Claims & Endorsements

Find out how to build trust around identities and assets.

Summary

• Claims are metadata that describe identities, assets, and accounts

• Endorsements from credible third-parties reinforce the validity of claims

Overview

Claim: any piece of metadata that asserts some fact related to:

• Identities

• Asset types

• Unique assets

• An account holding quantitative assets

→ Example(s): iov42 identity Joe Bloggs claims that he:

• was born on the first of January, 2000;

• is a Swiss citizen;

• lives in Zürich; and

• works at iov42.

These claims are stored as a hash of the claim against his iov42 identity.

On their own, claims are not sufficient to build trust—an iov42 identity can make a claim about pretty much anything. A claim’s validity is proven through third-party endorsement.

Endorsement: a third-party, cryptographic signature that verifies the accuracy and authenticity of a claim .

The claim-endorsing process:

1. Claim is made by iov42 identity

2. Claim is signed by endorsing party

3. Signed claim is submitted to the iov42 network

4. Signed claim is validated by node operators during consensus

5. Claim and its related endorsement are added to the relevant identity, asset, or account