Know Your Address - Proving Humanity Onchain I Howard Wu

Thu, Oct 2, 2025, 12:00 AM

Howard Wu, CEO of Provable, discusses the challenges of current online identity and age verification methods, highlighting privacy risks such as oversharing personal data, lack of revocation, and data breaches. He introduces zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) as a privacy-preserving solution, enabling users to prove attributes (e.g., age, residency, group membership) without revealing sensitive information. Wu presents ZPass, a verifiable credentials system leveraging ZKPs for selective disclosure, and KYA (Know Your Address), which uses ZKML for on-device facial verification to prove ongoing humanity and identity ownership. These tools aim to enable compliance and privacy for onchain and web3 applications, supporting private stablecoins and payments while minimizing data exposure. Wu emphasizes the need for regulatory engagement and evolving compliance tech to match privacy advancements. 00:00 Introduction 00:35 The Problem with Current Identity Verification 02:24 Privacy Risks and Data Exposure 02:46 Zero-Knowledge Proofs as a Solution 03:44 Selective Disclosure and ZPass Overview 04:19 Use Cases: Age, Residency, Compliance, Attributes 06:18 Combining Multiple Proofs and Broader Compliance 07:25 How ZPass Works: Issuance and Claims 08:19 Technical Flow: Passport Registration and Onchain Proofs 09:49 Limitations of Existing Approaches 10:53 From Identity to Proving Humanity: Live Identity 11:41 Introducing KYA: Know Your Address 12:24 How KYA Works: On-Device ZKML Verification 13:43 Privacy Advantages of ZPass and KYA 14:02 Enabling Private, Compliant Payments 14:22 KYA Demo and User Experience 14:40 Compliance, Rule Engines, and Risk Scoring 15:49 Regulatory Gaps and Policy Engagement 16:39 Conclusion and Further Resources _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇺🇸 *Pragma New York* Pragma New York 2025 was held on August 14th at Vesper Events in Brooklyn, New York and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. Watch the full Pragma New York YouTube Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh5TRLdUXjnhUVfdbBtu6z2j ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ Follow Howard Wu X: https://x.com/1HowardWu ✅ Follow Provable X: https://x.com/ProvableHQ ✅ Follow ETHGlobal X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship? 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _