From The Truth Machine to PrivID
Rebuilding Trust in a Data-Broken World
TL;DR:
The Truth Machine inspired PrivID by showing how decentralised systems can restore trust in broken institutions. But instead of stopping at blockchain, we took it further — using Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Fully Homomorphic Encryption to let users verify identity, access, and data without ever revealing the underlying information.
In 2018, I read The Truth Machine by Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna — and something clicked. The book laid out a vision for how blockchain could restore trust in a world that no longer deserved it. Not just financial trust, but institutional, political, and informational trust — all broken by surveillance, data abuse, and systemic failure.
It wasn’t the crypto hype that grabbed me. It was the concept of a truth machine — a system that made truth mathematically verifiable, independent of human gatekeepers. A system that could say: "You don’t have to trust me. Trust the maths."
That core idea sparked the first lines of code that would eventually evolve into PrivID.
Broken Trust Is the Default Setting Now
Breached databases, deepfakes, hostile algorithms, and digital identities used like poker chips by people you’ll never meet. The traditional trust model — built on centralised systems, third parties, and legal fine print — is broken. It assumes good faith in systems designed to exploit.
the same tech could be harnessed by corporations and governments to reinforce old hierarchies under a new name
The Truth Machine exposed this flaw with brutal clarity. It explained how blockchain's immutable, decentralised structure could rewire trust itself. But it also warned of co-option — of how the same tech could be harnessed by corporations and governments to reinforce old hierarchies under a new name.
This wasn’t a warning to walk away. It was a call to build something better.
“The blockchain cannot lie. Once information is entered, it cannot be altered or erased. It is an objective, tamperproof record — a ‘truth machine’.”
— Michael J. Casey & Paul Vigna
How did This Idea Evolve into PrivID?
PrivID came from the idea that privacy, verification, and control shouldn't be mutually exclusive. Using advanced cryptographic primitives — like Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) — we took the "trust machine" concept further.
We didn’t just want a ledger. We wanted a system where:
You control your identity, not a platform.
You prove who you are, without giving up what you are.
Data can be computed on, without ever being exposed.
Access can be granted, monitored, revoked — all without revealing the underlying data.
We saw that trust could be rebuilt not through enforcement, but through maths. Provable maths that allowed for the rebuilding of trust.
Why the Blockchain Alone Wasn’t Enough
Despite its promise, blockchain tech has limitations. It's not ideal for storing sensitive personal data. It's public by default, slow, and expensive when scaled improperly. So we took the principles behind it — transparency, decentralisation, auditability. We applied them with a more precise toolkit.
Where blockchain says, “Trust the ledger,” PrivID says, “There is no ledger to trust, because we never gave it your data in the first place.”
It’s Not About Chaos, But Control
The battle we’re in now isn’t about crypto prices or whether your NFT profile pic is worth anything. It’s about control. It’s about who owns your digital footprint, who can monetise your identity, and who can manipulate your behaviour through data you never meant to share.
The Truth Machine lit the fuse, but we’ve moved beyond simply trusting decentralisation. We believe in data autonomy. It’s not just keeping your data private, but keeping it yours.