7. Mizuhiki Identity
The MIZUHIKI Identity layer is the foundational primitive of the Compliance Suite, and the primitive on which much of MIZUHIKI's sovereign, compliance-first posture depends. This section describes how MIZUHIKI Identity works, how it relates to global standards for decentralised identity, how it integrates with Japan's national identity infrastructure, and how it preserves user privacy while enabling institutional compliance.
7.1 MIZUHIKI ID
MIZUHIKI ID is a verifiable credential issued to a user's MIZUHIKI address by a trusted onshore MIZUHIKI Attestor. It attests that the user controlling the private key for the relevant address has undergone a specified KYC and screening procedure in Japan, and is therefore eligible to interact with regulated on-chain applications on MIZUHIKI. The credential takes the form of a verifiable presentation1 or, equivalently, a soulbound token bound to the user's address. MIZUHIKI ID is currently in testing on the Awaji testnet, with mainnet deployment planned for the network's mainnet launch in mid-2026.
For natural persons resident in Japan, MIZUHIKI ID is anchored to the MyNumber card — Japan's government-issued digital identity infrastructure2 — through an eKYC process operated by qualified entities. For institutional users, MIZUHIKI ID is anchored to corporate registry verification and to the identity of the institution's authorised representatives. In both cases, the underlying personally identifiable information never enters the blockchain. What enters the blockchain is a cryptographic attestation that the identified procedure was successfully completed.
7.2 The MIZUHIKI Attestor Network
MIZUHIKI Attestors are a Japan-sovereign network of compliant, licensed entities authorised by the Foundation to issue MIZUHIKI ID credentials. Attestors establish a "root of trust" that binds a natural or legal person's off-chain identity to their on-chain MIZUHIKI address.
The Attestor model separates the functions of identity verification (performed by Attestors under appropriate licensing) and application-level interaction (performed on-chain by users). This allows applications to rely on a shared, high-quality identity signal without themselves becoming custodians of user personal data, and it allows users to manage their identity portably across applications without repeatedly submitting their personal information.
7.3 Decentralised Identifiers and Verifiable Credentials
MIZUHIKI ID is built on the Decentralised Identifier (DID)3 and Verifiable Credential4 standards published by the World Wide Web Consortium. A DID is a digital identifier structured as a URI, containing information on how the documents referred to by the identifier may be resolved and verified. A Verifiable Credential is a cryptographically signed attestation made by an Attestor about a subject (the user) with respect to one or more claims ("has completed KYC in Japan," "is over 18," "is an accredited investor," and so on). Credentials can be presented to relying applications in the form of Verifiable Presentations, which may contain the full credential, a subset of its claims, or a zero-knowledge proof of claim validity.
7.4 Privacy Commitments
The MIZUHIKI Identity architecture rests on three privacy commitments. First, no personally identifiable information is written to the MIZUHIKI chain; all such information is held off-chain by the user or by an Attestor operating under a clear custodianship relationship. Second, applications receive only the specific claims they need for the interaction at hand; a user proving that they have completed KYC in Japan does not need to reveal their name, address, or national identity number to the relying application. Third, users retain the ability to revoke consent and to withdraw application access to their credentials at any time.