We have been doing research on simplifying cryptocurrency management with decentralized control.

Crypto Identity is a unique identifier similar to a user name for cryptocurrency users to be used anywhere in the cryptocurrency space. We propose a solution to the complexity of managing multiple forms of cryptocurrencies while defining an open protocol that can be implemented and adopted freely and openly anywhere, backed by decentralized control.

The problem with wallet addresses

A cryptocurrency wallet address is a long, one-off string of characters — easy to mistype, hard to verify at a glance, and different for every chain you hold. Reusing the same address across transactions also makes it easier to link activity back to a single owner, which works against the privacy most users assume they have. A Crypto Identity replaces that with a single, human-readable handle a user can share once and reuse anywhere, instead of a different unverifiable string per exchange or app.

How it works

Each Crypto Identity is public-facing, but the private key controlling it is known only to its owner. When someone creates a Crypto Identity, they also choose their own sharable key, which is used to encrypt and decrypt the public identity data as it's stored on the blockchain — so the identity can be published and looked up in a fully decentralized way without exposing more than its owner intends.

Crypto Identity Architecture

Published research

This concept was first proposed in Crypto Identities: Simple and Anonymous Cryptocurrency Management (2020), then developed further and published as Energy Efficient Simple and Anonymous Cryptocurrency Management with Crypto Identities in the Journal of Green Engineering, Vol. 11(1), pp. 795–806 (2021), co-authored with H.D. Weerasinghe and N.G.J. Dias.