Mission Unstoppable

By Matt Gould, CEO and Co-Founder, Unstoppable Domains

Five years ago, Unstoppable set out to create user-owned digital identity for every person on the planet. Our idea was simple: First, make crypto payments easier by getting a domain into the hands of every person in Web3. Then, using the same blockchain technology that makes it possible to easily and safely send money to any person on the planet, let people attach even more verified information to their digital identity. Eventually, this collection of data forms a digital identity that each individual fully owns and controls in their Web3 wallet.

Unstoppable is building a user-owned digital identity platform for Web3. 

Identity on the Internet is broken. The Web2 era consolidated most identity data among a handful of big tech companies, which use our data to sell ads. Each of us has tons of data about ourselves available online, but it’s distributed, and as individuals we have virtually no control over how our data is used and monetized. It’s also not portable – if a social media site goes down or deletes your account, you lose access to content you’ve created and the reputation you’ve built, and have to start over from scratch on a new platform. Meanwhile, the Internet is rife with bots, fake accounts, scammers and fraud, which have real-world consequences.

A system for verified, user-owned reputation solves this. By giving people the ability to own and control their data, we can create a world where data is portable across Web3, so we don’t have to rely on any one individual platform. We can give people the power to monetize their own data and more control over what data about them is used and shared. We’ll be able to verify people are who they say they are, increasing trust and transparency online  – all while maintaining control of the data we share.  

Building a verified system for identity will also increase access. If we can capture more of reputation data in a user-owned way, you will have more chances to establish reputation, earn rewards, or prove their credentials. For example better verified data could enable people to get access to financial products or job opportunities based on their reputation. 

We’ve made great strides making Web3 simpler by getting 3 million domains registered and into the hands of people. And we’re just getting started.

Recently, we’ve begun to make it easier for people to opt into adding more data to their identity in addition to just crypto addresses. Features like Unstoppable profiles and badges, privacy-first email, humanity check, and social handle verification all make it easier for you to add, curate, and control your Web3 identity.  

Over the next 12 months, you’ll see us add even more tools for people and apps to read, write, and verify people's data back to their digital identity. We’ll make it easier to enrich profiles with the goal of eventually making it completely automatic. This will eliminate the need for you to keep track of data you’ve saved on apps. No more worrying about passwords, your contacts on this or that app, backing up your favorite photos, avatar, badges and accomplishments, or other digital collectibles. Or having to constantly re-enter your information. And unlike in Web2, you own your identity data and you control who sees it, rather than giving up control to big tech companies. 

People add data to their digital identity to save time and money, apps process that data to improve people’s experiences, and people add even more data to their identity, on their own terms, to keep making their lives easier. We have already started to see this virtuous cycle. Every person who takes the first step by registering their Web3 domain helps further accelerate the move towards owning their digital identity and making it portable.

Slowly and then suddenly, we expect to see what we’ve built emerge: user-owned digital identity for every person on the planet.

To summarize:

1. Everyone on the planet owns their digital identity.
2. You get tools to easily manage your data attached to your digital identity, giving you more control over your Web3 data between apps. 
3. All your data is controlled and permissioned by you. Your data is easy to access, keep track of, and share, saving you time and money.