An Overview Of The Identification Platform Landscape

As our world becomes progressively more digital, it’s necessary to have a way to guarantee that you are who you say you are when you interact online.

Online identity is the (social) identity established by an Internet user in online communities and websites. This doesn’t necessarily mean using your real name — some internet users prefer to be anonymous and identify themselves via a pseudonym.

However, most of the time, when you make an online transaction you will be required to disclose specific personal information before you can use the relevant services.

For example, before you use most established platforms such as Google Wallet, PayPal and Amazon Pay, as well as banks and insurance companies, you must input your login details — including your financial and personal details. The regulations for verifying your identity depend on the country, but it is often quite difficult to open a bank account or rent an apartment without proper proof of identity.

Know Your Customer

This concept is referred to as “Know Your Customer” — aka KYC, which refers to the process that a business establishes to verify the identity of its clients and assess the potential risks of being used by criminal elements for illegal activities. Typically, KYC controls include the collection of basic information such as identity documents.

However, there are significant concerns with this type of identity verification. When we disclose our personal information to various different databases, it is all gathered and generated at different times. The result is that multiple “digital clones” of your identity exist simultaneously over a range of databases.

There are a lot of issues with the current system. You enter your data and register on a number of different online platforms and websites, then you have to create a remember several passwords. You cannot update all of your credentials and identities simultaneously.

Then, we use social logins such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to log into other websites, because we don’t want to fill out a form or memorize another password. But we don’t really think about what authorization that app has gained to our personal information — how do we know what data these social media networks are sharing with the websites or apps?

The current way of verifying identity online is inconvenient and undermines security and the privacy of the user. All that has to happen is for one hacker to break into a database — and they can gain all of the user’s information (yes, that already has happened far too many times!).

This system is simply unsustainable.

Establishing Identity on The Blockchain

How does identity verification work in the world of blockchain?

When you create an identity on the blockchain, it is considered a “self-sovereign identity.” This means that the individual identity is fully controlled and maintained personally by the individual, in a decentralized system.

There is no need for a central authority. Your identity will be in your hands and you will be able to update it at any time, choose to make it public or private and you decide which information is shared with a certain supplier (i.e. DApp) to gain access to the services.

This makes it more difficult to steal the identity from the individual, which counters the identity theft program which is common on traditional platforms. This is the future of online identification.

Examples of Blockchain-Style Digital Identification Platforms

Civic

Civic has a mobile app that allows users to scan their identity documents, so that they can be verified. This means that the user only needs to be verified once, and the organization can rely on them being authenticated by a trusted institution — eliminating the sharing of any unnecessary data.

Uport.me

This is an open identity system that allows users to register their own identity on the Ethereum Blockchain. They will be able to use the system to send and request credentials, sign transactions and securely manage their keys and data. Also uPort uses a mobile App with a QR code scanner.

KYC.Legal

The aim of KYC.Legal is to make it easier for users to be established and documented, so they can register for any service in the future by providing only the information that is required for each individual service. The first part of the service is independent self-verification, and the second part is when one of KYC.Legal’s agents travels to a convenient place of the user’s choosing and confirms the information entered.

Selfkey.org

SelfKey is a self-sovereign identity system that is based on the blockchain. It allows users to completely own, control and manage their digital identity, so that they can securely manage their cryptocurrency. Users will be able to quickly and easily onboard onto a wide range of cryptocurrency, financial and immigration services.

Anti-Money Laundering Controls

Anti-Money Laundering (also known as AML) refers to the legal controls that financial institutions must adhere to in order to detect money laundering activities and other illegal activities.

Although AML is very important, the above-mentioned platforms don’t take it into account… yet. This is something that these platforms will need to adapt in the future.

All regulated Decentralized Applications (or at least DApps that are compliant to laws and regulations) will need to know where the money from their investors is coming from. It’s essential for keeping the platform clean and crime-free, so that it doesn’t devolve into an illegal money laundering platform.

Why Use an App to Login?

Most of the solutions we have mentioned above require the user to download an app in order to log in (scan a QR code). This is adding yet another hurdle for users to login — which makes it more complex than it needs to be and can actually be annoying.

We asked ourselves: what if we allowed users to create a self-sovereign identity, without having to download an app first?

Introducing blockID

We are excited to announce blockID, a blockchain based identity verification solution that will allow you to login with your wallet — your unique identifier attached to your personal profile.

You’ll be able to sign legal documents with your personal wallet and your verification will be on the blockchain level (Ethereum). There’s no need for a username or a password. Plus, one of the main advantages of blockID is that it will have an anti money laundering (AML) process already integrated.

We are developing a global whitelist for all decentralized applications. This will mean we will not have a closed ecosystem. Therefore, users will not need to onboard for each DApp individually. We will share the onboarding process (SaaS) and the whitelist of all verified wallet addresses (consumers).

However, as the consumer you will be in control of your data at any time. You will be able to decide which decentralized apps will receive your information, and what information they receive.

We have partnered with Intrum and IDnow for our Know Your Customer process. These are both well-established and highly regarded platforms and they help us to verify the identification of our users.

Here’s an Example of How it Works

Let’s imagine that there is a decentralized app called “blockimmo”, which is a member of blockID and has the system fully integrated.

Jenny wants to use blockimmo app, so she goes through the KYC and AML checks and uploads all of her required data. Once she enters this information, she is checked by the (AML) compliance officer of DApp blockimmo.

Once all of Jenny’s info checks out fine, her wallet address is added to the global whitelist. She can now use DApp blockimmo as a verified consumer.

A few weeks later, Jenny finds another DApp that she would like to use — XYZ.

Since DApp XYZ is also a member of blockID, Jenny doesn’t have to go through the entire KYC and AML process again when she signs up.

Instead, Jenny simply logs in and decides which information she wants to share with DApp XYZ. Since Jenny has already on-boarded within blockID, all she has to do is check some boxes and perform a digital sign-in with her wallet.

Within only a minute, Jenny can also start using DApp XYZ.

This system makes identification and on-boarding quicker and easier than ever before.

Benefits for Consumers

Using blockID makes life easier for consumers. Here are some of the advantages that this identification platform offers the user:

• The user will be in control of their data at all times. They will be able to determine which decentralized apps receive which information.
• The system allows users to sign legal documents with their personal and verified wallet.
• Users will be able to revoke their data at any time and close their account.
• The system is easy to use and secure.
• The settings can be controlled via a user profile 24/7, so that the user can control who has access to what data.

Benefits for Decentralized App Developers

Our solution offers a lot of advantages for app developers as well. Let’s take a look at the benefits that blockID offers on the developer side of things.

• blockID is easy to plug into your DApp. We designed it so that it was as smooth and easy to use as possible (SaaS).
• blockID makes it easier for decentralized apps to onboard new consumers in a straightforward way.
• The process is compliant with the highest regulatory requirements (FINMA in Switzerland). Therefore, there’s no need to worry about compliance.
• Plus (perhaps most importantly of all) blockID has one global whitelist. That means that there are (hopefully soon) thousands of potential consumers, who have all been identified, and are ready to use the DApp. The public wallets of the consumers are whitelisted on the Blockchain (Ethereum) level.

Sounds good right? Now you’re probably thinking how long is it going to take them to develop all this? Well, that’s already done, you can go through the process yourself on https://blockimmo.ch (top right, login). We’re very open for feedback, thoughts and ideas!

Are you a DApp developer looking for a solid on-boarding process to integrate in your DApp? Contact us today and we will explore how we can work together. hello@blockid.ch — we’re based in Crypto Valley Zug, so if you’re close by, come and say hi!