Facets: Proof Instead of Data.

A person’s identity carries attributes. How old you are. Your date of birth. Whether you are a US citizen. Whether you are an accredited investor. Merchants, lenders and regulators often need to know some of these before a transaction can happen.

Here is the problem. You do not want to hand that information to every agent and every merchant you deal with. Each copy of your personal data is a new place it can leak.

One facet, one fact

My teams call this a facet. A facet is a zero-knowledge proof of a single attribute. Zero-knowledge is a branch of cryptography that lets you prove a statement is true without revealing the information behind it. A facet can prove you are over twenty-one without revealing your birth date. It can prove you are an accredited investor without revealing your balance sheet.

Facets attach to an identity, and that identity can be carried across many agents. Your shopping agent, your travel agent and your investing agent can each prove exactly what a merchant needs to know about you, and nothing more.

Agents act. Identity stands behind them. Proof replaces exposure.

From principle to wallet

Kim Cameron, Microsoft’s chief architect of identity, wrote the principle down two decades ago in his Laws of Identity. His second law is minimal disclosure for a constrained use. The tools have now caught up. In July 2025, Google open-sourced its zero-knowledge proof libraries for age assurance. Its example: a website visitor can show they are over 18 and share nothing else.

For a business, the shift is practical. Every field you store is a liability you carry. A proof answers the question you actually have, and leaves nothing behind to breach.

Swap one record for a proof

1. Map what you collectList every personal field your checkout, onboarding or agent flow asks for.
2. Write the real questionFor each field, write the yes or no question it answers. Over twenty-one? Accredited? Authorized to spend?
3. Ask for the proof, not the dataPick one question and design the flow to accept a proof of the answer instead of the record.
4. Stop storing what a proof answersOnce the proof works, stop keeping the underlying data.