The Mediterraneus Protocol: building an SSI native decentralised ecosystem of digital services

TL;DR

The Mediterraneous protocol addresses the need for a self-sovereign, decentralised Internet of digital services by embedding Self-Sovereign Identity ($DID$/$VC$) at its core. It enables providers to publish tokenised services as NFTs and grant access via ERC-20 $AT$s, while enforcing decentralised on-chain and off-chain access control through an Identity SC and verifiable credentials. The architecture combines a three-layer infrastructure (VDR, DDS, SCP) and a suite of smart contracts (Factory, Service, Access Token, Router, Fixed-Rate Exchange, Identity) to realise end-to-end workflows: joining, publishing, purchasing, and accessing services with privacy-preserving capabilities and censorship resistance. This approach supports interoperable, privacy-friendly, and owner-controlled digital services, offering a practical path toward a scalable SSI-native marketplace of services.

Abstract

This paper presents, for the first time, the Mediterraneous protocol. It is designed to support the development of an Internet of digital services, owned by their creators, and consumed by users by presenting their decentralised digital identity and a proof of service purchase. Mediterraneous is Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) native, integrating the SSI model at the core of its working principles to overcome the limitations resulting from using pseudonyms and centralised access control of existing Web3 solutions.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Simplified interactions between entities.
• Figure 2: Architecture of smart contracts and interactions between actors (dashed and dotted lines represent transactions issued by actors and SCs respectively on the SCP).
• Figure 4: Steps to request a VC from the Issuer.
• Figure 5: Steps to publish a service offering.
• Figure 6: Steps to purchase an AT for the predefined amount in native tokens.