Masa Finance launches testnet of Soulbound Identity in Web3

By Edlyn Cardoza

The hybrid credit protocol and decentralized credit bureau, Masa Finance, announced the testnet launch of Masa Soulbound Identity, the soulbound identity in web3. The revolutionary new web3 identity credential will make it easier for users globally to establish a web3 financial identity and confirm patterns of creditworthiness using 10,000+ web 2 and web 3 data sources in 78 countries. Once deployed on the mainnet, Masa Finance will become the first platform to offer a soulbound structure on any EVM-compatible chains.

“Soulbound Tokens (SBTs), stand to shape web3’s path forward in a meaningful way,” said Brendan Playford, founder of Masa Finance. “With growing enthusiasm for this nascent space, we’re excited to leverage Masa Soulbound Identity to unlock access to decentralized lending and other financial products that support financial inclusion globally.”

With the web3 financial identity established by Masa Soulbound Identity, users can access decentralized loans and other financial products globally. Lenders can increase underwriting quality and access a global pool of decentralized liquidity. Liquidity Providers can better assess lenders’ loan book quality and make data-driven investment decisions.

The launch comes as enthusiasm for Soulbound Tokens grows. First outlined in a whitepaper co-authored by Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, earlier this year, SBTs are a new, non-transferable NFT asset class that can serve as a web3 user identity. SBTs are tokenized representations that are anchored to the notion of what someone’s accurate social or financial identity is – an authentic and indisputable list of credentials, commitments and affiliations. Being non-transferable, they demonstrate uniqueness in a way that couldn’t be traded to someone else, allowing them to authenticate the credentials of whoever held them.

To create a Masa Soulbound Identity, the user enters their information into the Masa app, which links their wallet and enables them to claim a unique Soulname NFT. This process is similar to registering an “XYZ.eth” Ethereum Name Service domain name. The user can claim the ownership of a Soulname NFT for a finite amount of time, renew it upon expiration, and sell and transfer it to another user for a price.

With their unique Masa Soulbound Identity, a user can access a range of use cases, such as accessing web 2 and web 3 credit scores, unlocking decentralized lending and other financial products, using Masa Soulbound Identity as a single sign-on for web3 applications, and more.