By James Hanley

Compiled by: TechFlow

Solana ID has attracted a lot of attention this month.

While some teams are focused on gaming and memecoins, @solanaidentity is solving a very different problem: the current advertising model for Web2.

On this whiteboard, I will explain:

  • Web2 Advertising Model

  • Challenges facing crypto founders

  • How Solana ID Benefits Builders and Users

Understanding the Current Web2 Advertising Model

We use platforms like Facebook, Google, and TikTok every day.

When we use these platforms, they collect a ton of data about us and sell it to advertisers.

This means that these platforms — not us — benefit from monetizing our data.

We are a product for the profit of others.

But what if we took control of our own data?

Crypto teams face difficulty acquiring real users

The crypto industry has created a lot of cool products. But Confucius once said:

“If a founder builds a cool product in crypto, but no one uses it, does that count as a GMI?”

Imagine a founder named Jay who has a cool crypto project called CCP.

If Jay is lucky enough to find some organic users, how does he determine which users are most important to his project and community?

Jay can view a user’s wallet address, but this might only be one of 1,000 Sybil wallets.

Does he have 1,000 real, unique users, or is it just one user faking 1,000 wallets and spamming Discord?

Or, perhaps the user behind a Solana wallet is actually a large whale on Ethereum (R.I.P.) preparing to move funds to Solana soon.

This is indeed a complex and tricky question, especially if Jay considers airdropping future tokens.

Solana ID solves both problems at once

A) Give users the keys to their data

B) Help teams better identify high-value users in order to attract and retain them

How does Solana ID do this?

SOLID Vault.

The SOLID Vault allows Sam, a “SOLID enthusiast”, to store proof of ownership of the many decentralized but highly valuable accounts he holds.

Imagine that Sam stores the following proof of ownership in his SOLID vault:

  • Crypto wallets: Solana, Ethereum

  • His large Coinbase account

  • He has 1,000 followers on Twitter

  • An active Discord profile where he makes a lot of high-value contributions in Discords like Jupiter or Sanctum.

For Jay, the founder of CCP, this is very, very valuable information.

For Sam, he can now directly benefit from having control over his own data. After all, only Sam can prove that he is the user behind the vault.

Connect the dots

Now that Solana ID has given Sam the ability to own his own data (provably on-chain), his vault can get a score based on the proofs in it.

Seeing the vault’s rating, Jay was able to offer Sam a special discount and even reward him with points in CCP’s upcoming airdrop points program.

All of this was achieved without Sam ever revealing the sensitive information stored in the SOLID vault.

Sam is happy because he benefits from owning his own data, and Jay is happy to pay generous benefits and discounts to entice Sam to try his new product.

Unlocking the Solana ID Platform

While I’ve only scratched the surface of the technology, I think the question of identity makes Solana ID particularly interesting in a highly adversarial environment like crypto (Sybils, bots), and in the context of obese platforms that own and sell user data.

At a high level, Solana ID can be thought of as a new platform for:

  • Users use data to their own advantage;

  • Project teams can better position and motivate potential users;

  • Project teams better understand and reward their current users, such as through targeted airdrops based on behavior (similar to Sanctum’s profiles).

While I anticipate some twists and turns in solving this problem, I will elaborate on the SOLID vault, underlying technologies, and potential roadblocks in subsequent whiteboards.