Decentralised Identity evaluated across credential custody & revocation power, verification without the vendor, biometric & pii handling (documented), and enforcement record & product continuity.
EN
#1 of 8 · published ranking
ENS (as identity layer)
81ChainChoice Score
4199
Why it leads
Best in the pool on custody and revocation and enforcement and continuity risk
Cost
Not priced· No comparable price is published
No provider can pay for a position in this table. The code that computes this order cannot read which links earn us a commission, and every build proves it. Every score below rebuilds from the published criteria.Ranking 2026.08 · 4 criteria · 8 products · same inputs, same order
Personal comparison
Decentralised Identity ranked comparison
No comparable price is published; ranking still uses verified product evidence.
RankProviderBest fitScore
1
ENENS (as identity layer)Onchain name and text records; proves k...Top ranked
Credential custody & revocation power — 9/10Trade-off: ENS is a name, not a credential — it proves control of a private key and nothing else...
Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 30/25/25/20, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20, evidence depth 18, ease of use 10, institutional trust 8. Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.
Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.09.15
published 2026-09-16
Providers tracked
980+
across 119 categories
Last verified
2026-09-15
newest dated pricing or sentiment read
Named on the roster
2 people
managing directors · 6 automated processes
Decision guide
What matters most before choosing in this category
Weighted on credential custody & revocation power (30), verification without the vendor (25), biometric & PII handling (documented) (25), and enforcement record & product continuity (20). The heaviest is credential custody & revocation power: Where the credential physically lives — user-held wallet, vendor database, or public chain — and who retains the switch to invalidate it.
What matters most before choosing in this category
Weighted on credential custody & revocation power (30), verification without the vendor (25), biometric & PII handling (documented) (25), and enforcement record & product continuity (20). The heaviest is credential custody & revocation power: Where the credential physically lives — user-held wallet, vendor database, or public chain — and who retains the switch to invalidate it.
Who holds the credential, and can the issuer revoke it without you?
Does verification still work if the vendor's servers go down?
Is biometric enrolment acceptable to your users and lawful in your markets?
Default starting point
Expert review and scoring weights
EN
ENS (as identity layer)Data checked Sep 2026
Onchain name and text records; proves key control, not human uniqueness
Onchain name and text records; proves key control, not human uniqueness. Strongest on credential custody & revocation power (9/10): The name is an ERC-721 held in the user's own wallet and its text records are written by the owner; no company can revoke it and there is no issuer to go bankrupt. The real termination risk is economic rather than political: registration is a lease, and non-payment of the $5/year forfeits the name and every identity… Weakest on biometric & pii handling (documented) (7/10): No biometrics, no documents, no KYC, nothing collected — the smallest attack surface here because there is no store to breach. Held at 7 rather than 10 because the privacy failure mode is inverted: text records (email, com.twitter, avatar) are world-readable by design, and a persistent human-readable handle… Published price: Length-tiered annual rent, per ENS docs: 'At the time of writing, a 5+ letter .eth will cost you 5 USD per year. A 4 letter 160 USD per year, and a 3 letter 640 USD per year.' (3 characters is the minimum).
Best forCredential custody & revocation power — 9/10
Main tradeoffENS is a name, not a credential — it proves control of a private key and nothing else. It cannot tell you a user is a unique human, is over 18, or is not sanctioned, so it does not substitute for anything else in this category; it complements them. Treat it as the durable identifier your other credentials attach to, and remember that an unrenewed name hands the whole identity to a stranger.
Verify before signupLength-tiered annual rent, per ENS docs: 'At the time of writing, a 5+ letter .eth will cost you 5 USD per year. A 4 letter 160 USD per year, and a 3 letter 640 USD per year.' (3 characters is the minimum). Confirmed onchain on 15 Sep 2026 via ETHRegistrarController.rentPrice (0x59E16fcCd424Cc24e280Be16E11Bcd56fb0CE547, Ethereum block 25,985,000, ETH/USD 2,410.29 Chainlink): 1-year base = $5.00 (10-char), $160.00 (4-char), $640.00 (3-char), premium 0. 'Because the rent price is paid in ETH but denominated in USD', callers should overpay slightly, and Ethereum L1 gas is extra for registration, renewal and every record update. After expiry there is a 90-day grace period, then a 21-day Dutch-auction premium starting near 100 million USD. ENS explains the tiers as 'done to promote market diversity as there are an exponentially less amount of names the shorter they become.'
Methodology
How this category is reviewed
Reviewed on credential custody & revocation power, verification without the vendor, biometric & PII handling (documented), and enforcement record & product continuity.
The order on this page is the published ranking for this category. Every criterion, weight and source behind it is on the methodology page.
Frequently asked
Questions people ask before choosing decentralised identity
What makes an identity actually self-sovereign?
That you can present it and a verifier can check it without the issuer being involved or online, and that nobody can revoke it unilaterally. Those two properties are what the word means; everything else is a company database with a wallet login.
Is 'decentralised' a claim I can check?
Only against the architecture. One provider here describes its protocol as open, decentralised and owned by no one, on a site that also records six-plus national regulators ordering it to suspend operations — an order nobody could serve on something genuinely ownerless.
What matters most when picking a identity provider?
Who can revoke the credential and whether it verifies without the vendor — 55% of the weight. Documented biometric handling follows, scored on architecture rather than on the phrase 'zero-knowledge' appearing anywhere.
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
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