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This document introduces the foundational concepts of the Idena blockchain and provides a formal specification of iDNA, its native coin

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What is Idena​

Idena is an open source project started in October 2018.

The Idena blockchain is driven by Proof-of-Person consensus with every node linked to a cryptoidentity, one person with equal voting power. It suggests a novel way to formalize people on the Internet: Idena proves the humanness and uniqueness of its participants without collecting personally identifiable information by running a Turing test at the same time globally.

Idena team​

We are an anonymous group of like-minded engineers and computer scientists who stand for the human right to share information and exchange value freely and privately.

We believe that there is a way to redesign the way software systems in general and blockchains in particular work to achieve greater decentralization and scalability.

Contacts: info@idena.io

The problem of unique identity​

Anonymous and Sybil-resistant identity is a missing part for Web 3.0 (Internet applications, blockchains, dapps, and self-sovereign identity space).

The design requirements of this decentralized anonymous identity to a large extent follow the properties introduced by Bitcoin:

  • Global and verifiable online
  • Permissionless and inclusive
  • Decentralized, without reliance on trusted third parties
  • Sybil-resitant
  • Anonymous and privacy-preserving
  • Censorship-resistant and plausibly deniable

Existing state-of-the-art identity mechanisms fail to achieve this:

  • OpenID identity solutions such as those of Facebook and Google, based on a social information, rely on a centralized service, are not available in many countries, can be purchased on the market, and are easily spoofed.
  • Government ID relies on trusted know-your-customer (KYC) verifiers, requires the sharing of personally identifying information (PII) with a centralized service, is not inclusive, and leads to an Orwellian world.
  • Biometrics relies on specific sensors and algorithms, can be faked, and cannot have plausible deniability.
  • Video identification can be faked with AI algorithms which can produce a high quality deepfakes unidentifiable as deepfakes.
  • Self-sovereign identities (SSI) rely on trusted verifiers based on Social ID and Government ID attestation.
  • Web of Trust (WoT) approaches do not allow to build the consensus about the registry of valid identities across all nodes.