Getting Started
Introduction to Althea
Althea is a Zero-Knowledge identity protocol for Solana. It allows any Solana application to verify that a user is a real, verified Nigerian adult - without ever collecting, storing, or processing their personal data.
Why Althea exists
Every Nigerian dApp that needs to know its users are real adults runs into the same wall: it has to collect NIN or BVN, store it, and assume the liability of protecting it. That liability is enormous and it compounds across the ecosystem — every new dApp re-asks the same question, holds the same data, and adds another breach surface.
Althea replaces all of that with a single primitive: a wallet that either holds a valid AttestationRecord or doesn't. The proof is mathematical, on-chain, and per-app. Personal data never leaves the user's device.
Who is this for
For dApp Developers
You want to verify your users are real Nigerians without dealing with KYC compliance, data storage liability, or building a verification pipeline from scratch.
For Protocol Builders
You want to compose Althea with other Solana programs to build identity-gated DeFi, governance, or social infrastructure.
What Althea is not
Althea is infrastructure — like a road, not a car.
- Althea is not a marketplace.
- Althea is not a user database.
- Althea does not know who your users are.
- Althea never holds, sees, or stores personal data.
How it fits together
Althea has three pieces working in concert: a small SDK (@africazk/identity) that runs in the user's browser, an EdDSA-signing backend that confirms IDs through Dojah, and an Anchor program on Solana that verifies proofs and writes attestations.
As an integrator you only ever touch the SDK. The backend and the on-chain program are run by Althea; you read the attestation that ends up on the user's wallet.
Next steps
Read the Quick Start to install the SDK and gate your first feature in less than ten minutes, or jump to How Althea Works for the full protocol walkthrough.