Using blockchain for biometric tracking would be the technology’s killer app in the travel security sector, according to a representative from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. The news was reported by travel industry media outlet Skift on March 21. Sikina Hasham, program manager at the CBP, made her remarks during a panel at the JetBlue Technology Ventures Blockchain in Travel Summit in New York City on Wednesday. In response to a question from panel moderator David Post — managing director of IBM Blockchain Ventures — Hasham said that an area of significant promise for the government’s …

Swiss blockchain identity network Concordium has hired former Danish prime minister and NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a strategic advisor, the company confirmed in a press release on March 20. The Concordium Foundation, the controlling entity behind the Concordium Network that launched a proof of concept in January, aims to tackle blockchain deployment in certain fields with Rasmussen’s expertise. The former politician currently heads Rasmussen Global, a consultancy firm active in diverse fields including democracy, transatlantic relations and security policy. “Given the enormous scope and far-reaching potential of the Concordium Network, it is essential for the Concordium Foundation …

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin says that blockchain applications outside of finance face more difficulty gaining traction, as the primary added value they offer is decentralization. Buterin made his remarks during a speech at crypto event Token 2049 in Hong Kong on March 13. Buterin began by noting that finance is “realistically the first blockchain [application] that will probably achieve wide scale adoption,” and that even though he is a self-declared huge fan of other applications: “The problem is that decentralization is basically their value add. With finance you’re competing with banks that take five days to do something interesting. …

Japanese multinational holding conglomerate SoftBank Corp. and American telecoms-focused blockchain firm TBCASoft are to lead a new blockchain-based digital identification study group under the canopy of the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG). The development was announced in a SoftBank press release on Feb. 26. As previously reported, CBSG — a global blockchain consortium of telecom carriers — was founded in September 2017, in a bid to push greater adoption of the technology in the industry. Alongside Softbank and TBCASoft, the organization counts Taiwan-based telecoms carrier Far EasTone and U.S.-based telecoms firm Sprint as founding members. Today’s announcement reveals that the …

South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom (SKT), is partnering with the world’s fifth largest telecoms firm, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, to develop a blockchain-based mobile identification solution. The news was reported in a press release from SKT on Feb. 21. A Memorandum of Understanding between the two firms is to be formalized during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, which kicks off on Feb. 25 in Barcelona, Spain. The collaboration will see SKT and Deutsche Telekom’s R&D unit, T-Labs, develop a commercialized, blockchain-powered mobile identity solution that can be used for applications such as access control, dealings and contracts. SKT …

According to the latest estimates, we generate around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That's 2.5 followed by 17 zeros — or rather 2.5 trillion million — a number that's impossible to visualize intuitively, but nonetheless has massive implications for our privacy online, our security and our ability to keep our digital identities within our own personal control. Indeed, recent surveys indicate that as many as 89 percent of consumers believe that corporations currently aren't doing enough to protect their data, while over half of all CEOs and C-suite executives admit that most consumers are right to doubt them …

A Canadian banking group supports the idea of using blockchain technology as part of a digital ID system for residents, national news agency The Canadian Press reported via various local media outlets on Jan. 15. Speaking during a presentation at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, chief executive of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) Neil Parmenter said it was necessary for untamperable solutions to form the basis of ID procedures relating to the banking and finance sectors going forward. The comments come as Canada eyes the opportunities afforded by so-called open banking, a reenvisioning of the banking field that …

Iceland’s blockchain-based identity verification platform Authenteq has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Draper Associates and Capital300, the American tech website VentureBeat reports on Jan. 14. Following the two-week funding round, the company revealed its intention to conduct the second closing of the Series A financing for additional investors in the coming weeks. The latest $5 million closing was held on Jan. 10, while the total amount raised constitutes $7 million over seven rounds since 2015, according to business data provider Crunchbase. Authenteq funding rounds and key investors. Source: Crunchbase Within the latest funding round, Authenteq has …

Disclaimer: This article has been corrected. Previously it stated that Identity.com was based on the Ethereum blockchain, when in fact its smart contracts are based on Ethereum. The platform is not tied to one specific chain. Blockchain startup Civic has appointed Apple veteran Phillip Shoemaker as executive director of Identity.com, its decentralized identity platform. The news was announced in a press release on Dec. 13. Blockchain startup Civic has appointed Apple veteran Phillip Shoemaker as executive director of Identity.com, its Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based, decentralized identity platform. The news was announced in a press release published Dec. 13. Identity.com is Civic’s …

We're living at a time of unprecedented concern over identity. Fears abound that our personal data is being abused by distant third-parties, while this data has become more valuable to us at a time when our identities and the identity politics we base around them have become more central to our lives. It's in this context that blockchain technology has appeared, and while its application beyond cryptocurrencies is still limited, protecting our online identities and data more securely looks set to be one of its most central applications. In its most basic outline, the use of blockchains in the area …

Cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase has acquired San Francisco-based startup Distributed Systems Inc., which works on decentralized identity solutions, according to an August 15 announcement. In the blog post, B Byrne, project manager for Identity at Coinbase, said Distributed Systems will help the exchange work on new ways to validate and verify identity within its plans to develop an open financial system. The blog post says: “Blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies offers a new way to let us all be “verified” everywhere we go on the internet, feeling safer about our interactions with others and opening the door to …

A company has launched a new blockchain-powered identity verification app to help users avoid online fraud during internet transactions. Blockpass also aims to counter the repetitive task of constantly entering proof of identity across different platforms, such as new bank accounts and travel document applications. The idea of the project is to allow customers to store their data via the blockchain-powered app, cutting out the time consuming manual compliance procedures. After initially submitting their personal information, customers’ identity can be verified by “trusted compliance platforms.” An “anonymous cryptographic code” representing their data will then appear on the blockchain, which will …