Solana Launches Identification Verification Service: How Is It Different from Oracle Machine?

Recently, the Solana ecosystem welcomed an important update. The Solana identification team announced in collaboration with the foundation that the Solana Authentication Service (SAS) has officially launched on the mainnet. This is an open, permissionless verifiable credential protocol designed to bring a more secure and convenient identification verification mechanism to the Solana ecosystem.

The core function of SAS is to associate off-chain information with user wallets. This information may include KYC check results, geographical eligibility, membership status, or other verification statuses. Through SAS, these verification details can be reused across different applications after being signed and verified, without the need for repeated verification or exposing sensitive data on-chain.

The launch of this service brings a neutral and permissionless proof layer to the Solana ecosystem, aiming to achieve more efficient compliance management, access control, reputation systems, and programmable identification across the entire network. For developers and users, this means a higher quality and more convenient experience.

Although verification services and Oracle Machines are both dedicated to bringing off-chain information onto the blockchain, there are significant differences between the two in terms of positioning, use cases, trust models, and working mechanisms. Here is a detailed comparison of these two technologies:

| Features | Verification Service | Oracle Machine | |-----|-------|-----| | Main Use | Convert off-chain identification, status, behavior, and other subjective or static information into on-chain certificates | Provide off-chain objective, dynamic data (such as price, weather) to on-chain applications | | Data Type | Subjective/Event-Based: such as age verification, identification, organizational membership | Numerical/Fact-Based: such as cryptocurrency prices, API data, meteorological information | | Data Structure | Reusable, wallet-bound verification "seal" | Data stream used in real-time during transactions | | Source of Trust | Specific trusted publishers (such as KYC institutions, DAOs, device manufacturers) | Multiple data sources, aggregated and published through the Oracle Machine network | | Update Frequency | Low, usually valid for a long time after one generation | High frequency updates, possibly every minute or even faster | | Composability | High, one verification can be used for multiple applications | Low, data is mainly used for specific transactions or operations | | Privacy Processing | Emphasizes privacy protection, only verifying results without disclosing detailed information | Typically does not involve user privacy data | | Project Representation | Solana verification service, Ethereum verification service | Chainlink, Pyth, Band Protocol |

To better understand the difference between the two, we can illustrate with specific examples:

Verification service use case: After a user completes real-name verification on a certain Web3 platform, they receive an "adult" on-chain verification stamp. This stamp is stored in the user's wallet and can be verified by any dApp in the future without the need to resubmit identification.

Use cases of Oracle Machine: DeFi protocols require real-time ETH prices to determine liquidation conditions, obtaining the latest ETH/USD exchange rate through an Oracle Machine (such as Chainlink).

Overall, the Oracle Machine mainly focuses on providing off-chain "objective factual" data, while the verification service concentrates on validating off-chain "subjective or conditional trust." These two technologies play a complementary rather than a substitutive role in the Web3 ecosystem, jointly promoting the development and improvement of decentralized applications.