Soulbound Tokens (SBTs), according to Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder and his cult-like followers, are the future. Buterin and his colleagues presented the idea of SBTs in a whitepaper entitled “Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul.” The vision of SBTs was to create a fully decentralized society (DeSoc), which would make use of non-transferable reputation and identity tokens. But for most, DeSoc seems far away, so it is reasonable to assume that SBTs are also possible.
Buterin’s paper prompted many to take Buterin’s cause to make SBTs a reality. One such entity is now able to go beyond the SBT “what-if” and plant the seeds for the Soulbound utility on Ethereum. Masa Finance launched its mainnet on Ethereum and created a standard on-chain Soulbound Token protocol that will power the Web3 economy.
Let’s take a look at it.
What Masa brings the SBT conversation to life
SBTs are theoretically capable of changing the way we see society. It remains to be seen how this will play out in practice. Masa announced on January 17 that its mainnet was launched. It hopes to change the consensus. The company launched its mainnet to allow users to create a variety Soulbound Tokens. This includes Masa Soulbound Identity SBTs and Web3 credit reports. It also offers unique.soul domain names NFTs.
Let’s take a closer look at this. Users will be asked to create a Masa Soulbound Identification Token when they log in to Masa using their MetaMask and other software wallets. This non-transferable NFT is linked to a user’s wallet and represents the uniqueness of a user’s Web3 identity. It is essentially an SBT that can be minted directly into an existing wallet instead of being tied to a Soul Wallet as originally laid out in Buterin’s paper.
The next step is to consider the applications of these SBTs. Masa’s Soulbound Tokens are currently being considered for use in cases such as proof of participation and Know Your Customer (KYC), verification. This was the first time that this type of verification has been done on a mass scale through BAYC, which is part the decentralized credit protocol Masa has been working on since a while. Web3 credit reports are a great way to innovate on traditional finance. Masa’s protocol combines Web2 and Web3 activity with a reported 10,000 datapoints — including FICO score, software wallet transaction histories, crypto exchange balances and many more.
Calanthis Mei, Masa co-founder, spoke out about the utility of Web3 credit reporting and Masa’s SBT efforts. He stated in a press release that Masa “will help billions of users worldwide build their authentic identities on-chain and leverage them to unlock real-world utility.”
Masa finally introduced a name service that is similar to the Ethereum Name Service NFTs. These.soul names NFTs allow Masa users to create unique identifiers similar to domain names that point back to the user’s software wallet. OpenSea will allow.soul names to be traded on marketplaces, unlike Masa’s Soulbound Identity Tokens and Web3 credit reports. Trading away a.soul names will not affect users’ Masa SBTs.
What could Masa SBTs be for the ecosystem?
Masa hopes to empower developers and project mangers with its mainnet launch. This will allow them to use Masa’s infrastructure to quickly mint SBTs for multiple uses. Masa intends to make its SBT capabilities available on other blockchains in 2023. However, for now Masa is rooted in Ethereum.
Masa Soulbound Tokens, while they are still in an early stage of SBT usability and accessibility, they go beyond their competitors and contribute to the discussion about the greater need for accountability on the Web3. Masa is working to bring together real-world data and on-chain data to enable Web3 to gain an easy-to-use, privacy-preserving, way to verify identity.
Masa’s vision is to bring Web3’s next billion users onboard by creating Web3’s de facto identity primitive. Masa’s co-founder Brendan Playford, via press release: “We want identity to be as easy as minting an NFT for a user and as simple as deploying ERC-20 smart contracts for developers.” “With our mainnet launch each sovereign will be able to access the internet.”
Each individual can create his or her own Soulbound Identity. Establishing and building a decentralized identity which unleashes all the potential of the web3 economy.
Visit the Masa Finance official website to learn more about Soulbound Identity SBTs and Web3 credit reports.
Masa Finance brings Soulbound Tokens to Ethereum. This is What You Need to Know appeared first on NFT Now.
