BrightID Project Update
Currently, the team is working on improving Bitu verification. An app redesign is in the works. SongaDAO implements a great new use case of BrightID, and team members are exploring the possibilities of Soulbound NFTs.
Bitu Verification
Bitu verification is a step up from the Meets verification. Apps currently use the Meets verification to ensure that you are a unique individual. You can get verified by meeting up with other BrightID users. Many people use connection parties to get verified, but you are meeting most people there for the first time. Because of this, there are many “just met” connections in the network.
It’s better to have stronger connections between people who already know one another to strengthen the ability of the social graph to determine if you are unique. And that is where Bitu comes in. The new Bitu verification makes use of the “already known” connections that you have. Your location in the social graph depends on the number and quality of those “already known” connections. The better your connections, the more you move towards the center of the social graph, identifying you as a unique person. This encourages people to make strong “already known” connections. This way, Sybil accounts can not make a significant number of connections with honest users and can only make connections with each other. This is why they get pushed away from the main regions to the surrounding districts.
Apps can set the Bitu score they want from users to be as high or low as they want. The higher the score they ask for, the more security they will get. It will be available for apps to use soon. We expect to see the first app using Bitu verification in the next few months. For more information on Bitu, see the medium article by Yazdani and the documentation on Gitbook.
Redesign App Screens
Dama is working on a great new design for the homepage with an improved overview. It will show your verifications earned, connections, achievements, and applications linked on one screen.
Apart from the home screen, the applications info screen will also get some love. There will be a nice overview of all the apps indicating if you are verified for that app or not. Every app will get its own info card containing a detailed description.
Talking about the design, Dama has also created some great NFBeez for the NFBeez project. This is a collection of unique animated bees from community artists at 1Hive, Agave, BrightID, GUStakes, TEC, Shapeshift, xDai punks, and Gitcoin. You can still mint one of these NFBeez for yourself if you want one. Head over to the NFBeez site.
Use Case: SongaDAO
Jonathan Mann has been making a new song a day since January 1st, 2009. He turns each song into an NFT that is auctioned off. You can bid on the daily new song on his site.
Recently Jonathan has been taking this one step further with an innovative business model. He has created a DAO for Song a Day, appropriately called SongaDAO. The DAO owns the rights to all the songs, and everyone owning one of his songs can become a member. The idea is that the DAO, with all its supporters, will help Song a Day thrive even more.
An important aspect of the DAO is that it uses a one-person-one-vote concept. Whether you own one song or many, you will only have one vote. And that is where BrightID comes in. You must own a Song a Day NFT and be a BrightID verified user in order to vote on topics in the SongaDAO. Which is exactly what BrightID is meant for. It’s great to see it being used on such an inspiring project.
Exploring Soulbound NFTs
The team has built a prototype of Soulbound NFTs inspired by this article from Vitalik Buterin. The idea behind Soulbound NFTs is that they can not be transferred to another person. Another use case is retrieving Soulbound NFTs from wallets that you have lost access to. If you are interested in this, please follow the discussion on the BrightID forum.