👋BitBadges Overview

Here, you will find documentation about BitBadges, how it works, how to interact, and how to contribute!

Overview

Tokens (badges) are simply something that you can own digitally and prove ownership of it. You probably already use and own many digital tokens: verification checkmarks, a movie streaming subscription, concert tickets, etc. These tokens can be used for many use cases, each potentially offering you different utility and value. Some may have real-world use cases (e.g. entry to a concert), while some may be purely digital (e.g. verification checkmark). Some may signify something about your reputation (certifications), while some may just be collected for fun.

When combined with blockchain technology, badges become even more secure and more powerful, due to the unique properties of the blockchain (verifiable, decentralized, tamper-proof, and so on).

However, the existing infrastructure and technology is not nearly good enough to realize the vast potential of digital blockchain tokens. Notably, existing state-of-the-art is not scalable, lacks consistency, and is limited to a single blockchain ecosystem at a time (e.g. only Ethereum users). This is a HUGE problem because most companies and providers are neutral and do not belong to a specific blockchain ecosystem, so currently, it greatly restricts their potential audience! Imagine hosting a concert that can only be attended by those with Android phones.

BitBadges can be described as tokenization-as-a-service. We offer an open-source, multi-chain, state-of-the-art, community-driven token standard and suite of tools that enable you to create, customize, verify, and integrate with digital blockchain tokens for any use case you desire.

The BitBadges ecosystem aims to offer the full-stack of tools and services you may need from the required storage (blockchain, data indexing, off-chain data storage) to authentication to distribution to offline-first verification tools (in-person verification, website gated sign-ins) to communicating with your badge holders and more!

The web app (https://bitbadges.io) allows you to show off your badges and build your digital identity as you collect more over time! On the flip side, you can browse others' badges to get a sense of their digital identity (e.g. are they a scammer or trustworthy?). This app has a social media feel but is also the all-in-one site to establish the identity of a user.

Use Cases

🎨pageUse Cases

Because you can create a badge for anything, there are infinitely many possible use cases for BitBadges! As you collect more badges, your portfolio grows, and you can show it off to others.

Below are some of our favorite use cases:

Attendance Badges - Mint an attendance badge for an event, trip, etc as a souvenir!
Memberships/Subscriptions/Premium Content - Badges are all time-based, so you can offer time-dependent memberships / subscriptions and offer the utility only to those who own the badge at a certain time!
Access Tokens - Use badges as access tokens. This can be digital (websites, Discord servers, etc) or in-person (tickets, event entry, etc).
Recognition of Achievement or Completion - Job certifications, awards, athletic accomplishments, completing a class, etc.
Authentication / Tiered Services - Companies can outsource their authentication to Web3 / and verify ownership through tiered services badges (family plan badge vs normal user badge). Cheaper, more secure, and less work!
Protocols: Use BitBadges to implement multi-chain protocols, such as an attendance protocol or a follow protocol.
See more use cases here!

Why are we better?

What makes our token standard and product better than competitors?

Multi-Chain

Supports users from multiple blockchain ecosystems instead of just one! We currently support Cosmos, Solana, Bitcoin, and Ethereum users.

Decentralization

We keep decentralization as a core principle, as opposed to some of our competitors who rely on more centralized architectures and censoring. We ALWAYS provide fully decentralized options but also hybrid ones with different tradeoffs such as enhanced user experience for those who do not care about decentralization.

Rapidly-Evolving

Instead of relying on a rigid token standard that is not adaptable to new features, we iterate fast and constantly add new features. We believe token standards should be flexible and continuously adding new functionality, as opposed to existing ones which are rigid, not adaptable, and hard to adopt new ones.

Community-Driven Ecosystem

By being open-source and developer friendly, we aim to facilitate an ecosystem of community-driven projects, tools, and more built on top of BitBadges. See Ecosystem.

Scalability, Security, and Ease of Use

Our product is more scalable, easier to use, and more secure than competitors (see here) .

Innovative Features

In addition to the standard features of existing token standards (mint, transfer, approve, etc), we expand and offer the following functionality:

Time-Based Balances: Badge balances are all time-dependent which allow you to, for example, transfer only a specific period of time (e.g. subscription token for a month), clearly define token unlock schedules, or approve a transfer only for a specific period of time.
Off-Chain Balances: New ways to store and track balances, in addition to the standard on-chain storage of balances. Storing balances off-chain can offer over 1000x better scalability and much better user experience because users never need to transact with the blockchain. Badges are auto assigned to their wallets.
Fine-Grained Transferability and Approvals Customization: Simply abstracting transferability to "transferable" or "non-transferable" is too simple for many use cases. We recognize that transferability is a complex protocol of who can transfer to who? at what times? what badges? how many? revokable? freezable? etc.
- Example: Only those who own the verified checkmark badge can transfer the badge IDs 1-5 to each other from Monday to Tuesday 12PM, but badges will be revokable by the manager after that.
- Must Own Badges: Restrict sending and receiving badges to only those who own specific badges of other collections (e.g. a KYC badge, a verified badge).
- Fine-Grained Approvals: In addition to simply specifying approval of X amount, you can customize approvals further with details like predetermined balances (x1 of ID 1, then x1 of ID 2), max number of transfers allowed, and more!
- Incoming Approvals: In addition to having control over your outgoing transfers, have control over your incoming transfers via incoming approvals.
  - Ex: Block certain users from transferring to you. Block all transfers unless you opt-in to receiving them.
- And more!
Customizable Permissions: Each collection has fine-grained customizable permissions that can be optionally set and executed by a special party called the manager, such as archiving the collection, deleting it, updating its metadata, updating transferability, etc.
Time-Based Details: Important collection details such as metadata are time-based, allowing you to automatically commit to updating it at a future time without needing to transact at that time.
- Ex: Set the metadata to be one value from January 1 to January 10 and then auto-change to another value!
Batch Transfers: Batch transfer badges instead of only being able to transfer one by one.
- Instead of needing 1000 transactions to send 1000 unique non-fungible badges in a collection (e.g. x1 of Badge ID 1, x1 of ID 2, ...), you can batch all into one transaction efficiently (e.g. send x1 of Badge IDs 1-1000).

And much more!

Privacy Tools

While all badge collections are public and created on the BitBadges blockchain, we recognize privacy is an important aspect in many cases. Here are some ways BitBadges can be used in a privacy-preserving context.

Verifiable Secrets

The BitBadges site allows anyone to commit, issue, and hold secrets which are secret messages signed by some issuer. The most common use case of these is credentials, and such secrets can be added to any BitBadges login flow (e.g. verify youa re 21 for access).

pageVerifiable Secrets

Proof of Knowledge for Approval

Certain secrets may even be configured to perform on-chain actions (e.g. solve a zero-knowledge proof for approval or insert a secret code for approval).

Gated / Hidden Balances

You can also select the "Private" or "None" balances standard on the site. This will allow you to secretly define who owns the badge. Everything else will be public (metadata, etc), but ownership is decided privately by you.

Distribution Tools

🔀pageDistribution Tools

There are infinitely many ways to distribute badges to holders. On the BItBadges site, we natively support the building blocks (whitelists, passwords, claim codes, QR codes). However, these are to be combined with distribution tools to further enhance the distribution experience.

For example, you might create a code-based claim on the BitBadges website but distribute the codes in a variety of ways such as via email, Discord, or SMS.

BitBadges aims to have a vast ecosystem of community-built distribution tools. Our goal is that users will have thousands of options to choose from built by different teams, each offering their own unique niche.

Ecosystem Tools

Ecosystem tools are anything from tools for authenticating users, communicating with badge holders, to distributing badges, and more!

Similar to distribution tools, we want to support a vast ecosystem of tools built by different teams, each with their own unique niche.

🌴pageEcosystem 🕵️pageAuthentication with Badges

Need additional functionality?

While BitBadges offers a wide range of customizable functionality for badges, we understand that not all cases are currently supported. Some may simply not be supported on the website, wheeas some may not be supported altogether.

We are committed to continuously improving and expanding our offered functionality over time. If you find that your use case requires unsupported functionality, you have two options:

Option 1: Implement It

The BitBadges blockchain supports CosmWASM smart contracts, which can be used to implement custom functionality for your badge on-chain. A tutorial is available here.

We also offer a developer API and SDK which can be used to expand the functionality of badges for dApps and off-chain applications.

We would appreciate it if you could inform us of any missing functionality from the interface you require when choosing this option, so we can try to add it natively. Please contact us here.

Option 2: Request It

You can request the functionality from the BitBadges team, and we will do our best to add it as soon as possible. Please contact us here. Or, draft an improvement proposal here.