Who do you trust?

Trust is so essential to human relationships it’s as a fundamental as the sky and earth. It’s deeply embedded into our psyche and according to psychologists begins to develop during the first two years of life. A world without trust is a world of hostility and fear.

We see how this basic human attributes plays out in close knit communities. When you were young perhaps you lived in a street or apartment building where nobody locked their doors. This was because people knew each other and there was a circle of trust. But if random strangers came down the the street or the apartment building has a new entrance built into it through which strangers can enter, trust evaporates and people lock their doors.

The size of a pea

‘What has this got to do with technology?’ you might reasonably ask. Compared to our ancestors the world has shrunk to the size of a pea thanks to technology driven globalization. Today we communicate instantly with people on the other side of the world; we have developed instant buying and selling networks that span oceans, we have created a spider’s web of digital connections that envelop the earth.

Yet we haven’t created a mechanism that establishes trust. In a workplace network we take it on trust that a peer on the other side of the world working for the same company is who they claim to be. But we have to take it on trust that emails we receive, websites we visits, online services that we use are genuine.

Global exploitation

Cyber fraudsters have exploited this uncertainty around trust to astonishing degrees. Email phishing is rampant and costs U.S. businesses half a billion dollars a year according to the FBI. Identity theft has reached fever pitch. According to Javelin Strategy, the number of identity theft victims in the US was 16.7 million in 2017. The cost of this amounted to almost $17 billion as stolen identities were used to pillage banks, businesses and individuals.

In the real world we only trust someone when we have established their credentials, no matter what they might tell us. If for instance, we are letting out an apartment we want to ensure the tenant is genuine.

Genuine or fake?

Of course we have to take what he tells us on trust. But in this networked world why isn’t it possible to extend the concept of trust online by accessing some kind of portal which provides individual details? They could, for example, tell us the potential tenant doesn’t have a criminal record for assorted thuggery, has a couple of kids and a regular job. If you had access to this type of information you’d be happy to rent the apartment.

This reflects the need for trust mechanisms in the digital age which in turn boils down to data verification. How can we establish who a person is who they claim to be? At Humans.net we are working on DNA-based verification system that could well become a turning point in the history of human interactions on the Internet.

Nucleotides

The results of a DNA test generally look like a long line, almost the size of a standard A4 page, which represents a unique sequence of DNA nucleotides. Since this line is unique to each individual, it can be used as a personal ‘key’ for anything, such as your email password or bank account.

At Humans we aim to use this ‘universal key’ to verify users’ accounts, as a password to enter our website. It is an absolutely safe method because it is impossible to hack the DNA sequence.

Since we will be linking the DNA to decentralized blockchain-based databases it will provide a level of security the world has never previously seen. To achieve this we are developing databases that are compatible with databases belonging to laboratories that carry out DNA sampling.

Evolution

While the use of DNA may cause alarm in some circles no one will have access to the DNA identifier and certainly not Humans.net and that’s the beauty of it. Furthermore it’s simply an evolution of existing biometric identifiers such as fingerprints and irises.

Once the technology is available, everyone will use it because it is the ultimate guarantor of someone’s identity and as such the ideal mechanism for establishing trust via global networks. And its implications are far reaching.

We can find a parallel in online services such as Trip Advisor and similar operations. These recommendation-based websites highlight good services, based on customer reviews, while poor services slide down the popularity scale. They either fade away or they up their game and deliver top service.

Answers pressing problems

Within the context of trust online this model can also be applied to people. When DNA becomes the de facto identifier society will become much more open. We will know who we can trust and who we can’t. Some of this will be based on reviews provided by other people. For instance, someone who is a plumber selling their services online will garner reviews from customers. These will establish the trustworthiness of a person.

This may be a small example but in principle this DNA-based trust identifier could expand to global networks and areas such as bank identification and even passport control. It might seem far-fetched, but it isn’t. It solves a huge range of problems relating to identity and trust and this is what will drive the move to DNA trust-based authentication.