Suppose you want to prove who you are, but not the other way around. You want your identity disclosed only where and to whom you want. This is not possible with traditional biometric approaches (fingerprints, irises, etc). You can prove who you are with your unique fingerprints, but the police can also get proof of your ID by checking the same characteristics. Of course you can go as far as to attempt to erase your fingerprints, but this works both ways, obviously.
MindPass may provide a solution to this conundrum. We envision a use of our device that can provide access only when the person to be checked might desire to disclose his or her ID. It is a far-fetched scenario, but please consider it as a thought experiment. Suppose that you are a high-profile refugee or dissident that mistrusts most governmental authorities. You don’t want to prove to them (to border control) as you pass through various countries who you really are, so you meticulously burn/damage your fingertips or even attempt to change the color/pattern of your irises with a portable laser that breaks down portions of the pigment. All doable with current technology.
Once you reach your safe haven, however, without papers and traditional biometrics, you want to finally prove who you are. You hook up your portable MindPass device and connect to the blockchain, re-evoking the biosignals that you had used to encrypt your real identity. Since it is only you that can possibly elicit the same pattern, it should be beyond doubt that you are who you pledge you are. At the same time, in a different session of a stimulus-reaction challenge, you decrypt your stash of digital information about the regime you escaped. All when and to whom you wanted. You have left no undesired information, other than the one you wanted to commit.
Our point here is that the physical-material characteristics on your own body, which is the basis of classical biometrics, can be faked or heavily manipulated. Of course we are not at Face/Off levels yet, this remains part of fiction, but still there is a lot that can be done to change or confuse an identity.
On the other hand, dynamic biometrics (biosignals) provide a secure and non-coercible way to prove your true identity only when you see it fit, since the exact challenge sessions will only be known to you and re-elicited by you.
