Thread by @SomeCrypt0Guy

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Here goes my attempt at being a threadoooor for @cheqd_io (ticker: $cheq). A 🧵

So what is #cheqd and why should it excite you?

It's become a commonly known truth that in the age of Web2 - WE are the product. Our data is held by companies the companies we interact with online, ostensibly for KYC purposes.

It's expensive to hold and keep secure and makes for crappy UX for users.

This data is often misused, sold or simply lost by the companies holding it, creating huge issues for users

Laughing man explains the struggles here:

All this leads to long, expensive, drawn out KYC processes in which the storage and usage of your data is unclear unless you are reading the 100-page data sharing agreements you have to sign every week just to use the internet.

Your data is in 100s of information siloes which have to check with each other each time you prove who you are
- show someone your passport? They have to cross check that it is still valid. This takes time and money for organisations, which encourages the monetization of data.

Moreover, in #DeFi-land, institutions interested in the product are held back due to regulatory #AML concerns - if you are #JPMorgan, how do you know you are not lending to North Korea. Enter #SSI and Decentralised Identity.

This is now starting to become a thing - there are many companies now working on KYC wallets and tokens. Some argue for #SBTs but these are public identifiers, making them not ideal. Others are creating #KYC'd tokens or specific wallets that prove you are who you say you are.

I'm bullish on this whole sector, but #Defi is still a niche - the real money in Digital identity goes far beyond #crypto.

An entire nascent industry has been quietly developing for the past 7 years, known as Self-Sovereign Identity or #SSI, or more recent years as #Web5.

The idea is that users should own their data and only give over that which is necessary, through #VerifiableCredentials

For example - why does a bouncer need to see your entire passport or drivers' licence? They only really need to see the date of birth, and know it's from a trusted source.

With Verifiable Credentials (VCs), your Date of Birth can essentially be 'signed' by a trusted organisation

How does it work?
1. An 'issuer'(e.g. the Passport Office) creates itself a #DecentralisedIdentifier (DID)
2. They issue a VC signed with their DID, essentially saying 'The Passport Office has confirmed this DID is correct
3. The holder can then show this VC to whomever needs it

Where does @cheqd_io fit into all this?

There are many #SSI vendors, many companies looking to do digital identity - but who is doing the verifying, and what is their incentive to do so?

atm data is expensive to hold, but is also lucrative to sell

$cheq is working on payment rails, helping to incentivise the entire industry - why would large trusted institutions move to a new business model?

To make money on it ofc.

They are also very well-networked within the industry and perfectly placed to bring in big players.

The team is highly professional and made up of experts in their field.

@fraser_again and @ankurb are ex-@AccentureUK alumni and have worked in the field of #DLT and #SSI for the past 7 years. Their CFO @JavedKhattak won the CFO of the Year award:

blog.cheqd.io/weekly-round-u…

I could go on and on - but it is an excellent project solving a real problem for a new industry.

I think of it as similar to #Chainlink: #DeFi needed a way to touch the real world, and #SSI will need that too.

I believe $cheq will make that possible

@cheqd_io @T_HODLor