The ERC 725 Alliance is an organization promoting the ERC 725 standard for blockchain-based identity. What is ERC 725? ERC 725 is a proposed standard for blockchain-based identity authored by Fabian Vogelsteller, creator of ERC 20 and Web3.js. ERC 725 describes proxy smart contracts that can be controlled by multiple keys and other smart contracts. ERC 735 is an associated standard to add and remove claims to an ERC 725 identity smart contract. These identity smart contracts can describe humans, groups, objects, and machines. ERC 725 lives on the Ethereum blockchain. Why ERC 725? ERC 725 allows for self-sovereign identity. Users should be able to own and manage their identity instead of ceding ownership of identity to centralized organizations. We have seen the negative effects of having centralized identity with damaging leaks and unfair selling of user data and identity. An open, portable standard for identities will enable decentralized reputation, governance, and more. Users will be able to take their identity across different Dapps and platforms that support this standard.