Frink started with a mission of creating a completely decentralized cryptocurrency. Most "decentralized" cryptocurrencies simply aren’t really all that decentralized with a few individuals controlling the largest mining pools. Frink’s mission is to create a currency that anyone can mine as an equal, maximizing decentralization. In order to accomplish this, users have to be able to prove their individuality to each other, while maintaining the privacy that is important to cryptocurrency users.
Completely Private IDs
Frink IDs achieve complete privacy by using two levels of privacy:
Social Graph ID - One public key per individual that is linked to and mutually vouching for other IDs. There is some mildly identifiable information linked to this ID. Specifically other users could work together to identify this individual.
Completely Private ID - Use Zero Knowledge Proofs created by the Social Graph IDs to create a separate completely private ID. This allows you to prove that someone valid had permission to create this ID and nothing more unless you desire to link other information to this ID.
This allows users to reveal exactly the information they need to reveal about themselves for any given exchange without revealing anything more. And importantly, the person interacting with them can know whether this is an individual they’ve already interacted with in the past.
Usage Beyond Cryptocurrency
Interestingly, there are many other huge applications for this same technology.
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where:
You Could Easily Avoid and Spot All Scammers
Spammers couldn’t get their messages through to you
Malware would be caught so quickly that it wouldn’t be profitable to write
You would never again have to log in to or register for a website
IDs could be instantly, privately verified for only the required information
And much more
Yet, very importantly, imagine you could do this, without any worry about your privacy being infringed upon in the process and you control exactly what information you share.
Stop Scammers from Stealing your Money
There many people in this world who will try to scam you out of your savings. This is particularly true in the world of cryptocurrency where they can maintain complete privacy and once you send them money, there is no way to get it back.
Imagine if you now when conducting financial transactions with someone, you received just enough information to see if other users had flagged him as malicious. After doing business with them, you too may flag them if they cheat you or help them improve their reputation if not.
Not only does this fight scammers, but it can be used to boost the trustworthiness of legitimate merchants and improve their business.
On top of this, decentralized IDs allow decentralized charge-backs as merchants can now know how trustworthy users are using a similar system.
Prevent Cryptocurrency Price Manipulation
Please pick a cryptocurrency and prove to me how many people are using it. You can't? I thought so. It is very hard to determine how many users a cryptocurrency has with any level of accuracy. But this is especially true for cryptocurrencies that attempt to falsely inflate their numbers and transaction volume. If users have IDs linked to themselves, then it is possible to track the number of users. With the proper use of Zero Knowledge Proofs, the number of users and the amount of currency exchanged can be tracked, without tracking the usage of individual users.
Don’t Hassle with Spam Again
Spam is a huge issue. Even with spam filters, it still regularly leaks through into email as well as snail mail or phone calls. Imagine if you could choose not only to block an email address but rather all emails being sent by that user. Not only this but as users add others to their own whitelists and blacklists, they help each other identify and block spammers as a community.
Never Log Into Any Website Again
Imagine if you could run the Frink program on your desktop and mobile app. As you go from website to website, Frink can handshake with the website, and give them a unique identifier for you that is only valid for that specific website. No information is shared across websites. You could automatically be logged into/registered for websites as you go. If they need more information from you (and most shouldn’t), then they can specifically ask for it and you can choose to accept/deny the request.
Prevent Malware & Improve Your Computer’s Firewall
How often do you let strangers walk into your house without screening them? So why do you let their programs and documents and potentially vulnerable information onto your computer? By requiring individuals or companies to digitally sign off on their own programs and data, bad actors can be quickly caught and the spread of their malware very quickly stopped. On top of this, by tracking which users have seen specific malware and knowing who has sent those users programs, we can detect who is writing the malware much more quickly.
Once detected, they will be blacklisted and future programs written by these bad actors can also be blocked. And if a software author is unwilling to sign off using his Frink ID, then it can be blocked, potentially pending a code review by trusted reviewers.
This list of who should and shouldn't be allowed to publish information will be agreed to in a decentralized manner, preventing centralized entities like governments from abusing this privilege and preventing it's citizens from accessing programs that may open your eyes to the truth.
Prevent Data Breaches
Being decentralized is a huge benefit for these IDs, they are owned and can only be used by you. You don’t need to share your information with any company or government. There is no risk of giving anyone that kind of power when it comes to guarding the personal data of the world. Without compromising your individual machine, which will be extra hard given Frink has strengthened the security of your machine.
Many More Uses…
This is only a small fraction of the uses we have come up with for privacy friendly IDs. We can’t wait to show you the rest when we release our products in the future!
Frink IDs: The Perfect Blend of Privacy and Security
How often have you worried about Privacy? Security? You should and we all need to worry about giving any individual or company too much power. The future should not be controlled by governments or companies that have the power to restrict their citizens but rather allow every individual the freedom to securely do business without having to worry about sacrificing their privacy in the process.
By allowing for very precise tradeoffs to occur, Frink IDs plan to allow this future to blossom bringing privacy and security to the market and ultimately providing the freedom to do business and digitally protect yourself as securely and privately as possible.
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