Open Proofs — An Open Source Badge Standard
Today we are announcing Open Proofs, a completely free open-source library of smart contracts available for anyone to create their own badges.
Coming soon is ‘Proofs’, a premium DIY badge creation tool built on top of Open Proofs, for communities to easily design and mint their own non-fungible, non-transferable badges and distribute them to within their own communities and applications for various achievements.
Fungible tokens are economic incentives that can be used to power a cryptonetwork. When users receive these fungible tokens, they tend to seek liquidity and economic profit rather than signal their contributions. Rather than being a cryptonetwork. Open Proofs is a common resource standard — smart contract — that is completely free and open source.
Non-fungible tokens in the form are badges are used to signal unique contributions. They are unique because they have a unique `tokenID` and metadata associated with it. Badges are a way to signal proof done by a private key in a verifiable, trustless way to third-parties.
Why Badges?
Badges are a step towards verifiable & scarce on-chain achievements. Badges will indicate what a user has done rather than what the user currently owns. Separating badges from tokens is an important step in the process. Communities might want to use proof for an in-application achievement system, reward open-source developer contributions, or even provide access keys to certain digital content.
Why Proofs?
Currently, Dapps are not being adopted outside of the crypto community. We believe that current UI/UX flows are too complex for the average user. Dapps usually force you to install Metamask, buy ETH and worry about your private keys. We believe this flow — along with scalability — is preventing mass adoption.
The cold and harsh truth is that users don’t care about decentralization. Users want a simple and recognizable login-functionality with the ability to port over existing data, similar to Facebook Login. Right now, we can’t move data or items outside of traditional web applications. Tokens and NFTs that are registered on a public blockchain are both verifiable and owned by the user. They are not tied to any specific platform. Blockchain enables an individual to prove that they contributed to a specific network at any point in time, which allows them to be rewarded with future tokens or digital goods.
Here are some use cases we foresee by creating an identity layer with non-transferable badges:
- Airdrop targeting- Distribution for tokens is currently flawed. Speculators are not users. We can better target users by proving they’ve contributed to a network or acquired a token at some point in time.
- Digital Access — Users will be able to access certain dApps as long as they’ve obtained a specific badge on a different platform. Users can mint new digital assets only if they’ve obtained a specific badge. Users can then loan their digital goods to users with badges to complete certain tasks.
- Patronage — Donating to a specific address or influencer would reward you with a badge indicating your support for the particular influencer.
- Achievements — If you’re a bit of a showoff, now you can become an achievement hunter with proof badges.
The Tech
Inspired by projects like MetaTx and Universal Logins, Open Proofs is designed so any project can craft digitally scarce badges without the need to install MetaMask, buy ETH, and deploy smart contracts. Creators will just need to pay enough to cover gas costs. Open Proofs will use meta-txs so users retain custody of the badge up the entire time throughout the minting process.
If you’re interested in learning more about Open Proofs, you can check out our GitHub repo or sign up for early access here.
Proofs is built by @ramonrecuero (ramonrecuero.com), Brian Flynn (brianflynn.me) & Adam Breckler (Prism.IO)
