Blockpass is an identity application for regulated services and the Internet of Things (IoT). It is positioned as a first step towards the development of a fully self-sovereign identity protocol for the Internet of Everything (IoE).

An identity application is a software product that allows users to establish (verify), store, and manage identities. The identities that an identity application platform can store include those of people, things, and of other objects. The current, initial, release of the Blockpass app provides an identity solution for humans. Future releases will include solutions for devices and objects.

A self-sovereign identity application is a platform where users can establish, store, and manage identities whilst maintaining full control over all data involved. Data collected to establish a self-sovereign identity is not stored on any central server. Instead, the data is passed to the verifier (be it a machine or a human) to view only for so long as is required to create the identity. When the verification is completed, the data is sent back to the user’s own personal device.

Blockpass in its first release creates user-centric identities, integrating a KYC procedure that involves data deletion at each step of verification, and that allows data to only be stored on the user’s personal device. At Any moment, Blockpass identities can be verified against a root hash, derived from a Merkle tree compose of hashes of the user’s data. The root hash of the Merkle tree is stored on a child chain, which can be entirely deleted at the user’s request.

The Internet of Everything is an all-encompassing internet of things, and will be an open network where devices and other objects are connected to one another - and to their human owners - through the gradual embedding of hardware and software. In the IoE, the identity of every ‘thing’ or person is essential. Blockpass was conceived as a multi-purpose identity application for establishing these identities. Blockpass’ initial releases focus on human identity. Later, Know Your Device (KYD) and Know Your Object (KYO) protocols will be developed that verify ‘thing’ identities.