Practical overview
When it fits
Use Circuits when the project requires a developer-facing proof-generation component for electronic passport identity claims and can supply the surrounding application or verifier layer.
Who it is for
- Developers building privacy-preserving passport or national-ID verification workflows
- Teams creating age, citizenship, personhood or eligibility checks from electronic identity documents
- Builders integrating passport-derived proofs into a separate dApp or service
Documented uses
- Generate proofs from signed electronic passport data
- Reveal selected identity claims without exposing all passport data
- Provide a circuit layer for passport-based identity gates and eligibility workflows
- Adapt proof-generation logic toward other electronic travel or identity documents
Requirements & limits
The repository is public and identifies an Apache-2.0 license.
- It is a circuit repository rather than a complete user-facing identity service.
- Electronic passport chip access requires an NFC-equipped device and Machine Readable Zone data.
- The described approach can reveal selected claims while keeping other document data private.
- A separate application or verifier is needed to consume generated proofs.
- Other electronic travel or identity document formats may require circuit changes.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Prepare an electronic passport proof workflow
Set up the documented inputs and integration boundary for generating a zero-knowledge identity proof.
Before you start
- The Circuits repository at https://github.com/zkpassport/circuits
- An electronic passport or other intended electronic identity document
- An NFC-equipped device
- Access to the document’s Machine Readable Zone data
- A separate application or verifier layer for using generated proofs
Steps
Obtain the electronic document intended for the proof flow.
Use an NFC-equipped device to read the document chip.
Provide the Machine Readable Zone data required to derive the chip decryption key.
Use the repository’s Noir circuits to generate a proof from the document data.
Connect the generated proof to a separate application or verifier for the selected identity claim.
Expected outcome
A development workflow prepared to generate and pass on a zero-knowledge identity proof while limiting the claims revealed by the application.
Guide limitations
- The repository evidence does not document a complete application integration, verifier implementation, commands or a successful end-to-end run.
- Adapting the circuits to another document format requires modification.
- Passport-data verification depends on trust in the issuing state.
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 3 October 2026
- Original website title
- zkpassport/circuits · Official homepage title · retained in its source language