Reusable digital identity is moving from theory toward practical deployment, driven by mounting friction in traditional KYC workflows and the emergence of AI agents that act on users’ behalf. That was the core message from Nate Soffio, head of reusable and agentic identity products at Prove, in the latest episode of the ID Talk podcast.
Soffio co-founded Portabl, a reusable identity platform acquired by Prove, and has spent more than a decade working across identity resolution, KYC, fraud, and compliance. In the discussion, he framed reusable identity as a shift away from treating identity verification as a one-time event, toward viewing it as a persistent, governed asset that can be reused under controlled conditions.
“The status quo is that people have to repeat the same ceremony everywhere they go,” Soffio said, referring to repeated document capture and selfie-based verification flows. “There was nothing like a TSA PreCheck for financial access.”
Reusable identity as a controlled primitive
Soffio described reusable identity as an umbrella discipline encompassing standards, cryptographic techniques, and governance models designed to enable controlled reuse of verified identity data. In practical terms, this includes verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers, which allow identity attributes to be cryptographically signed, scoped, and shared without exposing underlying raw data.
Rather than replacing KYC outright, Soffio emphasized that reusable identity can encapsulate valid KYC outcomes and associate them persistently with an individual. Over time, he argued, reputable identities should become cheaper and easier to verify, allowing more onboarding events to begin with a “warm start” rather than a full re-verification process.
“We’re not trying to light compliance policies on fire,” he said. “Regular KYC will still be necessary. But once it’s been done, there’s a strong case for putting that record in a lockbox and attaching it to a person in a governed way.”
User experience and privacy implications
From a user perspective, Soffio said reusable identity should feel closer to familiar experiences such as Apple Pay or autofill rather than traditional identity verification flows. The complexity of cryptography and credential management, he argued, should be abstracted away behind simple consent-driven interactions.
Reusable credentials, he added, are designed to be data-minimizing and privacy-preserving. Instead of sharing full records, users can present derived proofs, such as confirming that they are over a certain age or have passed KYC, without disclosing unnecessary personal information. In many cases, credentials can be presented and validated without being permanently stored by the relying party.
Network effects and trust at scale
Soffio outlined how reusable identity could introduce network effects across online marketplaces, peer-to-peer platforms, and financial services. Verified identity artifacts could be reused to establish trust between parties without requiring each platform to collect and retain sensitive data.
For example, a seller on an online marketplace could prove that they are a verified individual with a valid KYC record, while buyers could restrict high-value transactions to similarly verified counterparties. In this model, platforms would only need confirmation that verification has occurred, rather than custody of the underlying identity data.
“Trust and safety becomes an implicit feature,” Soffio said, arguing that cryptographically verifiable identity signals could reduce fraud while lowering operational and data-retention burdens for platforms.
Why AI agents raise the stakes
The most forward-looking portion of the conversation focused on AI agents and delegated actions. As agents increasingly act on behalf of users, Soffio said, they will require two things humans already provide: identity and provenance.
Reusable credentials, he argued, make it possible to grant agents narrowly scoped authority to perform specific actions, such as completing a purchase or bidding at auction, without handing over raw personal data or payment credentials. These credentials can establish a chain of custody linking the agent, the user, the session, and the relying party.
“The question becomes how you give an agent a hall pass to do a specific thing, whether or not you’re watching it,” Soffio said. He added that cryptographic provenance could also support dispute resolution and accountability if something goes wrong.
While acknowledging that the space is still in its early stages, Soffio said reusable identity provides foundational tools for addressing trust, authorization, and verification in agent-mediated interactions. As governments, platforms, and private sector actors continue experimenting with digital credentials, he expects the convergence of identity and AI to accelerate.
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
