Bank of Self - A New Politick in Digital Identity Banking

The Bank of Self is built to give every human a unique secure identity account with full financial control and an equal voice in governance. It enforces a one human–one account policy to ensure self custody of assets, and blends privacy with accountability via zero-knowledge proofs. It operates with a mobile phone, in a unified mobile and web interface for users to manage their identity, payments and participation.  

Every account begins with a verifiable digital identity layer in W3C Decentralised Identifies (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs). Proof of uniqueness ensures that every identity account belongs to a real singular human, using privacy preserving methods such as zero-knowledge proofs. 

Recovery mechanisms combine multi-party computation with 'social recovery' to protect against loss or coercion and it's open standard architecture enables interoperability between nations, institutions, and communities, while maintaining censorship resistance and surveillance resilience. Security is enforced through multi-party computation (MPC), hardware secure elements and guardian based recovery. 

Critically, the transaction layer only uses existing assets, avoiding the debt traps of traditional banking whilst users can set spending limits, transaction policies and human readable memos to ensure safe and informed use of funds. Transactions are processed via a high-throughput, low-cost settlement layer. Assets include multi currency stable-coins, tokenised real-world money, food and renewable energy credits. 

The governance layer is direct and verifiable allowing citizens to vote on national and local policies, delegate their votes and or participate in citizen assemblies. Votes are private yet publicly verifiable with practical safeguards such as quorum requirements, cooling off periods and second votes to protect against rash or uninformed decisions.  Critically no nation or community can engage in armed conflict without meeting strict thresholds for direct popular approval through participatory governance voting. Thus removing the unilateral power of leaders to commit populations to war without a national peoples assembly of consent.  

A specialised identity credential layer allows people to prove status and access aid without exposing unnecessary personal information. Whilst panic mechanisms can freeze accounts and alert trusted networks to a person in danger IE. coerced or enslaved through stolen or with-held identity. If issued at birth as a human right to safeguard our unique identity (in combination with unique DIDs, VCs, MPCs), the 'Bank of Self' would significantly curb human trafficking, most notable if uptake is unilaterally global for a world without borders. 

Conflict resolution is managed through a multi-tiered process starting with automated rules, then escalating to human moderators, decentralised juries and external arbitration. Fraud is deterred through staking and slashing mechanisms to penalise, at the risk losing assets, investments and ultimately trust if engaging in fraudulent activities. 

The entire system operates on a freemium peer-to-peer transfer network. Whilst operational costs come from optional services such as foreign exchange and premium features such as peer-cooperative savings/loans, open source technology for business enhancing tools. Treasury funds are managed transparently with voter oversight and community leaders within nodes working from local up to national levels. User reputation scores influence ones governance weight and transaction priorities, this honest verified contributions are rewarded, whilst fraudulent activity results in trust demotion.   

A neutral foundation manages an open standards in accordance with moral standards committee, while a service co-operative handles the operations with skilled assets such as legal compliance which focuses on privacy-preserving proofs for AML/CFT requirements. Core team expertise spans from cryptography, governance, payments infrastructure and humanitarian relief. Partnerships include municipalities, fintechs, NGOs, and academic institutions. 

Inspired by mycelial networks in nature, the network detects needs, verifies users through multiple attestations, then prioritises funds and assets based on urgency and impact. Then routes resources accordingly to create a living global safety net that directs aid and infrastructure to where and when it it is most needed. In times of crisis, the system can rapidly onboard users, waive fees, prioritise urgent needs and integrate with local relief operations. Critically it is can work from local education needs to supply free books, school meals and shoes for children up to disaster level diverting food, water and aid. 

Interoperability and data standards adopts W3C, ISO 20022, and other global standards ensure compatibility with existing systems including banking networks and government registries. Non-exhaustive threat models mitigate sybil attacks, key theft, ballot coercion, and governance capture. Whilst the node governance networks, from local to national to global in combination with blockchain security make the system highly resilient against both state level and criminal adversaries wishing to take control of the system or manipulate it. 

The initial rollout plan (MVP Scope 6-9months) focuses on core identity verification, free peer-to-peer transfers, basic localised community voting, and panic/freeze functionality to prove the models viability before scaling. A pilot rollout plan could start in one city with NGO and credit union partnerships. The pilot could then expand regionally, then nationally, then ultimately to an international coalition.