Most people at least know that blockchain is the technology that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are built on, but a digital ledger that timestamps and orders transactions in an easily trackable and immutable way has a lot more uses.
In this fourth article in the PYMNTS’ Blockchain in Action Series, we'll look at how a distributed digital ledger can create a digital identity that is sharable without giving up privacy and trust because it cannot be faked or forged.
We’re not talking about the anti-money-laundering (AML) type of digital identity, but about identification credentials of the type you’d need to present to a bank or cryptocurrency exchange to satisfy know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.
There are a couple of facets to this use of blockchain technology, known as tokenized identity or digital identity.
One is privacy. We’ll get into the “how” later, but the idea is that people could have tokenized, and likely biometrically accessed identity documents that they can control, only giving out the necessary details: Is this person a citizen? Yes. Does the company or agency collecting this person’s information now have their Social Security Number in its very hackable database? No.
Another facet is security. By using blockchain to create a distributed identity token rather than using the current system in which various services providers all have very hackable centralized databases of digital identity and connected data.
So, what would blockchain bring? An unalterable — immutable, in crypto lingo — record that cannot be forged or changed.
Continue reading: https://www.pymnts.com/blockchain/2022/blockchain-in-action-creating-a-private-unhackable-and-trusted-digital-identity/
In this fourth article in the PYMNTS’ Blockchain in Action Series, we'll look at how a distributed digital ledger can create a digital identity that is sharable without giving up privacy and trust because it cannot be faked or forged.
We’re not talking about the anti-money-laundering (AML) type of digital identity, but about identification credentials of the type you’d need to present to a bank or cryptocurrency exchange to satisfy know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.
There are a couple of facets to this use of blockchain technology, known as tokenized identity or digital identity.
One is privacy. We’ll get into the “how” later, but the idea is that people could have tokenized, and likely biometrically accessed identity documents that they can control, only giving out the necessary details: Is this person a citizen? Yes. Does the company or agency collecting this person’s information now have their Social Security Number in its very hackable database? No.
Another facet is security. By using blockchain to create a distributed identity token rather than using the current system in which various services providers all have very hackable centralized databases of digital identity and connected data.
So, what would blockchain bring? An unalterable — immutable, in crypto lingo — record that cannot be forged or changed.
Continue reading: https://www.pymnts.com/blockchain/2022/blockchain-in-action-creating-a-private-unhackable-and-trusted-digital-identity/
