Serto Ecosystems is our newest demo showcasing how businesses from different industries can create a trusted, shared data network.

This network gives industry partners the ability to offer their customers not only a first-class user experience but also new, more personalized types of services that would not be possible without a user-centric identity solution.

In our demo, the story of Monica walks you through a practical application of what this means.

Monica loves driving. She wants to buy a car and become a driver for Ride Away, a ride-sharing service. But Monica is more than just a car owner and a driver… She’s also hoping to buy into the employee stock options plan for drivers of Ride Away. This way she can have a stake in the growing rideshare company she works for.

This sounds pretty straightforward. But with today’s inefficient systems of bureaucracy and data silos, it’s not quite that easy. To make her dream come true, Monica will have to go through a lot of confusing procedures, fill out endless forms and stand in long lines. To add insult to injury, many of the forms and procedures are actually duplicative beyond the office she’s submitting the form to.

But what would this look like if she uses the Serto Ecosystem?

With Serto, we are transported to a world where Monica is able to participate in a full-service, digital ecosystem.

To start, Monica needs to verify her identity. In the demo, this is done with Vericheck, our hypothetical identity service provider.

In real-life, identity can be checked by various services and organizations, including traditional government agencies, banks or increasingly, digital identity verification platforms. This process usually happens in the context of performing a task e.g. getting a driver’s license or renting an electric scooter. In our demo, for the purpose of clarity, we present it as an initial, separate step.

After Monica’s identity is verified, Vericheck issues her a reusable ID credential — in the form of a verifiable credential that is cryptographically signed by Vericheck — which she can store in her uPort wallet. From this point forward, she can share it with other services in the network. There’s no need to create a new account or profile each and every time. These other services can also be assured that the presented identification is valid. It’s been verified by one of the ‘trusted’ identity providers in the ecosystem and securely stored in Monica’s uPort wallet. This creates a net effect of de-risking everyone’s participation through greater mutual participation in the verification process.

In the next step, Monica is applying for a loan to get her dream car. To avoid a tedious paperwork process or having to go to a physical location, she shares her Vericheck ID credential with the Simple Fund Bank via her uPort app.

But there’s more to it than just Monica’s identity and loan. Let’s imagine, Monica has been using a GPS and navigation app (Mappe, in our demo) to drive around the city. The driving data that has been generated over time shows that Monica’s never committed any serious traffic offenses or been in an accident. This information can be automatically turned into a Safe Driver Badge credential and added to her uPort wallet. Now, Monica, can easily prove that her driving skills are impeccable. When she shares this with Simple Fund Bank, she receives a lower interest rate for her car loan.

From here, she’s just a few, easy steps away from getting her new car and becoming a driver and shareholder at Ride Away. With the uPort app, Monica receives and shares her credentials along the way while also confident that her information is secure and fully under her control the entire time.

Notice that in this ecosystem, Monica has agency over her personal data. By relying on verifiable credentials that she manages in her wallet, she controls who she shares these credentials with and when. This allows her to separate her financial reputation from her social preferences. By allowing the ability to share only specific relevant attributes with service providers (eg Monica’s Safe Driver Badge rather than all her driving data), she is able to preserve her privacy. In control of her personal data and preferences, she is safer from security breaches and no longer worries if corporations are sharing her data without her consent.