Shipping zkPassport, Shipping Self Protocol Into Production
summary
A decentralized identity system that reads biometric passport NFC chips, constructs ZK proofs (Groth16), and posts verifications to Celo; claims Sybil resistance via nullifiers and commitments plus Merkle inclusion of country CA roots and supports OFAC exclusion and age/citizenship checks without revealing country. Production flow uses a mobile app with iCloud/Android secret backup and a TE for heavy proving (SGX), because Groth16 requires a 5GB proving key and ceremony management. Off‑the‑shelf ZK tools break; iterative circuit edits and ceremonies are necessary. Groth16 proving system is chosen for conservatism and works end‑to‑end after launch.
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chapters (32)
- 0:00Introduction to Self Protocol by Marek Olszewski
- 0:44Self Protocol Launch at ETH Denver Recap
- 1:27Solving Web3’s Biggest Problems: Sybil Resistance
- 2:03Preventing Bad Actors in DeFi with On-Chain Identity
- 2:43Proving You’re Human in an AI-Driven World
- 3:48Interactive Game: Guess the Country!
- 4:58Why Existing Identity Solutions Fall Short
- 6:00Centralized vs. Decentralized Identity Tradeoffs
- 6:36Why Passports Are Ideal for Decentralized Identity
- 7:50Biometric Passports & NFC Chip Security
- 8:32How Countries Authenticate Passports On-Chain
- 9:46Using ZK Proofs for Privacy-Preserving Verification
- 10:23Proving Citizenship Without Revealing Country
- 10:58Age Verification & OFAC Compliance with ZKPs
- 12:01Self Protocol’s Two-Step Onboarding Flow
- 12:39Scanning Your Passport & NFC Verification
- 13:14Generating ZK Proofs for On-Chain Registration
- 14:01How Self Protocol’s Merkle Tree Works
- 14:39Nullifiers & Commitments for Anti-Sybil
- 15:56Privacy: Hiding Data from Issuing Countries
- 17:17Demo: Proving Attributes to dApps with ZK
- 18:49Technical Deep Dive: ZKP Circuit Design
- 19:24Merkle Exclusion Proofs for OFAC Checks
- 20:09How Self Protocol Protects User Privacy
- 20:59Mobile App & Secure Secret Backup
- 21:40Offloading ZKP Generation to Trusted Hardware
- 22:59Challenges: Choosing a Proving System (R1CS vs. Groth16)
- 23:38Handling 5GB Proving Keys & Ceremony Complexity
- 24:47Why Off-the-Shelf ZK Tools Failed
- 25:20Can AI Help Write ZK Circuits? (Spoiler: Not Yet)
- 26:02Hackathon Use Cases: DeFi, Smart Wallets, Memecoins
- 26:34Closing Remarks & Self Protocol Documentation
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