Federal ID Partners choose the level they require. A social badge might ask for Level 1; anything involving money might ask for Level 3. Whatever the level, partners only ever see the number: never the evidence behind it.
| Level | Promise | Earned by | Decided by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0, Unverified | Has a Federal ID account | Signing up | Nobody; it is automatic |
| 1, Basic Verified | A real, living, unique person | A face video that passes liveness review and matches no other member’s face; a phone number confirmed over WhatsApp; an active membership | The central OFIS review team |
| 2, Strong Verified | Known in person to the community | Level 1, plus two in-person vouches from Level 2 members, or an in-person check by a coordinator or the central team; plus one activity check-in | The central team, later also state coordinators |
| 3, Institutional Trust | Legal identity confirmed | Level 2, plus an optional identity document: a photo of a national ID or passport, a photo of you holding it, and your face video, reviewed in-house | Two central reviewers, who must agree |
The touch points
Identity is built from several touch points, not one check. Each adds evidence.
- Face video. Three to five seconds, recorded in the portal with a random prompt on screen. It proves a live person and anchors uniqueness.
- Face fingerprint. A numeric template computed from the video and compared against all stored templates, so that one person holds one Federal ID. It is never shown as an image and never shared.
- Phone. You send OFIS a WhatsApp message from your phone and enter the code it replies with. Reachable, and often tied to a registered SIM.
- Membership. An active membership reported by the community site. Real money from a real account makes mass fakes expensive. OFIS never sees what was paid or how.
- In-person vouch. A Level 2 member attests in their portal that they have met you; you confirm it. Each member can vouch for at most five people per 30 days, and a voucher whose vouchee is later found fraudulent has every vouch reviewed and can lose Level 2.
- Activity check-in. A coordinator scans the short-lived QR code in your portal at a Federal Africa activity.
- Identity document, Level 3 only. Reviewed in-house, never by a third party. OFIS keeps the document type, the issuing country, a keyed hash of the number to catch reuse, and, for Level 3, your legal name and date of birth, encrypted.
Rules that hold at every level
- Human review. Every level change is a decision by a person at OFIS, logged with a reason, the reviewer and the time.
- No third-party verification company. Providers carry messages and money; they never judge identity.
- Partners see only the level. Nothing about the evidence leaves OFIS.
- The badge persists if your membership later lapses. Verification is about who you are; membership can gate features separately.
- From 18. Members under 18 stay at Level 0 and verify when they turn 18.