Identity Attestation

The Aqua Protocol supports a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) pattern where individuals and organizations can issue, attest, and verify identity claims without relying on centralized identity providers. Using cryptographic proofs and decentralized trust chains, Aqua lets users hold their own data while enabling third parties to verify the specific attributes that are disclosed.

The flows on this page are built from custom templates: the published core release ships no identity, claim, or attestation templates (the full SDK's identity template family is scheduled for a later publication). See Templates for authoring your own.

Core capabilities

Self-sovereign identity (SSI)

Users have full control over their identities. Identity claims are self-issued first, proving account ownership, and then enriched by attestations from trusted authorities. This keeps the user at the center of their identity graph.

Verifiable attestations

Trusted third parties — universities, licensing boards, employers — can sign attestations that validate a user's specific claims (e.g., "Over 18", "Accredited Investor", "University Graduate"). These attestations are cryptographically linked to the user's identity tree and signed with the attester's key.

Trust chains

Trust is transitive and transparent. A verifier doesn't just trust a claim; they verify the entire chain of authority. For example, a diploma is trusted because it's signed by a University, which is accredited by an Education Ministry, which is recognized by the Government. Trust-chain evaluation is application-level policy: the protocol verifies signatures, and whom to trust is the consuming application's decision.

Selective disclosure and privacy

Users can share specific attestations (e.g., "I am over 21") without revealing their entire identity or unrelated personal data. Tree-method revisions support field-level redaction, so a verifier sees only the disclosed fields — see Selective Disclosure.

Use cases by industry

Education and academia

Digital Diplomas & Transcripts

• Universities issue tamper-evident degree certificates.
• Students can instantly prove graduation to employers.
• Makes credential fraud and "diploma mills" detectable.
• Enables portable academic records across institutions.

Professional Certifications

• Licensing boards attest to professional status (e.g., Medical License, Bar Association).
• Real-time verification of valid/active status.
• Automated expiry and renewal tracking.

Government and legal

Digital ID & Passports

• Governments issue digital complements to physical IDs.
• Citizens use digital wallets to prove citizenship or residency.
• Streamlined visa and border entry processes.

Notary Services

• Notaries attest to the identity of a signer on a document.
• Creates a cryptographic link between the person, the document, and the notary.
• Replaces physical stamps with digital signatures.

Financial services

KYC/AML Compliance

• Banks perform "Know Your Customer" checks once and issue a reusable attestation.
• Users share this attestation with other services to onboard instantly without re-submitting documents.
• Reduces compliance costs and friction.

Accredited Investor Status

• Financial institutions attest that a user meets investment criteria.
• Allows participation in regulated private equity or tokens.

Digital services and Web3

Sybil Resistance

• Verify that an account belongs to a unique human without collecting personal data.
• "Proof of Humanity" or "Social Login" attestations.
• Reduces bot spam and manipulation in DAOs and communities.

Reputation & Social Proof

• Platforms attest to a user's reputation score or history.
• Enables portable reputation across different marketplaces and communities.
• The same attestation pattern gives AI agents verifiable, signed provenance for their actions — see Audit Trails for AI Agents.

Key benefits

User privacy and control

Users hold their own claims and attestations and decide what to share, redacting sensitive fields with selective disclosure. No centralized "honey pot" of user data to hack.

Fraud reduction

Cryptographic signatures make forged attestations computationally infeasible.

Interoperability

Built on standard cryptographic primitives, allowing identity claims to be used across different platforms, wallets, and services that support the Aqua Protocol.

Reduced friction

"Verify once, use everywhere." Users don't need to repeatedly upload passport photos or utility bills. One verified attestation can be reused across multiple services.

How it works

1. Claim creation (self-issuance)

The user creates a Self-Issued Identity Claim.

• Example: "I claim my name is Alice."
• This claim is signed by Alice's private key, establishing ownership of the claim.
• It serves as the "subject" for future attestations.

2. Attestation

A trusted party (e.g., a university) verifies the claim out of band (by checking real documents) and then issues an Attestation.

• The attester signs a statement referencing Alice's self-issued claim hash.
• "I, University X, attest that the claim [Hash] by Alice is true."
• This attestation is recorded in the attester's Aqua tree.

3. Verification and trust chains

A relying party (e.g., an Employer) verifies the diploma.

• They check Alice's claim.
• They verify the University's signature on the attestation.
• They verify the University's authority (e.g., by checking a "Ministry of Education" attestation on the University's identity).
• If the chain of trust is valid, the diploma is accepted.

Real-world scenario: the trust chain

Consider verifying a University Degree:

1. The Graduate (Alice): Creates a self-issued claim for her degree.
2. The Professor: Signs an attestation for Alice's grade/completion.
3. The Department Head: Attests to the Professor's employment.
4. The University: Attests to the Department Head's role.
5. The Ministry of Education: Attests to the University's accreditation.

When an employer verifies Alice's degree, they trace this path back to a root of trust they recognize (e.g., the Ministry of Education), establishing the credential's provenance without needing to call the university.

See also

• Document Verification — verify the integrity of files and contracts
• Supply Chain Tracking — trace provenance of physical goods
• Selective Disclosure — field-level redaction for privacy-preserving proofs
• Templates — authoring the custom templates these flows rely on
• aqua-rs-sdk-core — tools for issuing and verifying claims