Say goodbye to traditional KYC, uncovering the underlying logic of Solana's certification service.

Goodbye Traditional KYC! Unveiling the Logic Behind Solana's Certification Service

What is Solana Certification Service?

The Solana Certification Service is essentially an open, permissionless protocol designed to achieve on-chain secure and verifiable credentials without exposing sensitive personal data. It allows trusted third parties, referred to as "issuers," to create proofs regarding user identity or qualifications, which are then stored in the user's wallet.

These credentials can be used to verify the following in various applications:

Know Your Customer (KYC) status
Geographic eligibility
Accredited investor status
Age verification
Association with real-world organizations or events

The credentials themselves do not leak sensitive information but serve as a Crypto proof indicating that the claim has been verified by a trusted party. This system enables seamless secure access to services while protecting privacy.

Solana Identity Group: Driving the Future of On-Chain Identity

The SAS program is the first release outcome of the Solana Identity Group, a collaborative project among ecosystem participants, including:

Solana Foundation: Supporting the growth and security of the network.
Civic: A leader in the decentralized identity space.
Solana.ID: Focused on on-chain reputation.
Trusta Labs: Utilizing AI for identity verification and resistance to Sybil attacks.
Solid: Building globally interoperable identity tools.

These organizations collectively lay the foundation for a standardized, composable identity layer on Solana.

How Solana Certification Service Works

SAS operates through a three-party model and a dedicated on-chain program:

Issuer: The issuer is a trusted third party (such as KYC providers, event organizers, or government agencies) that creates credentials for users. These credentials are digitally signed to prove their authenticity and adhere to established standards.
SAS Program: The on-chain program responsible for issuing, verifying, and managing credentials. It ensures that credentials are composable, interoperable, and verifiable without relying on any centralized authority.
Holder: The user (holder) receives the credentials and stores them in a digital wallet. Since SAS is integrated into Solana-compatible wallets (like Phantom or Backpack), users can carry verified credentials within the ecosystem.
Verifier: This can be any DApp, protocol, or smart contract that requests verification of certain attributes (such as age or residence) before granting access to services or tokens. Verifiers never see the complete underlying data, only the verified claims.

As the system is non-custodial, composable, and interoperable, developers can stack and combine credentials like building blocks without starting from scratch when designing verification systems.

Steps to Create Credentials:

Define Schema: Establish the structure of the credential, specifying the type of claims (e.g., "over 18 years old," "residing in the UK").
Issue Credential: The issuer signs the credential with their private key and associates it with the holder's wallet address.
Store Credential: The signed credential is stored on-chain or off-chain according to privacy requirements and linked to the holder's wallet.

These proofs can then be presented by the holder to the verifier, who can verify their authenticity without accessing the underlying personal data.

Key Features of SAS

Here are the key features of SAS:

Portable Credentials: Users can reuse their credentials across other platforms after completing a single verification process.
Default Privacy Protection: Only necessary information is shared. Sensitive data is never shared or retained without permission.
Composable and Interoperable: Developers can stack multiple credentials to accommodate complex use cases.
Instant Verifiability: Verifiers can validate the credential's validity with a single SDK call, without a dedicated backend system.
Open Infrastructure: Anyone can build on SAS. There is no central authority managing who can issue or verify credentials.

Getting Started with Solana's SAS

To integrate SAS into your application or issue credentials, follow these steps:

Install SAS SDK: For JavaScript/TypeScript projects, manually install the SAS library as follows:

For Rust, use the command cargo add solana-attestation-service-client.

Consult Documentation: Review the official SAS documentation.
Implement Credential Logic: Use the SDK to create, sign, and verify credentials in your application. The SDK provides functions to handle the entire credential lifecycle.
Test Integration: Test the implementation on Solana's testnet before deploying to the mainnet to ensure functionality and security.
Deploy to Mainnet: After testing is complete, deploy the application to the Solana mainnet and start issuing or verifying credentials.

Core Use Cases of SAS

SAS supports a wide range of applications in Web3:

KYC Pass: Users only need to complete KYC once to reuse verified credentials across exchanges, DeFi platforms, and launchpads.
Region-Based Access Control: Projects may restrict participation, content, or token access based on the user's jurisdiction.
Sybil Attack Resistance: By confirming user uniqueness, bot attacks can be prevented, ensuring fair token distribution.
Investor Qualification Certification: Verifying investor qualifications on platforms offering tokenization of real-world assets.
DAO Reputation Systems: Establishing trust and merit-based systems where voting and rewards reflect actual contributions.
DePIN and Location Proof: Supporting decentralized infrastructure networks by verifying hardware or geographic locations.

Key Ecosystem Adopters of SAS

The success of SAS relies on its adoption, with leading projects having integrated or announced plans to support the protocol:

Civic: Users with Civic Pass now automatically hold SAS-compatible credentials, unlocking compliant asset access in Solana DApps.
Solana.ID: Solana.ID utilizes SAS to verify work and professional credentials, allowing employers to issue immutable proof of employment.
Solid: Issuing "Priority Passes" containing KYC and social credentials for use across multiple Solana applications.
Trusta Labs: Combining AI and SAS for identity verification, Sybil attack resistance, and user location in DeFi and governance.
RNS.ID: Enabling self-sovereign digital identity supported by the Palau government, integrated with SAS for trusted on-chain verification.
Wecan: Connecting official government registries (such as land or shareholder records) to the blockchain using SAS.
Polyflow: Supporting verifiable transactions and identities in PayFi applications, making payments traceable and compliant.
Range: Enhancing blockchain security with on-chain identity intelligence.
Sumsub: As a leading KYC provider, now supports SAS credentials for its reusable identity framework, helping users register seamlessly across platforms.
Honeycomb Protocol: A gaming SDK that uses SAS to enable verifiable tasks, profiles, and reputations in games on Solana.

Solana Certification Service vs World Network

SAS and World Network (World ID) are two decentralized identity systems aimed at bringing trust and privacy to Web3, but they fundamentally differ in their approaches to solving problems.

Launched by the Solana Foundation in May 2025 in collaboration with Civic, Solid, Trusta Labs, and Solana.ID, SAS enables users to receive verifiable credentials (such as KYC verification, accredited investor status, or geographic eligibility) that are cryptographically signed by trusted issuers and linked to the user's Solana wallet.

These credentials can be reused across different DApps without exposing sensitive data, thereby building a native, privacy-preserving, and composable identity layer on the Solana blockchain. SAS is based on a software development kit (SDK) that requires no special hardware, making it easy to use for both developers and users. It supports various use cases, including DeFi, region-restricted access, DAO participation, and Sybil attack resistance.

In contrast, the World Network, developed by Tools for Humanity and supported by Sam Altman, is built around the concept of a global biometric digital identity known as "World ID." Users prove their human uniqueness by scanning their irises on a device called "Orb."

According to the project, biometric data is not stored but converted into zero-knowledge proofs usable on Web3 platforms. The system aims to prevent Sybil attacks and ensure fair participation in the digital economy, including use cases like token airdrops, decentralized voting, and universal basic income (UBI).

While SAS focuses on regulatory compliance and privacy protection for real-world credentials, World ID emphasizes human identification and is continuously expanding its influence across Ethereum and other chains, including eventual integration with Solana.

Criticism of World Network

World Network has faced intense scrutiny over its biometric data collection practices. Critics argue that the project's reliance on iris scanning for identity verification raises serious privacy concerns.

Despite the project's claims that biometric data will be deleted after processing, there remains skepticism about the potential misuse of sensitive information or unauthorized access. Notably, privacy advocates like Edward Snowden have expressed concerns, highlighting the risks associated with biometric data collection.

Additionally, due to regulatory and ethical concerns, World Network has been suspended or banned from operating in several countries:

Spain: In March 2024, the Spanish Data Protection Agency ordered World to cease biometric data collection activities for violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
Hong Kong: In May 2024, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong instructed World to stop operations, emphasizing the risks to personal data privacy and the non-necessity of its verification process.
Germany: The Bavarian Data Protection Authority concluded that World’s practices violate data protection laws and ordered the deletion of all stored iris codes collected in the country.
Kenya: Operations were suspended in August 2023 due to concerns over security, privacy, and financial issues.
Indonesia: In May 2025, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs temporarily suspended World’s activities after receiving public complaints and potential violations of electronic system regulations.

These actions reflect growing global concerns about the ethical and legal implications of biometric data collection, especially when it involves vulnerable populations or lacks transparent consent mechanisms.

In contrast, SAS allows for reusable and privacy-protecting authentication within decentralized applications in the Solana ecosystem by leveraging Crypto credentials from trusted issuers.

However, it is important to note that SAS is still in its early stages. While it has attracted interest and initial adoption from projects like Civic and PolyFlow, its long-term viability and scalability remain to be proven. The effectiveness of SAS in addressing complex authentication challenges, ensuring widespread adoption, and maintaining robust security standards has not yet been fully realized.

The Future of Programmable Identity on Solana

The future of identity in the Crypto space will be:

User-controlled
Highly compliant
Interoperable
Privacy-focused

The Solana Certification Service provides all these features in a format that customers can trust and developers can integrate. It reduces operational complexity, regulatory friction, and redundancy.

As the demand for identity-aware applications on DeFi, gaming, and real-world asset platforms continues to grow, SAS positions Solana as a pioneer in secure and scalable blockchain identity infrastructure.

Conclusion

The Solana Certification Service is not just a protocol; it is a foundational layer for building a safer and smarter Web3. With the support of key identity compliance providers, an expanding range of applications, and an intuitive developer interface, SAS is poised to become the identity standard for the Solana ecosystem and beyond.

For users, it means control. For developers, it means speed and trust. For regulators and institutions, it means achieving compliance without compromise.

SAS has arrived, and this is just the beginning.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational reference only and should not be considered as investment advice. Readers are advised to remain cautious and objective.

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