The Critical Role of Identity Empowerment
As mentioned in a recent post by Theodore Palliser (https://medium.com/@theodore.palliser), the three pillars of identity are inclusion, protection, and empowerment. This article attempts to add depth to the pillar of empowerment.
🤷♀️What is Empowerment?
Empowerment is when authority or power is given to someone to be able to do something or become something. For example, when a person is issued a library card, they are empowered to check out and borrow a book from the library, take it home, read it for a few weeks, and bring it back. A person can’t become a licensed physician and practice medicine unless they’ve been authorized or empowered with the knowledge and skills that comes from access to specialized education. When someone has access to certain privileges, they are empowered to do and to become. When a person has access to financial services such as banking, they are empowered to borrow money for investments and earn interest on saved money. In other words, they are empowered to build and store wealth.
🔑Why Identity Empowerment is Essential
Without a state-recognized identity (physical or digital), a person has limited or no access to many services and opportunities the average person takes for granted. For example, without an identity, a person cannot qualify for a driver’s license, obtain higher education, receive quality healthcare, purchase real estate, open a bank account, or be insured. While this isn’t a problem for most people, 1.7 billion people live without an identity, most of whom are women. In fact, over 980 million women in the world are without an identity, preventing them from achieving financial independence or gaining the education and resources necessary to pull themselves out of poverty.
Globally, 290 million children under the age of five do not have birth certificates and most of these children live in regions of the world where it is unlikely that they will ever gain an identity. It is predicted that without global intervention, the number of people without an identity will continue to rise by as much as 15% in the next two decades. Without providing these individuals with an identity, it is improbable that global poverty will decrease. According to the World Economic Forum, one of the most essential methods for solving world poverty is working with individual nations to put systems and policies into place to provide all their citizens with a state-recognized identity. Many nations, however, lack the resources to ensure this is possible for their citizens to enjoy.
👌The Solution: Digital Identities through SSI
Physical IDs such as driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and passports are only helpful if they aren’t destroyed, lost, or stolen. Most developed nations have means for a person who has lost their physical identity to receive a replacement ID. However, with many nations, this isn’t so easy. Stiff penalties and fees can eliminate someone from obtaining a replacement copy of their physical ID. Worse, when people are forced to migrate from their countries of origin, such as refugees, or those who are victims of significant storms, earthquakes, or terrorist attacks often find themselves in a new, strange country without their physical IDs. Such people find it nearly impossible to establish legitimacy within their new country and many times are faced with “starting over” entirely — gaining a new identity and quality for government-assisted services or resources until they can slowly climb up the socio-economic ladder. Many of these individuals face such enormous challenges when losing their identity, that they often capitulate and give up, only to assume a permanent life of poverty and hardship.
Digital identities, however, can solve this problem. When a person holds a digital identity on their device — or access to it from a borrowed device — the concern of losing one’s identity is no longer an issue. Additionally, identity issuance is less expensive, more reliable, and easier to distribute to large populations. Digital identities alone can solve many challenges preventing individuals from obtaining an identity.
Self-sovereign Identity is the most secure and promising approach to issuing and maintaining digital identities and is the clearest solution towards bringing true empowerment to each individual and therefore, the entire world.
IAMX is positioned to provide empowerment to billions of people — not just those who happen to believe in crypto. Providing the option for a secure digital identity is becoming a basic human right and IAMX is best positioned to be the top provider of bringing individuals and families the empowerment they need and deserve.
About IAMX
IAMX is a token-based SSI and authentication system, enabling 1-Click Fulfillment transactions that are legally binding on the state/national level. Further, it adds an identity layer to the internet, so users are able to engage with the internet as if they were logged in.
The vision of IAMX is to empower everyone on Earth to realize their human right to have an identity, with a mission to protect the human right of every individual to hold, control, and own their personal identity.
IAMX allows the Holder to own their identity. Building upon the foundation of SSI, IAMX empowers the Holder to manage and control their identity. IAMX is working closely with members of the Sovrin Foundation to ensure the shared principles of SSI are maintained.
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