TrustChain Open Call #1 is an excellent opportunity for individuals and organizations to showcase their solutions to current challenges in the ecosystem of decentralized digital identity systems. With this open call, TrustChain is inviting proposals that address the specific challenges identified in their call for proposals. To help ensure your proposal stands out, here are some DO’s and DON’Ts to consider when applying for TrustChain Open Call #1. Let’s first get serious and tick off important stuff!

DO:

1.  Write your application with our objectives on mind.
   We are looking for applicants that will develop interoperable and sustainable digital identity management applications that are transparent and address the needs of the future decentralised internet.

   In particular, the following main objectives should be considered:

• Develop a framework for decentralized user-centric identity management that lies in the scope of the call and addresses the stated challenges below;
• Develop protocols for trustworthiness of entities by means of verifiable credentials and decentralized reputation systems;
• To ensure identity attributes are disclosed only with the informed consent from the data owner (i.e., data minimization requirement of GDPR); and,
• Develop smart oracles to assess the trustworthiness of data fed to blockchain smart-contracts fetched from external systems.
  
  

2. Make sure that your application covers real needs of the end-users in one of the sectors such as for example banking, education, healthcare or e-democracy.
   
   

3. Observe the challenges we are trying to tackle.
   
   For that purpose, your proposed solution may include:

• The provision of public administration services;
• Digital identities used in the banking (e.g., know your customer (KYC) approaches), education (e.g. micro credentials for micro competencies), healthcare (e.g. access-control mechanisms in cross-border scenarios), and other sectors;
• Cross-border use of digital identities;
• digital identities used by Next Generation Internet services; and/or, regulatory alignment of existing digital identities (e.g., in the context of EU eIDAS framework).
  
  

4. The proposed solutions are intended to be co-created with end users focusing on identity and trustworthiness, adopting a user-friendly design. The applicant should show collaboration with an EU end-user organisation (i.e., banking, healthcare, education, policing etc.) as well as consider vulnerable groups for the evaluation /validation process if possible.
   
   

5. Emphasize the value proposition, scalability, and energy efficiency of your proposed solution: Your proposal should demonstrate how your solution will provide value, scale effectively, and be energy-efficient.
   
   

6. Focus on what is currently missing e.g. privacy preservation, reputation management and on expanding what already exists thus scaling rather than building something new from scratch. If something completely new must be build (see point above), it should be well motivated in particular with what rewards the nature of the problem and why the state-of-the-art solution does not solve it today (i.e., barriers to adoption).
   
   

7. Demonstrate access to an infrastructure that is EVM compatible where your proposed solution can be deployed and showcased: Your proposed solution should have access to an infrastructure that is EVM compatible and where it can be deployed and showcased.
   
   

8. Present in a clear and concise manner any existing and/or emerging identity platform (i.e., eIDAS2) / infrastructure standards with which you intend to comply, or they wish to contribute in the course of the proposed projects.
   
   

9. Check your eligibility!
   
   

• Are you a team of natural person(s), legal entity(ies) or in a combination of these two? – You’re good to go.
• You have not have been declared bankrupt or have initiated bankruptcy procedures? You/your team/entity do not have convictions for fraudulent behaviour, other financial irregularities, and unethical or illegal business practices? Please continue with application.
• You are legally established/resident in any of the following countries: The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions; The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States; Horizon Europe associated countries? Excellent! Almost through with the “DO” checklist.

   

     10. Lastly, check out our 5 tips for successful application!