empower individuals to control their own data, starting with decentralised data storage and now, at Dock, with identity data. Dock enables the issuance and verification of credentials such as government-backed IDs, degrees, and licences. Nick’s collaboration with cheqd excites him as it combines two strong teams, each excelling in different areas of digital identity. Dock focusing on Web2 applications and cheqd on Web3.

Together, we aim to accelerate the adoption and monetisation of verifiable credentials, bringing complementary strengths to the partnership. Dock’s platform allows companies to issue, verify, and monetise credentials, solving a key industry problem by providing incentives for companies to participate. Nick sees this alliance as an exciting step towards the future of digital identity management.

Follow Nick on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

Dock COO - Elina Cadouri

Elina Cadouri (Co-founder and COO)

Elina is a seasoned entrepreneur with a strong focus on building and scaling data driven marketplaces and ecosystems. She has a proven track record of leading startups and helped found one of the world’s fastest growing remote work platforms, Remote.com. Elina is passionate about data integrity and is committed to bringing innovative Web3 solutions to traditional organisations, bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and established industries.

Nearly seven years ago, Elina co-founded Dock, driven by the desire to solve challenges related to verified data and user ownership in traditional Web2 platforms. She saw how these platforms trapped users in “walled gardens,” preventing them from leveraging their profile data across different platforms. Blockchain excited her as a solution to these issues, offering privacy preserving, decentralised ways to empower individuals. Elina is enthusiastic about Dock’s alliance with cheqd, believing it will accelerate the adoption of verifiable credentials and decentralised identity, creating a larger, interoperable network that benefits individuals. Dock’s platform allows organisations to create ecosystems where users can share data securely and privately with consent.

Some of Dock’s clients include companies like Aliva and Classter, which work with top banks and financial institutions. Elina and her team focus on helping traditional organisations understand the value of decentralised ID, guiding them through adoption and integration, with the aim of shaping the future of digital identity.

Follow Elina on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn