Pluggable KYC and Identity Verification in Ankara Chain

Ankara Chain provides the interface and the enforcement hook — you supply the KYC provider. Every token and escrow contract in Ankara Chain supports an optional identity verifier: a separate smart contract whose sole job is to answer the question “is this address verified?” When a verifier is attached, the token contract calls it on every transfer and mint, and rejects unverified addresses automatically. You decide which KYC or identity system backs that contract.

What `IIdentityVerifier` Does

The IIdentityVerifier interface defines a single on-chain gate: any address attempting to receive tokens or trigger sensitive operations must pass the verifier’s check before the transaction proceeds. The verifier contract lives at a separate address from your token — you can swap it out, upgrade it, or attach the same verifier to multiple tokens without redeploying any of them. This separation means:

Your token contracts never contain KYC logic directly.
You can update your verification rules without touching deployed tokens.
The same verifier can gate transfers across multiple asset types (farmland, invoices, real estate) simultaneously.

Attaching a Verifier at Deploy Time

Pass the deployed address of your verifier contract as identityVerifier in any deploy options object. The identityVerifier field is available on every fungible token template, NFT template, and escrow deploy options type.

import { TokenFactory } from "@ankarachain/sdk";
import { ethers } from "ethers";

const factory = new TokenFactory({ network: "polygon", signer });

const result = await factory.deployFarmland({
  name: "Kano Farmland Token",
  symbol: "KFT",
  assetId: "kano-001",
  countryCode: "NG",
  identityVerifier: "0xYourVerifierContractAddress", // attach your KYC contract
  metadata: {
    location: "Kano State, Nigeria",
    areaSqMeters: 50000n,
    soilType: "Clay loam",
    irrigationType: "Rain-fed",
    cropHistory: "Maize, Sorghum",
    titleDocumentHash: "0xabc123...",
    valuationUSD: 120000000000000000000000n, // $120,000 in wei
    stateRegion: "Kano",
    lastUpdated: BigInt(Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)),
  },
});

console.log("Token deployed at:", result.tokenAddress);

You can also attach or change a verifier on an already-deployed token using AssetRegistry:

import { AssetRegistry } from "@ankarachain/sdk";

// AssetRegistry takes the adapter, the deployed token address, and the template
const registry = new AssetRegistry(
  factory.adapter,
  result.tokenAddress,
  "farmland"
);

await registry.setIdentityVerifier("0xNewVerifierAddress");

Deploying Without a Verifier

Pass identityVerifier: undefined (or omit the field entirely) to deploy with no KYC gating. The token operates in permissionless mode — any address can receive tokens and interact with the contract.

const result = await factory.deployFarmland({
  name: "Open Farmland Token",
  symbol: "OFT",
  assetId: "open-001",
  countryCode: "GH",
  // identityVerifier omitted — no KYC gating
  metadata: { ... },
});

Permissionless mode is appropriate for development, testing, and certain open-access token structures. For any token representing a regulated asset — or where your compliance programme requires transfer restrictions — you should attach a verifier before setting the token’s status to ACTIVE.

Supported Identity Systems

Ankara Chain’s hooks are designed to accommodate identity systems common in African markets. Your verifier contract can back itself against any of these (or any other identity provider) — the token contract simply calls the verifier’s on-chain interface and does not care what backs it.

BVN / NIN (Nigeria)

Bank Verification Number and National Identification Number. Hook your verifier into Smile Identity or a similar provider to confirm an address holder has passed BVN/NIN verification.

Huduma Namba (Kenya)

Kenya’s national ID system. Wire your verifier to a KYC provider that checks Huduma Namba validity before whitelisting an address.

Ghana Card

Ghana’s biometric national ID. Connect your verifier to a Ghanaian KYC provider that validates Ghana Card numbers against the NIA database.

Custom / enterprise

Any identity system — Persona, Sumsub, Jumio, or an internal employee registry. If you can expose an on-chain boolean (“is this address verified?”), you can wire it into Ankara Chain.

These identity systems are hookable, not built-in. Ankara Chain does not ship integrations with Smile Identity, Persona, or any national ID database. You implement the verifier contract against your chosen provider; the SDK only tells your token where that contract lives.

The Built-in WhitelistVerifier

For development and testing, Ankara Chain ships a WhitelistVerifier contract. It maintains a simple admin-controlled list of approved addresses — no external API calls, no identity provider, no production KYC.

// Deploy a WhitelistVerifier and use it during development
const result = await factory.deployFarmland({
  name: "Test Farmland Token",
  symbol: "TFTK",
  assetId: "test-001",
  countryCode: "NG",
  identityVerifier: "0xWhitelistVerifierAddress", // pre-deployed WhitelistVerifier
  metadata: { ... },
});

The WhitelistVerifier address for your target network is available from the CLI after running ankara deploy-factory. Use it freely in development; replace it with a production KYC verifier before going to mainnet.

The WhitelistVerifier is also useful for closed pilot programmes where you need a small, manually managed list of approved participants — for example, a farmland cooperative with 50 known members — without integrating a full KYC provider.

Changing a Verifier After Deployment

You can swap the verifier on any deployed token at any time using assetSetIdentityVerifier() through the AssetRegistry, or the equivalent escrowSetIdentityVerifier() method on deployed escrow contracts. The change takes effect immediately on the next transaction — no token migration or redeployment required.

// Construct an AssetRegistry for the already-deployed token
const registry = new AssetRegistry(factory.adapter, tokenAddress, "real-estate");

// Migrate from WhitelistVerifier to a production KYC verifier
await registry.setIdentityVerifier("0xProductionKYCVerifierAddress");

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Tutorials

CLI

MCP Server

Pluggable KYC and Identity Verification in Ankara Chain

What `IIdentityVerifier` Does

Attaching a Verifier at Deploy Time

Deploying Without a Verifier

Supported Identity Systems

BVN / NIN (Nigeria)

Huduma Namba (Kenya)

Ghana Card

Custom / enterprise

The Built-in WhitelistVerifier

Changing a Verifier After Deployment

​What IIdentityVerifier Does

​Attaching a Verifier at Deploy Time

​Deploying Without a Verifier

​Supported Identity Systems

BVN / NIN (Nigeria)

Huduma Namba (Kenya)

Ghana Card

Custom / enterprise

​The Built-in WhitelistVerifier

​Changing a Verifier After Deployment

What `IIdentityVerifier` Does

Attaching a Verifier at Deploy Time

Deploying Without a Verifier

Supported Identity Systems

The Built-in WhitelistVerifier

Changing a Verifier After Deployment