Dated notes from the build: what runs on the single-node production chain, the decisions behind it, and explainers on human-backed agent identity, reusable KYC and zero-knowledge proofs.
6 min read
engineering
The single-node production chain has produced blocks in Spain since 20 September 2026, operated by the CONECTIA group and keeping ZadQ’s accounting. The identity checks behind its attestations now run on a certified external provider, and the proof core is in production. Conectia PRO and ZadQ are related parties, so none of this is independent adoption.
6 min read
engineering
If two implementations hash the binding of a ten-second presentation over different bytes, a valid proof fails or a wrong one passes. MintID now declares its rule — RFC 8785 canonicalization, then SHA-256 — cites every digest as a typed reference, and hashes Merkle-tree entries as raw bytes. Recorded as bIP-0003; existing integrations see the same bytes, and the rule follows an individual IETF submission on SCITT payload binding.
7 min read
design note
MintID’s four assurance grades, A1–A4, map onto eIDAS, ISO/IEC 29115, ETSI TS 119 461, NIST IAL and EU anti-money-laundering law. The issuer publishes age separately as a freshness band, F1–F4, and a credential expires with its verification: twelve months for A1 and A2, six for A3, three for A4.
11 min read
milestone
In August 2026 MintID ran its first end-to-end test on an internal testnet — a chain node and the verifier service, rebuilt from a reproducible package: proof-backed reads, live ten-second challenges, a minimal decision record and a complete MCP session. The same month’s re-freeze of the specifications fixed the token design for a possible public network: the 108,000,000 hard cap, ratified allocation bands, a price-independent launch gate. The protocol cuts and their allocation are under review.
9 min read
transparency
In July 2026 Conectia PRO — the related-party group that conceived MintID and is building it — audited MintID’s economic viability against its own frozen corpus, before any token existed. The verdict, quoted whole: a qualified opinion, with the demand thesis corroborated against independent sources and five critical findings. The specification corpus was re-frozen within days with five written answers; the report is published unedited.
6 min read
announcement
MintID’s verifier now runs as an MCP server: the three frozen verifier-service operations become tools any agent framework can call, with the same closed reason codes, so an agent reads a rejection as a decision it can act on.
8 min read
standards
Between an anonymous payment and a doxxed buyer sits a slot: human-backed, in scope, unrevoked, and unrevealed. A zero-knowledge proof is built to fill it. MintID has drafted a standards-track profile that carries that proof over x402 and Web Bot Auth without changing either, with machine-readable schemas and a validation suite.
7 min read
issuance
Cheaper AI screening is good news for a credential rail: more organisations can afford to issue. MintID’s issuer plane keeps the decision with the issuer by construction: a screener’s output is accepted only as enumerated checks with provenance, an asserted grade is rejected by name, and no field exists that could carry one.
7 min read
agentic identity
Cloudflare’s Monetization Gateway makes agents pay per call over x402, and Web Bot Auth signs the big fleets. Neither tells a seller whether an accountable human stands behind the long tail of agents. Why verifiable human-backed agent identity, proven in zero knowledge, is the missing half of the paying web.
6 min read
architecture
MintID’s verifier SDKs share one verification core, embedded in Python and never rewritten per language. TypeScript and later languages are thin clients with no cryptography and no policy, calling a verification service you host yourself, so no binding can weaken a check. An implementation audit of the core is a scheduled milestone whose findings are published.
5 min read
announcement
The MintID verifier SDKs are built around one verification core, embedded in Python and reached from other languages through transport-only clients, TypeScript first, with further languages as demand appears. Inside every binding, the same non-negotiables: nine acceptance checks, a ten-second presentation lifetime and zero policy knobs.
9 min read
comparison
ERC-8004 makes agents discoverable and their work verifiable; its identity is a transferable NFT, its reputation open to Sybil inflation, and recourse out of scope. A MintID presentation proves that a liable, verified human backs an agent without naming them. Where the standard stops, and how the two compose.
7 min read
agent credentials
Agent authorisation today is a plaintext scope inside a token: all or nothing. A scope structured along five provable axes applies selective disclosure to authorisation itself — the merchant learns the limit, not the mandate.
7 min read
economics
One KYC with an approved issuer backs every agent credential minted for that human’s agents, so accountability is paid for once instead of at every counterparty. How amortisation changes the cost structure of trust, and the five flows a public MintID network would earn from if that route is chosen.
8 min read
privacy
Identifying an agent once, paid and consented, is categorically different from holding a handle that tracks its human forever. How pay-per-disclosure, pseudonym churn and committed receipts are designed to make identification a bounded event rather than a tracking right.
9 min read
disputes
MintID’s dispute design starts from a premise: a wronged party wants to be made whole before it wants a name. How the specified dispute rail — self-custodied escrow, bonded arbiters, due process — would settle claims without unmasking anyone, and why that protects both sides. Specified and scheduled for the financial-recourse stage; audits not started; no funds are locked today.
10 min read
agentic identity
Passwords, MFA, KYC and fraud scoring all assume a human at the keyboard. Autonomous AI agents break that assumption, and six concrete failures follow. The sixth — accountability or privacy, pick one — is the one to solve first, because it keeps the other five unfixed.
8 min read
reusable kyc
Verify once with an approved issuer, then prove age, assurance grade (A1–A4) or credential status anywhere with a ten-second zero-knowledge presentation. The documents stay with the issuer, and no personal data goes on-chain.
8 min read
comparison
Concordium puts a verified identity behind every account and lets a court order plus 2-of-3 Privacy Guardians reverse its privacy. MintID keeps no person-level record on-chain and leaves the only identity link with the issuer, released under due process. How the two identity-first chains differ, and where Concordium is ahead.
9 min read
kya
What Know Your Agent (KYA) means, why AI agents need verified human backing, how KYA differs from KYC, and how zero-knowledge agent credentials work.