Proposal: Leveraging Proof of Personhood & Verifiable Credentials to Protect the OpenGov Treasury

Governance
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Hey everyone,

How can we protect decentralized treasuries from bad actors without compromising their open and permissionless nature?

It’s a core challenge. While OpenGov is a revolutionary model, its lack of built-in accountability means well-funded grifters face no consequences, harming the ecosystem, token holders, and protocol maintainers.

I’m deeply aligned with Gavin Wood’s recent shift in focus towards on-chain Proof of Personhood (PoP). The Decentralized Identifier (DID) model inherently relies on trusted attesters, robust practices, and polished attestation methods to function effectively. PoP is a critical missing piece to solve the sybil-resistant identity layer that web3 needs.

This conversation is therefore perfectly timed. I’m building on KILT Protocol to create a solution that complements this vision. I’m proposing we explore integrating Verifiable Credentials (VCs) as a layer for treasury funding, using PoP as a fundamental pillar.

The idea:

  • Use Proof of Personhood and trusted attesters to provide Sybil-resistant KYC/KYB/KYP via VCs.

  • Implement verifiable legal locks for teams receiving treasury funds based on these credentials.

  • Create a framework that allows the DAO to hold recipients accountable, turning on-chain reputation into real-world consequences.

This isn’t about stopping decentralization; it’s about using tools like PoP and VCs to verify truth and build trust—a future that’s responsibly decentralized.

I’ve built a beta platform for issuing VCs and managing digital legal contracts (a CLM dApp) that could facilitate this. It’s not perfect, but it’s functional enough to start this integration.

I want to build this with the community. So, I’m opening the floor:

  1. How do you think Proof of Personhood can best be integrated into treasury management?

  2. What are your biggest concerns or ideas about this concept?

  3. Who should I talk to? (e.g., W3F team, legal bounty participants)

  4. Would you be willing to test the beta and provide feedback? You’ll need a KILT DID.

Resources:

I’m eager to hear your thoughts and collaborate to strengthen our ecosystem.

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This is great news. It would be fantastic to have you all join us at the Internet Identity Workshop - where we innovated DIDs and Verifiable Credentials and bring folks from all over the world implementing - Its October 21-23 in Mountain View California. https://internetidentityworkshop.com/

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I’m based in Mexico, and I don’t have a Visa for the States, thanks for the invitation, tho.