Cardano’s Digital Identity Platform
On April 3rd, 2025, Cardano launched Veridian, a new open-source digital identity platform. But what are digital identity platforms? And should you use one?
If you are confused about digital identity platforms, you aren’t alone. Keep reading to learn all about the uses of Cardano’s digital identity platform.
What is Cardano?
Before we dive in, let’s have a quick review of Cardano.
Cardano is a decentralized blockchain platform similar to Ethereum. With the ability to run a variety of smart contracts and a native token by the name of ADA, many companies have used Cardano to build their own blockchain infrastructure.
Cardano is run on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and was built by Charles Hoskinson, who was the co-founder of Ethereum. Cardano hasn’t quite seen the same success as Ethereum, but, as of the writing of this article, it is in the top 10 cryptocurrencies based on market cap.
What is a Digital Identity Platform?
The world has become increasingly more digital over the past decade. And while the average individual now has the world at their fingertips thanks to the World Wide Web, criminals have also benefited from the digitization with data breaches and identity thefts.
Digital identity platforms aim to lower the chance of data theft by putting digital identity back in the hands of the individual it belongs to. What a digital identity platform does is create a digital version of your identity that can be used on every platform—no more long lists of usernames and passwords. Then, when you want to sign in or make a purchase, the platform issues a one-time token of your identity. This means the place you are buying from (or logging in to) doesn’t retain any of your data, and thus, it isn’t susceptible to a future breach.
Not only do digital identity platforms protect your data from future breaches, but they make controlling your online presence easier. What’s even cooler is that you control your own resets (if needed) so there is no need to wait for the IT tech of a random company to get back to you if you ever get locked out.
Who Needs a Digital Identity Platform?
In our opinion, anyone who plans to shop online or has an online presence should use a digital identity platform. As we mentioned above, not only does it make it easier to log in when needed, but it also serves as long-term data protection—something that everyone needs these days thanks to the large number of hacks.
Are Digital Identity Platforms a Good Thing?
There are pros and cons to a digital identity platform and we will evaluate both below.
Pros of Digital Identity Platforms
Honestly, though we will go through the cons in the next section, we truly believe there are so many pros to digital identity platforms that we can’t list them all here. But to start, digital identity platforms are convenient and efficient, allowing you to control your personal data with ease.
They also offer enhanced security, and from a company standpoint, they remove the pressure of having to collect and store customer data. Additionally, they will have less issues if there is eventually a breach of what little data is stored. Digital identity platforms can reduce fraud, making identity theft harder than before. Less fraud means less stress on corporations, which often have to hire employees to monitor and process fraud claims.
Not only that, but digital identity can help provide identity for those who aren’t able to maintain other types of identity (for example, a passport in the United States costs hundreds of dollars). We aren’t saying that a digital identity platform would be free, but it would be a much lower cost as there wouldn’t be the massive amount of government overhead than is currently attached to passports.
Cons of Digital Identity Platforms
But of course, as is with everything in life, there is a dark side to digital identity platforms as well. Our number one concern is that we want there to be decentralized digital identity platforms—not centralized ones. Centralized identity platforms are run by governments, which while they probably still help prevent hacks, they don’t carry the same privacy benefits as a decentralized one.
Plus, if a centralized government were ever to be overturned, individuals could lose some of their digital identity info if the platform the government was using goes defunct.
Which brings us to our next con—whatever company or platform creates a digital identity platform needs to ensure proper security is in place so the hackers which usually target large corporations don’t turn to target the digital identity platforms instead.
Our last con is kind of a pro as well. Digital identity platforms increase dependence on technology—meaning everything could collapse if there is a crazy event like a solar flare that knocks out electricity. That being said, we are a society that is becoming more dependent on technology anyway, even if we don't engage in digital identity. Therefore, reliance on technology isn’t a reason to not create a digital identity as society is become reliant on technology anyway.
Should You Use Veridian?
Veridian is the name of Cardano’s digital identity platform, and while we haven’t tried it yet ourselves, we do think it would be interesting to test it out. Don’t get too excited, however, as the platform is still in its early phases, and Charles Hoskins estimates that it will take 3 years for it to come to full functionality.
Overall, though, Cardano is one of the few projects we admire in the altcoin space. Though they aren’t as popular as Ethereum or Solana, we think creating the digital identity platform was a good move for society. We aren’t sure if their platform will be successful or not, but we don’t think there is any problem with testing it out if you are so inclined to do so. Just know that full functionality might not be available to users for quite some time.
