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

Recently, the Solana ecosystem welcomed an important update. The Solana identification team and the Solana Foundation jointly announced that the Solana Authentication Service (SAS) has officially launched on the mainnet. This is an open, permissionless verifiable credential protocol designed to provide users with a more secure and convenient way of identification.

The core function of SAS lies in allowing trusted issuers to associate off-chain information with user wallets. This information may include KYC check results, geographical eligibility, membership status, or verification status, among others. Importantly, these verifications are signed and verified, allowing for reuse across different applications while avoiding the need to expose sensitive data on-chain or to repeat verifications.

By providing a neutral and permissionless proof layer, SAS aims to achieve more efficient compliance management, access control, reputation systems, and programmable identification within the Solana ecosystem. This not only brings a better experience for end users but also offers new possibilities for developers.

Although SAS and Oracle Machines are both dedicated to bringing off-chain information onto the blockchain, they have significant differences in positioning, use cases, trust models, and how they operate. Here is a detailed comparison of the two:

| Features | verification services (such as SAS) | Oracle Machine | |------|----------------|--------| | Main Use | Transform off-chain identification, status, behavior, and other subjective or static information into on-chain certificates | Provide off-chain objective, dynamic data (such as prices, weather) to on-chain applications | | Data Type | Subjective/Event-based: such as age verification, identification, organizational membership | Numerical/Factual: such as cryptocurrency prices, external API data, meteorological information | | Data Structure | Reusable, wallet-bound verification "seal" | Real-time data flow used in transactions | | Source of Trust | Specific trusted publishers (such as KYC institutions, DAOs, device manufacturers) | Multiple data sources, published after aggregation by the Oracle Machine network | | Update Frequency | Low frequency, usually valid for a long time after being generated once | High frequency, may update once every minute or even shorter time | | Composability | High, one verification can be reused for multiple applications | Low, data is usually used for specific transactions or operations | | Privacy Protection | Strong, only verifies results without disclosing detailed information | Generally does not involve user identification, mainly processes public data | | Project Representation | Solana verification service, Ethereum verification service | Chainlink, Pyth, Band Protocol |

To better understand the differences between the two, we can look at a specific example:

When using the verification service, users may complete real-name identification through a certain Web3 platform and obtain an "adult" on-chain verification stamp. This stamp is stored in the user's wallet, and any future decentralized application can verify it without the need for the user to repeatedly submit identification.

In contrast, the typical use case of the Oracle Machine is in DeFi protocols. For example, a lending platform needs to know the market price of ETH in real-time to determine whether to trigger liquidation conditions. At this time, it will read the current ETH/USD price data through the Oracle Machine.

Overall, the Oracle Machine mainly focuses on providing "objective factual" data off-chain, while verification services concentrate on validating "subjective or conditional trust" off-chain. These two mechanisms play a complementary rather than a substitutive role in the blockchain ecosystem, collectively enhancing the functionality and usability of blockchain applications.