Become an accountable sponsor for agent transactions
Mobile network operators, banks, and other regulated issuers can vouch for the party accountable behind an agent acting for their customers. IDN provides the framework, the naming service, and the certification process.
The issuer's role
An IDN issuer signs attestations that bind an agent's handle to an accountable sponsor: an individual customer, a small business, or a corporate entity. The attestation includes:
- Sponsor identity, resolved through the issuer's existing KYC process.
- KYC tier and tenure at the issuer.
- Authority scope granted to the agent by the sponsor.
- Attestation strength, reflecting the verification depth applied.
- Expiration and renewal terms.
Verifiers query these attestations offline, with no blocking dependency on the issuer at transaction time.
Why issuers participate
Mobile network operators
A mobile operator holds a position no other party shares. The SIM binds a physical credential to a subscriber, the operator's KYC process establishes who that subscriber is, and the contractual relationship continues rather than expiring after a one-time check. That makes the operator the strongest available source of an assurance a counterparty can rely on, and it can be issued as a cryptographic token naming the accountable party without disclosing the subscriber's personal data.
Banks
Banks already perform KYC and know their customers' authority relationships. IDN provides a framework for surfacing this information to agent-mediated transaction counterparties, aligned with FATF Recommendation 16 and other regulatory obligations. Issuer certification includes reference implementations, compliance reporting, and audit trail infrastructure.
The Mobile Agent Naming Service
MAN is the operator-facing shape of the protocol: an interoperable namespace that binds an operator's verified subscriber root to the agents acting under it. Agents are addressed by name rather than by network address, endpoints accept only traffic the issuer has verified, and the namespace stays open so any operator can issue into it on equal terms.
Certification path
- Application review by the IDN Foundation certification committee.
- Technical integration with the issuer attestation SDK.
- Compliance review against issuer criteria (KYC standards, revocation propagation, data residency).
- Signing key generation in the issuer's hardware security module.
- Public listing in the issuer registry.
Certification is renewed annually. Standards for certification are governed by the Foundation, so no single commercial entity sets the bar.