Digital identity is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, as more and more of our interactions move online. From banking and shopping to social media and healthcare, our personal information is being shared and stored digitally. However, this convenience comes at a cost — the risk of data breaches, fraud, and identity theft. In the current system, intermediaries such as banks, government agencies, and social media companies play a critical role in managing our digital identities. But what if we could remove these intermediaries and take control of our own digital identities? That’s where Sonr comes in.

Sonr is a decentralized identity protocol that enables users to take control of their digital identities, removing intermediaries and ensuring greater security and privacy. By using blockchain technology, Sonr eliminates the need for intermediaries to manage identity verification and authentication, putting control back in the hands of the user.

In this blog post, we will explore how Sonr removes intermediaries from the digital identity process and ensures greater security for users.

The Role of Intermediaries in Digital Identity

In the current digital identity landscape, intermediaries play a critical role in managing identity verification and authentication. For example, banks act as intermediaries when verifying the identity of a customer opening a new account. Similarly, social media companies act as intermediaries when verifying the identity of a user signing up for a new account. Government agencies also act as intermediaries when verifying the identity of citizens for various purposes, such as applying for a passport or voting in an election.

While intermediaries play an important role in managing digital identities, there are several drawbacks to this approach. First, intermediaries introduce a single point of failure, making them vulnerable to hacking and data breaches. In addition, intermediaries often require users to share sensitive personal information, which can be used for identity theft and fraud. Finally, intermediaries are often slow and inefficient, leading to delays in identity verification and authentication.

How Sonr Removes Intermediaries

Sonr removes intermediaries from the digital identity process by using blockchain technology. By using a distributed ledger, Sonr creates a decentralized network that enables users to take control of their digital identities. With Sonr, users can create unique digital identities that are stored securely on the blockchain. These digital identities are verified and authenticated using multi-party computation, a cryptographic technique that ensures greater security and privacy.

Sonr uses several specific features to accomplish its goal of removing intermediaries from the digital identity process. One of these features is multi-party computation (MPC), a cryptographic technique that enables secure and private identity verification and authentication without the need for intermediaries. With MPC, multiple parties can jointly compute a function without revealing their inputs to one another, ensuring that sensitive personal information remains private.

Another feature that Sonr uses is WebAuthn, a standard for web authentication that enables users to use hardware tokens such as USB keys or biometric information such as facial recognition to authenticate their digital identities. By using hardware tokens, Sonr ensures that authentication is secure and tamper-proof, reducing the risk of identity theft and fraud.

Sonr also uses decentralized identifiers (DIDs), a type of identifier that is unique, persistent, and globally resolvable. DIDs enable users to create and control their own digital identities without the need for intermediaries, ensuring greater privacy and security.

Finally, Sonr uses a blockchain-based distributed ledger to store and manage digital identities. By using a distributed ledger, Sonr ensures that digital identities are secure, transparent, and tamper-proof, reducing the risk of hacking and data breaches.

By removing intermediaries from the digital identity process, Sonr ensures greater security for users. Without intermediaries, there is no single point of failure that can be hacked or breached. In addition, users can control the information that is shared about them, reducing the risk of identity theft and fraud. Finally, Sonr’s decentralized network is faster and more efficient than traditional intermediaries, enabling identity verification and authentication in real-time.

The Benefits of Removing Intermediaries

By removing intermediaries from the digital identity process, Sonr offers several benefits to users. First, Sonr ensures greater security and privacy by eliminating the risk of data breaches and identity theft. Second, Sonr gives users control over their own data, allowing them to choose what information is shared and with whom. Third, Sonr is faster and more efficient than traditional intermediaries, enabling real-time identity verification and authentication. Finally, Sonr is more transparent than traditional intermediaries, enabling users to see exactly how their data is being used and who has access to it.

Conclusion

Digital identity is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, but the current system is flawed. Intermediaries introduce a single point of failure, are vulnerable to hacking and data breaches, and often require users to share sensitive personal information. Sonr offers a solution to these problems by removing intermediaries from the digital identity process and enabling users to take control of their own data.

In conclusion, Sonr’s focus on decentralization and removing intermediaries in digital identity is a game-changer in the current landscape of digital identity. With its use of cutting-edge technology like MPC, WebAuthn, and DID, Sonr is building a more secure and trustworthy internet for users. By giving users control over their digital assets and data, Sonr is enabling a more user-centric approach to digital identity. And with the added benefit of reducing friction towards cryptocurrency adoption, Sonr is paving the way for a more decentralized and equitable future.

At Sonr, we believe in the power of decentralized identity to change the world. We’re excited to continue developing our platform and collaborating with others in the industry to make digital identity more accessible, secure, and user-friendly. We welcome feedback, questions, and ideas from the community and look forward to building a brighter future for digital identity together.

Removing Intermediaries in Digital Identity: How Sonr Keeps Your Data Secure was originally published in Sonr Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When you stop and think about how much colleges control our lives and actions, it is pretty remarkable to think how a couple of rankings and brand names drive a lot of our decision-making. High schoolers, and even sometimes middle schoolers, grind to make that perfect resume for college. There is this obsession over “what is the ideal candidate” by parents and children all across the world.

After you get into college, the next four years consists of you paying to be tested over and over again. Since I go to a public university, I realized anyone can walk into a class and attend lecture, so by that logic you are only paying to get tested and get the degree. So this means whenever a person tells you they are paying over $200,000+ to learn, that is total bullsh*t.

What is the true value of a degree and is it even worth getting one these days? The answer is never black and white. For such a controversial topic, there are very solid answers on both sides. My hope with this article is to provide context and add depth to a very important conversation. I have my own goals and perspectives (which may inadvertently seep into the article), but the real answers(for you) are very subjective and individualistic. The truth is that many students and parents give very surface level answers to this question, which makes it very scary that people make such big decisions with so little thinking.

After asking tons of high achievers at UVA, almost all of them say they put in the work in order to get a job. The next stepping stone of life. Some say that this is the only way to get a good job. Others say this is the only path that they know. Students say it is the only way for someone to take you seriously in the corporate/real world. For some students, they are right. Nothing is ever black and white. So, if you truly want to become a banker, doctor, or lawyer, then getting a degree helps out a lot. But, for others, getting a degree can be a waste of money and more importantly, time. There are many examples of this. Even if you look at it from the lens of getting a job, many of the top technology companies’ highest paid developers are high school or college dropouts. Many others didn’t have good GPAs in college. There are a plethora of entrepreneurs that drop out of college to pursue their dream. Many immigrants come to the United States and make it big without going to college because they find out what their “niche” is or what they are good at. So why are these people more successful than 99% of people who go to college. The common theme around all of these people is that they found what they are passionate about and what they are good at. They take their ambition and focus all of it onto the things they love most. There are a couple of things that everyone should do to understand if college is actually worth it.

Constantly Analyze What You Want To Do With Your Life

Most people pursuing those jobs I listed above don’t ever give relevant reasons to why they want to do them. Some of the things I hear are: “I want a challenge, and <insert job here> seems like a challenge”, “I am doing it for the clout”, “Exit opportunities bro”, and the best one, “I don’t really know what else to do”. I feel like I have heard those 4 or 5 reasons at least 1000 times in the past year. Honestly, no decision should be that surface level, let alone on something you give up a considerable amount of your life on.

To the people that say they don’t know what else to do, you aren’t trying hard enough to understand yourself. Most college students expect their passion and calling to just plop in front of them on a silver platter with some gold spoons. Your “passion” and goals are not just going to magically come to you, but they come through a lot of introspection and analysis of who you are as a person right now and who you want to become in the future. Many people view college as some sort of safety net to getting prestigious jobs. But there are also so many people with college degrees that work as cashiers and brick and mortar sales assistants.

“Exploration” to most students is taking different classes that interest them. This may be awesome and you may find your niche, but most just stop the exploration there. It doesn’t work like that at all. You need to push yourself to find yourself. Research online on what is out there. There is so much more than medicine, law, and banking that students don’t even tap into because they don’t even know about it. EVEN IF you are actually into those subjects, having a 4.0 doesn’t differentiate you from everyone else that also has a 4.0. So, what is the lesson here? Be bold and try something new. What is trying something new? Make a true difference in the world because you want to, not just for some lines on the resume. Start a non-profit, company, or initiative to solve a prominent problem in the world that you may care about. Even if you are scared of doing those things, you could also visit impoverished places and help improve quality of life there. Just think that there are hundreds, thousands of ways to differentiate yourself because everyone else is doing the same thing. Med Schools, Banks, and Law firms all see that and give it much more weight than someone who took a traditional path and did well in it.

I know so many individuals that love the work they do, whether it is in banking, medicine, or music. Those people took the time to really understand themselves and integrated it with what society has to offer. The answer doesn’t come from college, it comes from you.

There is a large caveat to that. College is a time to learn about new perspectives and grow personally and socially. College is a great forum for those things, but it is not the only way/place to get those things. You can attend mastermind groups, read books, and meet new people at almost 1/10th the cost very easily in our technologically advanced era. But, college is in fact the only place where you can meet people your age and create a network of people that will be successful in the future.

Social Aspects of College

This is probably the most unique thing that college has to offer. There is no other time in your life where most of your friends will be within a 2 mile radius. From wild frat parties to insane night life, there will always be a move on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Apart from the heinous nights, this is the only time you can hit up literally any friend to get lunch or say hi on your way to class. This all culminates to the social experience of college, which has a chance to amplify and augment anyone’s life. I can say this because my first year at UVA has been completely different from my second year. I spent my first year all about that 4.0 and getting the clout extracurriculars, but ended up being stuck in my room grinding while my hallmates were in the lounge getting to know each other better. I met people to further myself, not get to know about another person’s life and make friends.

My second year has been filled with parties, meeting awesome people, and a focus on working smart rather than hard. I recognize that I have my entire life “to make it”, but only one chance to experience how beautiful it is to kindle friendships and create new, lasting relationships. The only hard part is to balance your social life with all the other things you have to do.

College Does Sometimes Provide Very Stimulating Classes

There have been very stimulating classes that I have taken, which have changed my perspective on a lot of things. I took a class on social psychology and I still use a lot of the stuff I learned in that class on a daily basis. However, most classes (around 75–80% of them) involve straight memorization and regurgitation of information that your professor says. If you decide to go to college, it is your job to navigate through the “class maze” and figure out where the gold nuggets lie in your school.

Online Education and EdTech Startups Are Taking Over

Lets say someone actually makes the wrong decision to go to college to learn something. A lot of colleges are public, so you are legally able to walk into any classroom if you want to “learn” something. Look at all the opportunities that are almost 1% of the cost of college!! In my time at UVA, I have taken 12 online courses on a variety of subjects ranging from web development, data science, blockchain/cryptocurrency, ecommerce, and marketing/advertising. All for less than a semester of college. I have retained and learned more information from those than all my classes combined.

The argument is that college provides very intelligent professors that you can learn from that you don’t get anywhere else. This is fundamentally incorrect. I have met some ridiculously smart people teaching the courses online who are at the apex of their respective fields, not at the apex of academia. This can be done by anyone who literally puts their mind to actually learning a subject on their own and not learning it because someone else is telling you to learn it (…oof).

The truth is those prestigious jobs want these types of people, not ones that follow the crowd. Intangibles like creativity, strategic intuition, unwavering focus, and empathy are more important for a firm’s success. These firms are starting to recognize that and are hiring based on those changing metrics. So instead of that 4.0, get a f*cking B or C and grind on the things that matter.

College Gives You A Chance to Explore, But Most Don’t Do It Right

Give yourself the opportunity to try new things and fail. It is probably the best thing you can do to your future self.

If you look at my bio, you will see that I am currently a college student. So you might ask how could a broke (slowly changing) college student can talk about wealth generation. However, these lessons that I started implementing this past August have led me to get my first $10,000 without getting a formal job. After reading countless articles and watching videos, I finally feel like I have gotten a fundamental grasp of generating wealth. With some basic concepts and understanding, multiplying your own wealth can become very simple.

Your mentality defines how much you make

Shifting one’s mentality towards money and understanding the rules of wealth generation are the first steps to mastering money. Money can be considered as one of the most important objects in an person’s life. It can determine everything from lifestyle to the types of relationships you make throughout your lifetime. However, a lot of people have different conceptions of money and carry different emotional connections to it. Some people view money as a “poison”. Others view it as a means to corrupt society. Many individuals, me included for the majority of my short life, viewed it as necessary to have a lot of. It has defined many of my decisions such as career choice. In reality, money is nothing more than a TOOL. It is a means of acquiring something else. Whether it be experiences, cars, houses, money is a way to get other desired things. And the process of getting money is just a game.

There are three main actions that people should do with money. Most people do one of these well, but to achieve true mastery, one should be well versed in all three actions.

Saving money makes the foundation

This is probably the only thing that most people do, if they do anything. Most middle class parents teach their kids to save money for “those rainy days”, but a lot people take this into their future as hoarding it under their beds and not doing it. For these people, having money under their beds gives them a false sense of security. The result is that most people do this in excess because they lack confidence that they can make it back. This is why the third action, to create wealth, is super important because it can turn this the idea of money into a game.

There are a lot of apps that help you deal with personal finances such as Mint. Mint will help you track your spending and even show reflections on your credit score. If you need help sparing extra cash every month, this app is probably the only one to use because it provides the same things that every other personal finance app does.

After you are able to save, it is time to invest that saved money to yourself. Approximately 10% of your monthly income should be spent on things that adds to your intellectual capital. This could mean buying courses on udemy or masterclass or even buying paperback books. Books are only the beginning. If you really want to get into weightlifting, spend that money on supplements. This investment in yourself brings the greatest potential for future returns, especially if you learn marketable skills.

Grow your capital by investing

Being able to put your money into different asset classes that increase in value over time is a skill that can take years to develop. Having a little bit of knowledge of the markets and how they operate is something that everyone should know. Aside from that, people should at minimum put their money into mutual funds or index funds so that it can at least grow with the market.

It is always better to invest your own money because a lot of these funds take out percentages of the total money you invested in. These cuts can be eliminated just by learning how to manage your own money. The ceiling for this is literally endless because once you get equipped with the basics of longs and shorts, you can get returns by leveraging global macroeconomic arbitrage scenarios or investing in options.

There are also a lot of apps like Acorns that help you invest your leftover change into the stock market. Robinhood is another app that doesn’t have trader fees to make investing accessible to everyone. These apps are allowing people to invest in alternative currencies as well, which makes diversifying your portfolios easier than ever.

Create your wealth with more than one stream of income

I am definitely saving the best for last for the readers that made it this far. Most people usually think that there is only one way to make money or think that other methods of generating wealth are too risky and thus compromise their need to be “secure”. They see their 9–5 jobs as the only stable source of income. They overlook other streams of income based on previous bias towards some of these methods.

The truth of the matter is that if there are things that you can profit out of online, then you are doing yourself a disservice by not doing them. The business I started about a month ago only started because it was a way for me to make passive income. Now, apart from my classes, it is the thing I spend most of my time on and has a lot more returns.

You are in charge of your destiny with how much money you make. It all starts with your mindset and then it is shown by your actions.

It is that time of the year again. High school juniors graduate to become seniors and start (or at least should have) thinking about what schools to apply to. They create their “Dream school, Reach school, safe school” list with the hopes of getting accepted to their top choice. There are some things I wish someone told me while I was applying and deciding between schools not only because it could’ve saved an immense of time but also stress through the whole process.

Look at how involved alumni are with your school

This is easily one of the most overlooked decision making factors for most students. Some people may even be wondering why this tops my list. But, alumni involvement can be a huge indicator for a lot of things. If a lot of alumni come back to campus, donate a ton back to the university, and are still involved with a lot of affairs, it can provide many opportunities for students to capitalize on. Ultimately, the thing any student can do is to create as many lasting relationships as possible. More importantly, if a lot of alumni are involved, it shows that they are willing to help current students, which is literally gold for internship opportunities and creating connections. These relationships (especially if they have alumni with a lot of stable jobs) are what are going to get you into those research labs, internships, and jobs. If a significant amount of alumni donate back to the school, it usually means that they believe that the school is generated a significant impact on their lives and that they have the money to donate back, which is also a decent indicator of a good school. Even if gaining wealth isn’t a priority for you, donating also shows that the university meant a lot to the alum. Lastly, if a lot of alumni are eager to come back to campus, it shows that they probably enjoyed their time a lot while they were in college, giving you some insight about the culture of the school. This isn’t always true and is the least quantitatively backed out of the three points, but my argument is that if a lot of alumni come back or are still involved with the school, then it probably shows people were very active and involved.

It is pretty easy to find this information online because most colleges have databases on alumni and articles are written in US News and other platforms. Always look at what alumni have to say about a school. While things may have changed, they are the only people who have truly lived the college experience that you may be seeking.

What schools have decent alumni interaction post-graduation? The Ivy League schools are almost always going to top that list, but there are a lot of other schools that come up that you wouldn’t expect. Looking at links like this are very helpful.

Look at where people end up

A lot of good universities have established pipelines to certain workplaces. While applying to schools, try to find out where these pipelines are. For example, a lot of people apply to the University of Virginia in hopes of getting accepted to the McIntire School of Commerce. This means that a lot of students at UVA are passionate about “business”. Look at what types of firms McIntire feeds into after college. Where are most people going? More often than not, you will follow similar paths if you have those goals.

In very big and diverse schools, it is important to look at pipelines for your expected major, not just the entire school. If you are premed, where are people researching? If you are business, then where are people going for internships? If you are in computer science, what types of projects are people working on? Don’t leave yourself hanging on these topics.

Tuition costs matter a lot

A lot of students say they take into account the cost of tuition, but most of the time they really don’t. There are obviously exceptions to this, but a lot of times I see students going out-of-state, when the in-state school is equivalently as good, if not better. There is a certain benefit of going out-of-state, such as new environment, people, etc., but make sure you are willing to pay anywhere from $30,000-$45,000 extra per year.

The people at your school matter the most

After 4 years of this place, your personality will at least partially embody the type of culture that your school has. This means looking at behaviors of people that attend the school you want to go to. This works best if you know people that go to the school. If you knew them before college, then look at how they changed. Are they more extroverted or introverted? Did they get a lot smarter? Do they constantly look stressed? The environment is going to have a huge effect on everything from your study habits to who you are as a person. Make sure you know who you want to strive to be and then chase the school that meets those requirements. Again, it doesn’t have to be just the Ivy leagues or the top ten. A lot of times, you are going to visit these schools and their culture is something you wouldn’t want to have for four years.

Do not become one dimensional in your decision making and choose a school based on how good a program is or the ranking of the school. Think about your future self and what you would want in the future.