Visual DID & Credential Builder

Desktop application enabling non-developers to create and issue (send) credentials to DID contacts with intuitive graphical user interface

Atala PRISM pioneer first cohort, developer with 15+ years professional experience with both UI client apps and server apps

Problem and solution

To make sure Atala PRISM platform performs great and grabs market-shares in the global DID ecosystem, we need tools that let the non-technical user start making use of DID functionality without being a developer. Adoption and market-share is not achieved by developers, but the number of non-technical users using the technology on a daily basis. Currently, you will need to be a developer to create and issue DIDs and credentials. We propose to create an application to enable regular users to create, issue and receive credentials that will spark mainstream adoption of DID. The tool will enable this with an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that will incorporate drag and drop and other window based functionality the modern user demands of their applications. Getting support from the Cardano and Atala PRISM community will also benefit developers, as we will provide an open source repository that can be utilized by future community developers wanting to see how PRISM development is done.  

Main features of application

• Create new DID or import existing one
• Manage credentials
• Create, issue and revoke credentials

All of this with no need for developer knowledge, in an intuitive window based application.

The application can be run on Windows, Linux and Mac

Notes about how challenge is solved by this tool

The main goal of this tool is to abstract away technological details and intricacies and instead let users focus on benefits and usage. The tool will therefore be a general solution needed by many actors mentioned by the challenge statement.

Usability and adaptability of the PRISM platform compared to competing platforms is achieved because we deliver an easy to use tool that can be used without knowing about technical details. Easy to use tools like this, will unlock exponential growth and adoption and give non-technical users a playground for exploring DID and credentials. Being available to everyone will lift the creation of new use cases out of development labs and over to everyone else. This will be a catalyst for real-world implementations on Cardano and Atala PRISM.

Being so user friendly, this tool also will give large benefits to the Small Producer Problem and Last-Mile Problem, as this tool will make DID and credential maintenance achievable for non-technical personnel so they can participate in the global industrial supply chain market without becoming blockchain developers.

The project will deliver an open source repository which will also benefit PRISM community developers.

First version will be a solution for Holders and Issuers. Verifiers will get tools later on our roadmap.

As a pioneer of the Atala PRISM pioneer first cohort, we have seen that the process of issuing credentials to the blockchain is very time consuming because of having to wait for a specified number of blocks to be produced by the blockchain before the operation is confirmed by Atala PRISM. Tools that do not take this into account will be unusable and will inhibit adoption. We will make sure the user will be unaware of this waiting time because of the functionality we put into the application. Users will instead get subtle notifications when an operation is confirmed. How the user is notified, is of course configurable to put the user in control. 

Product Roadmap

0 - 3 months: Create proof of concept application and demo for the community and get feedback. Creation and maintenance of an open source repository.

3 - 6 months: Documentation and further addition of new functionality based on feedback and feature requests

12 months: Publish to mainnet when Atala PRISM moves to mainnet

Long term: Extend the application portfolio with mobile app for DID verification (DIDComm)

Budget breakdown

We ask for funding of the first 6 months of development of proof of concept application. The goal is to provide a MVP to the community by the end of June 2022. The tool will be available for mainnet use when Atala PRISM moves to mainnet.

Our experienced team consists of both development and pedagogic resources with 15+ years professional experience. Background from consultancy, application development and digital training course creation.

The attached application design / concept drawing is provided to illustrate what we want the Visual DID and Credential Builder to evolve into. We do need to follow the functionality provided by Atala PRISM platform at any given time and this might result in functionality or user interface of finished product being slightly different than the mockup.

• 35k - Development costs & QA
• 7k - Open source repository creation and maintenance, documentation and training course creation
• 5k - Public Test, Catalyst community demos and project management

Impact, Feasibility and Auditability of our project

This tool is not targeted towards one particular part of the challenge, but it will be vital for supporting the community with non-developer tools in all of the sub-challenges. Developers are great creators, but the real magic happens when non-developers start making use of the technology in everyday life. Use cases evolve from everyday usage. We are therefore firm believers that this tool will have a large impact for the PRISM community as a whole and drive adoption of DID and credentials.

Our team has the experience required to get this project off the ground. We would have loved to provide links to tools we have created in the past, but they have all been developed for companies with company internal needs and therefore are not public products or training courses. We have 15+ years of experience from development of tools with similar technology.

The community will be kept up to date in every step of the way as we go forward. The project open source repository will contain our latest source, issue list and training material. In combination with periodic KPI reports and progress reports sent the Catalyst team.

List of KPI we will monitor

• Number of downloads / builds
• Number of DIDs created with the tool
• Number of credentials issued with the tool
• Number of upvotes for the training material