ERC-1616: Attribute Registry Standard

Simple Summary

EIP-1616 provides a basic interface for querying a registry for attribute metadata assigned to Ethereum accounts.

Abstract

This EIP contains the following core ideas:

1. Instead of relying directly on the reputation of a claims issuer to assess the veracity of a given claim, trust can be brought up to the level of a registry curator. This registry which we call an "Attribute Registry" allows for reduced complexity in implementation since a party needing to verify an attribute can now work with a trusted claims aggregator instead of relying on individual claim providers.
2. Claims are abstracted as standard "attributes" which represent metadata assigned to an account, with claims decoupled from the issuing party. Attributes are registered as a flat uint256 -> uint256 key-value pair on each account, with the important property that each attribute type has one canonical value per address. This property allows for composability of attribute registries and advanced attribute formation.
3. There is a generic method for determining the set of attribute keys or IDs made available by the registry. The standard does not specify requirements or recommendations for how attributes and their values are managed, or what additional metadata may be associated with attributes. It is likely that a standard set of attribute names and metadata schema could be proposed in a separate EIP.

Potential advanced uses of attribute registries include:

• Encoding complex boolean expressions which combine multiple attributes into a single uint256 key, which is then parsed and evaluated by the registry logic.
• Using values associated with an attribute to query additional on-chain or off-chain metadata.
• Resolving attribute values by calling into separate attribute registries or other contracts, delegating authority without changing the interface of the registry.

Motivation

This EIP is motivated by the need for contracts and external accounts to be able to verify information about a given address from a single trusted source without concerning themselves with the particular details of how the information was obtained, and to do so in as simple a manner as possible. It is also motivated by the desire to promote broad cross-compatibility and composability between attribute registries, a property which is amplified by both the simplicity of the interface as well as by the guarantees on uniqueness provided by the proposed standard.

Existing EIPs for assigning metadata to an account include EIP-735 and EIP-780, which both allow for multiple claims to be issued on the same address for any given claim topic. This forces verifiers of said metadata to assess the veracity of each claim, taking into account the relative reputation of each claim issuer. It also prescribes a methodology for adding and removing claims, which may not be appropriate for all use cases.

This EIP proposes a light-weight abstraction layer for a standard account metadata registry interface. This abstraction layer can sit on top of claims registries like EIP-735 and EIP-780 or others as the attribute registry curator selects trusted data sources.

Specification

The Attribute Registry interface contains four functions, outlined as follows:

Contracts that comply with the Attribute Registry EIP MUST implement the above interface.

As an additional requirement, the ERC-165 interface MUST be included:

The implementation MUST follow the specifications described below.

View Functions

The view functions detailed below MUST be implemented.

hasAttribute function

Check if an attribute has been assigned to a given account on the registry and is currently valid.

NOTE: This function MUST return either true or false - i.e. calling this function MUST NOT cause the caller to revert. Implementations that wish to call into another contract during execution of this function MUST catch any revert and instead return false.

NOTE: This function MUST return two equal values when performing two directly consecutive function calls with identical account and attributeTypeID parameters, regardless of differences in the caller's address, the transaction origin, or other out-of-band information.

getAttributeValue function

Retrieve the uint256 value of an attribute on a given account on the registry, assuming the attribute is currently valid.

NOTE: This function MUST revert if a directly preceding or subsequent function call to hasAttribute with identical account and attributeTypeID parameters would return false.

NOTE: This function MUST return two equal values when performing two directly consecutive function calls with identical account and attributeTypeID parameters, regardless of differences in the caller's address, the transaction origin, or other out-of-band information.

countAttributeTypes function

Retrieve the total number of valid attribute types defined on the registry. Used alongside getAttributeTypeID to determine all of the attribute types that are available on the registry.

NOTE: This function MUST return a positive integer value - i.e. calling this function MUST NOT cause the caller to revert.

NOTE: This function MUST return a value that encompasses all indexes of attribute type IDs whereby a call to hasAttribute on some address with an attribute type ID at the given index would return true.

getAttributeTypeID function

Retrieve an ID of an attribute type defined on the registry by index. Used alongside countAttributeTypes to determine all of the attribute types that are available on the registry.

NOTE: This function MUST revert if the provided index value falls outside of the range of the value returned from a directly preceding or subsequent function call to countAttributeTypes. It MUST NOT revert if the provided index value falls inside said range.

NOTE: This function MUST return an attributeTypeID value on some index if the same attributeTypeID value would cause a given call to hasAttribute to return true when passed as a parameter.

Rationale

This standard extends the applicability of metadata assignment to those use cases that are not adequately represented by EIP-735, EIP-780, or similar proposals. Namely, it enforces the constraint of one attribute value per attribute ID per address, as opposed to one value per ID per address per issuer.

Aside from the prescribed attribute value, attribute properties are deliberately omitted from the standard. While many attribute registries will require additional metadata on attributes at both the instance and the class level, reliable and flexible interoperability between highly variable registry extensions is facilitated more effectively by enforcing a widely-applicable base layer for attributes.

Backwards Compatibility

There are no backwards compatibility concerns.

Test Cases

Targeted test cases with 100% code coverage can be found at this repository. See here for tests on a more complex contract that implements the application registry interface.

Implementation

The basic implementation that follows can be found at this repository (see here for an example of a more complex implementing contract):

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.