https://ssimeetup.org/kiva-protocol-building-credit-bureau-future-using-ssi-alan-krassowski-webinar-37/ Alan Krassowski, VP of Technology & Blockchain at Kiva, will explain how the Kiva Protocol team is leveraging Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and related technologies to develop identity and credit solutions for traditionally underserved populations, starting with an implementation in concert with Sierra Leone’s government and banking systems, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Alan will provide an overview of the project and its goals, including some of the challenges related to infrastructure, such as limited electricity, Internet bandwidth and penetration of smartphone devices — and how Kiva is overcoming those challenges. Alan will also explain how Kiva is leveraging various Hyperledger codebases related to verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers, and distributed ledgers, as well as how Kiva is contributing back to the open-source community. The audience will gain a better understanding of a real-world application of SSI technologies that will provide powerful benefits to citizens in the developing world. How is Kiva giving unbanked people digital identity and secure control over their own credit information? How can a systems-level change in identity and credit unlock capital and opportunity for millions of people? Alan has been a professional software engineer, architect, and leader for over thirty years. After earning his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, he worked as a software developer in a wide variety of domains including fintech, insurance, desktop publishing, point-of-sale, accounting, budgeting, video streaming, and narrative theory. He has also held technical leadership roles at various companies in the cybersecurity space, including Chief Architect at Cylance, Inc., Chief Architect & Senior Director at McAfee / Intel Security, and Architect in the Office of the CTO at Symantec. Prior to his role at Kiva, he was a Decentralization Architect at ConsenSys and CTO of ConsenSys Capital where he worked with Ethereum-based blockchain solutions. He has been a technical editor/reviewer on four software security books and one on Bitcoin, and is excited about how advances in cryptography have led to new solutions for people to communicate, collaborate and trade while minimizing the need to trust in centralized institutions.

1. KIVA PROTOCOL
BUILDING THE CREDIT BUREAU OF
THE FUTURE USING SSI
TECHNOLOGIES
KIVA.ORG
This presentation is released under a Creative Commons license. (CC BY-SA 4.0). SSIMeetup.org
Alan Krassowski
VP of Technology &
Blockchain at Kiva

2. 1. Empower global SSI communities
2. Open to everyone interested in SSI
3. All content is shared with CC BY SA
SSIMeetup.org
Alex Preukschat @SSIMeetup @AlexPreukschat
Coordinating Node SSIMeetup.org
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
SSIMeetup objectives

3. Alan Krassowski
VP of Technology &
Blockchain
Alan leads a technology team at
Kiva to help grow opportunity
and scale financial inclusion
around the world.
KIVA.ORG
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4. Kiva's Mission
Expanding financial
access to help
underserved communities
thrive.
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5. Borrowers Total lent
through Kiva
Lenders
Average Loan Size
Seconds between
loans
Countries
3.3M $1.35B
1.8M
7
85
96.8%$400 Repayment
rate
Kiva’s Reach
in
Countries192in
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6. The Kiva Protocol project
Funding the next billion people
Affordability AccountabilityAccessibility
Smaller loans are costly to
facilitate
Rural markets are drastically
underserved
Credit histories allow for
cheaper credit
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7. The
Challenges
IDENTITYFINANCIAL INTEGRITY
Legal regulations in rural &
poor areas are often minimal.
Financial transactions are ripe
for exploitation
1.1B 500M 310M
people have
no official way
to prove their
identity
in
Sub-Saharan
Africa
in
South Asia
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8. First Implementation:
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Credit
Program
Until recently, Sierra Leone has
had a single credit bureau
serving 2,000 people. In
collaboration with the Sierra
Leone Government and UNDP,
Kiva intends to provide credit for
the whole of Sierra Leone.
Unlocking credit
access to all SL
Citizens
Gov't
Cooperation
Identity
Information
Banking
Partnerships
Bank
Cooperation
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9. What
Is
Identity?
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10. What is Identity?
“Do you know who
you really are?
Are you sure it’s
really you?”
From the song “I Sat by the Ocean”
by Queens of the Stone Age, 2013
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11. 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
College
Professional Software Developer
Software Architect
Amateur Hacker
Chief Architect
CTO
VP Tech
Antimalware / Cybersecurity
Blockchain
Identity (specific focus)
Fintech

12. ERC 1056
ERC 725
ERC 780
did:uport
Verifiable Claims
Credentials
did:sov
DIDs
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13. This presentation is released under a Creative Commons license. (CC BY-SA 4.0). SSIMeetup.org

14. Recommended
Resource:
Available as
Kindle eBook
Heather Vescent & Kaliya Young
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15. Pre-Blockchain - Always A Central Party
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16. SSO - Single Sign-on
(to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
• Namespaces of IDs controlled by
corporations, rented to users
• E.g. Domain-names, ICANN is
landlord
• OAuth / OpenID Connect
• Crawling social graphs for profit
• Surveillance capitalism
• Cambridge Analytica
Recent phases of Evolution in Digital Identity
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17. SSO - Single Sign-on
(to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
• Namespaces of IDs controlled by
corporations, rented to users
• E.g. Domain-names, ICANN is
landlord
• OAuth / OpenID Connect
• Crawling social graphs for profit
• Surveillance capitalism
• Cambridge Analytica
Recent phases of Evolution in Digital Identity
Dependent
Some consequences of choosing
convenience over privacy...
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18. Chart from “A Comprehensive Guide to SSI”
By Vescent, H & Young, K., 2018
Kim Cameron’s
Laws of Identity
(left, 2005)
Christopher Allen’s
Principles of
Self-Sovereign
Identity
(right, 2016)
Mapping by
John Phillips

19. https://www.moxytongue.com/2016/02/self-sovereign-identity.html
Origin
of the term
“Self-Sovereign
Identity”
Devon
Loffreto
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20. SSO - Single Sign-on
(to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
SSI - Self-Sovereign Identity
For capable adults in stable societies
• Namespaces of IDs controlled by
corporations, rented to users
• E.g. Domain-names, ICANN is
landlord
• OAuth / OpenID Connect
• Crawling social graphs for profit
• Surveillance capitalism
• Cambridge Analytica
• Aadhaar
• Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)
• DIDAuth
• Verified Claims
• Distributed Key Management
(DKMS)
• Evernym/Sovrin, uPort, Veres One,
etc. - competing blockchains
• Hyperledger Indy
• DIF standards
• Non-correlability
• Consent receipts
• Wallets, Agents, Hubs
Recent phases of Evolution in Digital Identity
Dependent Independent
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21. Building Blocks
for
Self-Sovereign
Identity
Diagram from “A Comprehensive Guide to SSI”
By Vescent, H & Young, K., 2018

22. Building Blocks
for
Self-Sovereign
Identity
Graphic from
Phil Windley
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23. Recommended
Resource
SSIMeetup.org
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24. Indy/Sovrin/DID
Comprehensive
Architecture
Reference
Model
(INDY ARM)
https://mwherman2000.github.io/indy-arm/
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25. uPort - past ~11 months
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26. Peace, love and identifier/claims interop?

27. Recent proposals promote interoperability
Classic diagram (Drummond Reed)
Note: Blockchain is the base layer
BCGov’s diagram (Stephen Curran)
Peers talking, with pluggable
blockchain support
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28. Bleeding-edge work in Digital Identity
The Sovrin Guardianship Task Force’s research on “Indirect Identity Control”
From Daniel Hardman’s July 2019 SSIMeetup talk
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29. Bleeding-edge work in Digital Identity
The Sovrin Guardianship Task Force’s research on “Indirect Identity Control”
From Daniel Hardman’s July 2019 SSIMeetup talk
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30. From Daniel Hardman’s July 2019 SSIMeetup talk
Bleeding-edge work in Digital Identity
The Sovrin Guardianship Task Force’s research on “Indirect Identity Control”
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31. Austin Griffith’s Kirby
Working with Civil team
“Bottom-up” Identity
Instant Onboarding
- For end-users
- And for devs! (single line of code)
“an ephemeral key pair (burner!) is
generated inside a child iframe for a user
and the developer can begin signing
messages and storing/validating off-chain
attestations”
https://medium.com/@austin_48503/kirby-32491315c5
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32. Microsoft/DIF Working on Identity / Sidetree
From Daniel Buchner
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33. Edge Agents, Routing Agents, Domain Endpoints
https://github.com/hyperledger/indy-hipe/blob/master/text/0
022-cross-domain-messaging/README.md
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34. Debates on semantics in SSI-land
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35. Debates on facts vs. FUD in SSI-land...
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36. Concern and discussion about this very talk!
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37. SSO - Single Sign-on
(to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
SSI - Self-Sovereign Identity
For capable adults in stable societies
Identity Stewardship
For every entity, in many contexts
• Namespaces of IDs controlled by
corporations, rented to users
• E.g. Domain-names, ICANN is
landlord
• OAuth / OpenID Connect
• Crawling social graphs for profit
• Surveillance capitalism
• Cambridge Analytica
• Aadhaar
• Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)
• DIDAuth
• Verified Claims
• Distributed Key Management
(DKMS)
• Evernym/Sovrin, uPort, Veres One,
etc. all competing blockchains
• Hyperledger Indy
• DIF standards
• Non-correlability
• Consent receipts
• Wallets, Agents, Hubs
• Hyperledger Aries, & Cloud Agent
Python (ACA-Py) - w/pluggable
blockchain support for public DIDs
• did:peer
• DIDcomm
• W3C standards
• Guardianship, delegation,
controllership scenarios, within...
• ...Proxy Trust Frameworks
• Routing Agents & Agency
Endpoints
• Possibly “Trust over IP” initiative at
Linux Foundation (we’ll see)
Recent phases of Evolution in Digital Identity
Dependent Independent Interdependent

38. Goals of Kiva Protocol’s Design
Support emerging W3C DID Standards
Leverage and contribute to open-source
Empower individuals with tools
to prove their identity and credit history
Reduce friction of banking-related
activities and save time for users
Respect privacy of users
(data subjects)
Minimize on-chain data
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39. Hyperledger Projects
- Open Source
- Hosted by Linux
Foundation
- Umbrella for
Blockchain and
Smart Contract
Technologies
Distributed Ledger for
Decentralized Identity
Enterprise Ethereum client
Toolkit for Creating,
Transmitting and Storing
Verifiable Credentials
Library of Cryptographic
Primitives
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40. HARDWARE-FREE
SOVEREIGNTY?
Many of our borrowers lack
computers/smartphones
“If you don’t have a device, what are you doing here?”
Overheard at TruffleCon2019
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41. HARDWARE-FREE
SOVEREIGNTY?
Many of our borrowers lack
computers/smartphones
From Daniel Hardman’s “Paper Sovrin” proposal

42. Other Constraints
Efficiency
CPU,
Bandwidth
and
electricity
limitations
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43. Current State &
Where We’re Going
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44. This presentation is released under a Creative Commons license. (CC BY-SA 4.0). SSIMeetup.org

45. 5M Blockchain Wallets
Associated to Sierra
Leone Citizen Identities
April 2019
First KYC Check at a
Sierra Leone
Commercial Bank
July 2019
Sierra Leone
Project
Milestones
First Credit Write To
Ledger
November 2019
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46. STEP 1
Fingerprint
Identification
Citizens access credit at
banks/MFIs/motorbike lenders
Fingerprint scan confirms citizen’s
identity
Identity is compared against
Hyperledger Indy wallet seeded by
the National Citizen Registry
Database
A citizen scans a finger
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47. Credit
Report
After identity verification, lending history presented to
potential lender.
Provides centralized report of previous/outstanding loans
from Sierra Leone banks, MFIs, moto-lenders.
Historically, cross-bank lending data only shared for very
large borrowers (<2,000 citizens)
Credit Report
STEP 2
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48. STEP 3
Simple
Repayments
Fingerprints of both borrower
and lender confirm repayments
have been made.
Repayment data sent to ledger
in real time.
In geographies where internet is
unavailable, data is uploaded as
soon as lender returns online.
Allows remote agents to provide
loans via thumb drive, remote
kiosks
Repayment history secured by
fingerprint authentication
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49. Sovereignty and
Control
Fraud and deception are rife
throughout developing markets.
We need to ensure citizens have
sovereignty over their data, but
also need to provide permissions
to specific trusted actors.
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50. Trust & Sovereignty
Immutability can ensure trust in low-trust
environments
Biometric confirmations
required to access and
write to citizen ledger,
offering sovereignty over
credit data access and
protection from
corrupt/false loan records
Lenders also require
biometric sign-in, providing
accountability and
oversight of financial
service staff in previously
low-accountability
environments
Immutability ensures
financial institutions
*share credit data* in a
way they can trust,
protected from concerns
other banks may give false
information to earn a
strategic advantage
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51. Scenario
Flees an Oppressive
Government
Fearing violence, a
minority population flees
an unfriendly
government. All national
ID cards are revoked,
banking details erased,
address & contact details
no longer confirmable
MINORITY
POPULATION
Across Borders
Immutable protocol data
can be accessed by
foreign governments,
banks or NGOs to provide
financial service to
refugees or migrants
during a time they’re in
particular need of capital,
despite erasure of
previous government ID &
financial records
ACCESSING
CREDIT
Protected from
government intervention
The malicious
government cannot
revoke the existing
identity and credit
information of the
minority. So long as
fingerprints intact,
biometric-authenticated
ledger accessible
anywhere
IMMUTABLE
CREDIT
Ensures financial security
during political insecurity
Immutability ensures
previously trusted
transactions cannot be
undermined by later
corruption. Eg: good govt
overthrown by bad govt.
New corruption does not
undermine
trustworthiness of prior
transactions
UNREPEALABLE
DATA
1 2 3 4
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52. Realities and Challenges of Implementation
Many of our borrowers lack
computers/smartphones
Biometric input has limitations (Eg:
manual labor wears down
fingerprints) Expanding biometric &
other identity solutions will be crucial
to ensuring sovereign control without
direct wallet storage
HARDWARE-FREE
SOVEREIGNTY
Sierra Leone's current banking system
is largely pre-digital
Credit records are stored on index
cards, occasionally in MS Excel.
Computing systems are second class
systems. Introducing partners to the
advantages of advanced digital
solutions is crucial and challenging
PARTNER EDUCATION
Realtime transactions restricted by network
downtime
Many transactions will be made in high-downtime
environments (or outside network coverage
altogether) Ensuring the ledger stays sufficiently
synchronized will be crucial to maintaining a
trustworthy system
DELAY TOLERANCE
Accessing Sierra Leone Govt's Citizen Identity
Data
Citizen identity data cannot leave Sierra Leone
government buildings. Created a distributed
blockchain solution that integrates with aging
citizen ID database infrastructure serves up
interesting challenges
DATA ACCESS
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53. Going Forward
Migrant Solutions
Migrants and refugees are often the most in need of credit
and, given their unstable living condition, have the fewest
opportunities to prove creditworthiness. By deploying
cross-border services, we intend to provide access to
migrant communities
Broader Rollout
Kiva is in discussion with other countries and organizations across the
globe, and intends to expand to other geographies starting in 2020
Cheaper Credit
At present, a credit check in Sierra Leone costs $1.30. For
low-income borrowers, this is prohibitive. With blockchain, we
expect to bring the price of credit checks down to pennies,
opening up opportunities for substantially poorer borrowers
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54. We're Hiring
Looking to hire engineers, product
managers, and forward deployers
Know Your Stuff? Call Us
Visit https://kiva.org/careers or reach out to
Alan and other Kivans after the talk
Fast-moving,
mission-driven,
real-world project
Extensive travel
opportunities
Real-world
application with
substantial runway
and support
SF, Portland, Austin
and remote
opportunities
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56. Questions?
KIVA.ORG
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57. KIVA PROTOCOL
BUILDING THE CREDIT BUREAU OF
THE FUTURE USING SSI
KIVA.ORG
This presentation is released under a Creative Commons license. (CC BY-SA 4.0). SSIMeetup.org
Alan Krassowski
VP of Technology &
Blockchain at Kiva