Evolving ZK Identity from Iden3 to Privado & Billions

In this episode, Anna Rose (x.com/annarrose) chats with David Z (x.com/davidsrz?lang=en-GB) and Oleksandr (Sasha) (x.com/OBrezhniev) from Privado ID (privado.id) and Billions Network (billions.network) about the evolution of ZK-based identity systems, tracing their roots back to iden3 in 2018, one of the earliest projects to pioneer ZK for on-chain identity.

They discuss their origin as the iden3, their creation of the influential Circom DSL, the move into Polygon ID, the spin-out as Privado ID with a focus on B2B privacy tools and verifiable credentials, and the recent launch of Billions Network, which aims to build a scalable network of humans and AI agents with mobile-first verification and progressive proofs. They compare their broad, composable approach to projects like Self, Rarimo, and ZK Email, while highlighting future plans for reputation layers, on-chain economies, and AI agent identities to enable accountable interactions in a decentralised world.

Related Links
• Privado ID introduces Billions: The First Global Human & AI Network (privado.id/blog/privado-id-introduces-billions…)
• Billions Launches Mobile App for Digital Identity Verification in the Age of AI (billions.network/blog/billions-launches-app-fo…)
• DEEPTRUST: VERIFIABLE IDENTITIES AND REPUTATION FOR AI AGENTS (cdn.prod.website-files.com/682b2da9ef522c285ba…)
• Iden3 Protocol Specifications (Version 0) (docs.iden3.io/protocol/spec)
• W3C: Verifiable Credentials Overview (w3.org/TR/vc-overview)
• Poseidon: ZK-Friendly Hashing (poseidon-hash.info)
• European Digital Identity (commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/prior…)
• ZK HACK - Introducing Circom 2.0 - Iden3 (youtu.be/6XxVeBFmIFs)
• Iden3: Sparse Merkle Trees (docs.iden3.io/publications/pdfs/Merkle-Tree.pdf)
• Billions App Transforms ID Verification with Privacy-First Liveness Checks (bioenabletech.com/news/billions-app-transforms…)

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here (zkhack.dev/whiteboard/#season3).

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Read transcript (github.com/ZeroKnowledgefm/episode-transcripts…)