Using Decentralized Social Trust as an Alternative Way to Prove Someone’s Address

Abstract

The traditional way to prove someone’s address using formal documents like utility bills may not be feasible for some people, like those living in very poor neighborhoods, because they do not have these documents. In this paper, we propose an alternative way to prove someone’s address using a decentralized social trust solution. Because our design choices, this solution is able to work offline and does not need a logically centralized repository of all issued proof-of-address, in oppose to what would be achieved by using existing accretionary ID solutions. We validated this proposal by building a mobile application, using it in a real experiment in a Brazilian favela, and collecting mobile data. We also interviewed 20 people to complement our validation and help to guide the next steps of this work. The experiment showed that the solution is viable and easy to use. It is possible to adopt an approach like the one proposed to prove other facts, like gender, sex and income. These proofs may be used for different initiatives, like social programs, purpose-driven lending or other decentralized finance services.