ID2020 Welcomes BLOK Solutions to the Alliance
ID2020 is proud to welcome UK-based BLOK Solutions as its newest Alliance partner.
Based in London, BLOK Solutions was founded to help enterprises understand and address their business challenges with flexible, innovative solutions that leverage blockchain and other digital ID technologies.
Their solutions range from digital wallets for the banking sector, which enables financial institutions to comply with KYC/AML regulations, to an application developed to help monitor progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals by tracking the build-up of plastics in the oceans and changes in land use and the landscape.
Their most recent solution, BLOK Pass, offers individuals a self-sovereign record of their COVID-19 test results and other risk factors. The technology was developed under the company’s biotech arm, BLOK BioScience.
Initially envisioned as a means to help businesses and governments manage the safe and incremental return to public life in the midst of the pandemic, BLOK expects the application to be applied more broadly in the future to support immunization certificates and other medical test results.
BLOK Solutions chief technology officer, Areiel Wolanow has been appointed to serve on the ID2020 Technical Advisory Committee. An expert in distributed ledger technology, financial inclusion, and alternative banking and insurance models, Wolanow has addressed the G20 and other major world forums and advises central banks, financial regulators, and the UK Parliament on issues related to blockchain and financial inclusion.
“We are delighted to welcome BLOK Solutions to the ID2020 Alliance and applaud their commitment to privacy-protecting, user-controlled digital identity,” said ID2020 Executive Director, Dakota Gruener. “We are grateful to Areiel for agreeing to serve on the Technical Advisory Committee and look forward to leveraging his extensive experience in this new role.”
“Times of crisis, like this pandemic, are pivotal for technological advancement. But they also present a concrete risk: that this very technology may be distorted and abused under the guise of combatting a common enemy,” said Wolanow. “We’re seeing this dynamic at play around digital ID, which we consider a basic human right. It’s hard to overstate how crucial it is that we get digital ID right and ID2020 has been a beacon, steering us towards this end. I’m incredibly happy to see BLOK joining the Alliance and thoroughly proud of this appointment to support ID2020 in this cause.”
We are excited to welcome BLOK Solutions to our community and look forward to collaborating with them toward a future in which all people have better forms of ID that are privacy-protecting, user-controlled, and interoperable.
###
About ID2020
ID2020 is a global public-private partnership that harnesses the collective power of nonprofits, corporations, and governments to promote the adoption and ethical implementation of user-managed, privacy-protecting, and portable digital identity solutions.
By developing and applying rigorous technical standards to certify identity solutions, implementing pilot programs, and advocating for the ethical implantation of digital ID, ID2020 is strengthening social and economic development globally. Alliance partners are committed to a future in which all of the world’s seven billion people can fully exercise their basic human rights and reap the benefits of economic empowerment and to protecting user privacy and ensuring that data is not commoditized.
About BLOK Solutions
BLOK Solutions is a global technology company focused on accelerating the implementation of blockchain into real-world enterprises. BLOK Solutions provides a trust layer to ensure authenticity and security to a range of business cases, from Fintech and biotechnology to decentralized identity, transportation, and geospatial data interrogation. The company’s mission is to enable prosperous, more equitable societies while protecting the privacy and freedom of individuals across the planet.
