Digital IDs based on blockchain

When a person wishes to register to access services such as government subsidies, a mobile SIM card or a bank account, they are often required to prove their identity using government-issued, physical documents such as a national identity card, passport, or voter ID. However, at least 1.1 billion people lack any form of officially-recognized identity, and this problem disproportionately impacts rural residents, the poor, women, children, and other vulnerable groups, particularly in Africa and Asia. Furthermore, in many places’ identity systems remain fragmented and require individuals to hold several functional forms of identity, each of which might serve a different purpose, follow a different application process, and reach different segments of society.

The AmSecure initiative can be pioneered by governments that grant a
digital, decentralized, sovereign identity to each of its citizens. This
identity enables citizens to partake in government-related activities
like getting verified by city officials, casting votes, and accessing
government services.

The proposed solution is one in which the user has control over their own, previously verified credentials by the authorities in question, with the ability of sharing only the required information to only the parties required to access it.

Today, more than 1.5 billion people are excluded from accessing basic services due to their inability to prove their identity especially in Asia and Africa where there is lack of proper infrastructure and systems full of fraud, corruption, inequality, inefficiency.

An individual lacking legal, recognized identification can struggle against several factors; factors that can undermine the human life quality needed for development. Without an official ID, a person can’t access financial benefits such as opening bank accounts and receiving loans. Never mind about migration and transportation, since every airport or ground checkpoint will require either a passport or a form of national identification to move within any territory. Voting for one’s governors, receive an inheritance, or own property would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Collectively, these individual difficulties can impact countries as a whole. Since there is not an accurate number of citizens, double spending in assisting programs could arise. Distributing scarce resources would be inefficient. Overall, it would be very hard for the government to assist citizens since they have no record of them. Hence the importance of an universal ID system in order for the government to be statistically aware of its citizens.

 

The solution targets the vulnerable groups/unserved –informal workers, homeless and refugees who need these IDs as a basic necessity. By partnering with nonprofits for user understanding and participation, we strive to use our data to streamline the process of allowing those without proper identification to become integrated back into the workforce. We wish to welcome the dreamers, undocumented immigrants, refugees, veterans, and anyone else pushed into the background and provide them with the resources to create the life they deserve.

Take for instance Peter, a homeless man gives consent to having his ID setup - his biometric details are noted (fingerprints, retina and facial recognition). The foundation of strong identity verification systems is these biometric credentials and not self-asserted credentials. These biometric features are noted digitally in a secure independently managed data structure chain and based on these unique features the ID for Peter is setup, and can be verified by any financial or government institution using APIs. Now, Peter has a chance to rebuild his life. With a proper ID, he can qualify for government aid, food stamps, and apply for an SSN, allowing him to open a bank account, apply for jobs and a lease.

The solution is a coordinated, robust and a universal identification system that in turn promotes social and economic inclusion and sustainable development outcomes for poorly-connected populations including rural and remote communities, the forcibly displaced, stateless persons and other marginalized groups by ensuring that everyone—especially vulnerable and marginalized groups—are able to apply/register for an ID in a way that protects their health, data, and the integrity of the ID system.

It also proposes an innovative model that facilitates easy
accessibility to services by marginalized and vulnerable populations no
matter where they are.

Traditional, “centralized: an organization issues to users (or allows to create) a digital credential(account) that users can use to access its service. Trust between you and the organization is typically established through the use of shared secrets, username and a password. Sometimes shared secrets are augmented with additional factors such as physical tokens or biometrics. Data kept in a centralized way is subject to hacks (e.g. the Equifax breach), user do not have control on their identities and easily lose track of their identities, high costs for organizations, which must have large infrastructures in place For third-party IDP systems,every time a user wants to use a service, the Service Provider must «communicate» with the Identity Provider, in order to authenticate the user.

Both traditional & third-party IDP systems are fragmented, insecure, and exclusive.

Blockchain enables more secure management and storage of digital identities by providing unified, interoperable, and tamper-proofinfrastructure with key benefits to enterprises, users, and IoT management systems.

• Envisions the user as central actor controlling everything related to its identity in a «digital wallet» that contains verifiable claims related to him, like its curriculum, passport, bachelor degree certificate.

• Adopts a user-centric approach, eliminating central points of failure by empowering individuals with self-sovereign possession over their own data.

• Users and organizations can present digitally signed claims related to them, which have been signed by a new role in the system: the Identity Certifier. The verification process of the signed claims is automatic and with no intermediary needed

• BanQu, a start-up from the United States, is using blockchain technology to create secure and verified IDs for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Through the BanQu app that runs on any mobile phone, an individual can build his or her online profile through facial and voice recognition and start tracking everything from educational qualifications to transaction history. Over time, users build up a financial ID, eventually being able to open bank accounts, own property and access healthcare and other basic services.

• Sierra Leone National Digital Identity Platform blockchain debuts in 2020. The project is a partnership between Sierra Leone and the UN. It is being implemented by fintech firm Kiva and will have a financial inclusion component. Credit history will be recorded on the digital ID, allowing people to access credit instantly.
• Blockchain Will Help Us Prove Our Identities in a Digital World.

• In early 2017 the U.N. World Food Program launched the first stage of what it calls “Building Block,” giving food and cash assistance to needy families in Pakistan’s Sindh province. An internet-connected smartphone authenticated and recorded payments from the U.N. agency to food vendors, ensuring the recipients got help, the merchants got paid and the agency didn’t lose track of its money. The agency expects using a blockchain system will reduce its overhead costs from 3.5 percent to less than 1 percent. And it can speed aid to remote or disaster-struck areas, where ATMs may not exist or banks are not functioning normally. In urgent situations, blockchain currency can even take the place of scarce local cash, allowing aid organizations, residents and merchants to exchange money electronically.

Presenting the decentralized approach to identity management Decentralized identity is how individuals control when, where and with whom they share their credentials. In the physical world, we take this sharing of credentials for granted – yet a secure, smart way to do this has been long missing in the digital world. That’s about to change. Creating a decentralized approach to identity management – enabled by blockchain – building on top of open standards in combination with Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other standards groups.

• Puts control of your personal data back into your hands rather than being in the hands of industry giants.

• Addresses issues faced by refugees. They have to no country they belong to. They don’t have proper documentation. They cannot borrow money, open an account, buy a house or start a business. They remain as non-entities and cannot participate in society.

• Removes the need to deal with bureaucratic processes for passport creation.

• Enhances security and privacy of medical records and intellectual property, while facilitating compliance with regulations protecting patient data.

• Simplifies KYC processes. Currently every bank and financial institution individually performs the KYC process, validates the information and documents and stores a digitized version. With digital identity being maintained on a shared ledger, banks can access relevant parts of the stored data (with customer consent) and perform due diligence. 

Most simply, a blockchain is an inexpensive and transparent way to record transactions. People who don’t know each other – and therefore may not trust each other – can securely exchange money without fear of fraud or theft. Major aid agencies, nonprofits and startup companies are working to extend blockchain systems across the developing world to help poor people around the world get easier access to banks for loans or to protect their savings.

Blockchain can support the creation of digital ID for refugees, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable groups in the African region, who often do not own legal document or have lost them during their journeys.

It can help create and validate individuals’ identities. Using only an internet-connected smartphone, a person is photographed and recorded on video making particular facial expressions and speaking, reading an on-screen text. The data are recorded on a blockchain and can be accessed later by anyone who needs to check that person’s identity.

Without email, phones, passports or even birth certificates, a blockchain could be the only way many poor people have to prove who they are. That could really make their lives better and expand their opportunities.

The digital ID can be utilised by refugees and asylum seekers as a payment system.

Blockchain identity management systems could be used to eradicate current identity issues such as 

-Inaccessibility:

-Data insecurit

-Fraudulent identities

The AmSecure initiative can be pioneered by governments that grant a digital, decentralized, sovereign identity to each of its citizens. This identity enables citizens to partake in government-related activities like getting verified by city officials, casting votes, and accessing government services.

Before, the idea of having a blockchain self-sovereign ID system where individuals have total control over their information quickly arose problems. Sensitive data would spread in the network and encounter regulatory obstacles as most governments don’t allow the sharing of national information overseas. The idea has evolved, and a more accepted concept is the one of having an identity wallet in which the citizen stores verified credentials from trusted authorities certifying they count with certain attributes (credit score < 100, female, employed, over 18). Keep in mind that we should keep it simple; there is a difference between letting an entity know you are over 18 and letting them know that you are exactly 35 years old. Looking at the image above, let’s say that Alice wants to get into a bar. She would only have to share her age information with the bar,demonstrating that she is older than 21. Nothing else. Simple.

This solution allows Alice to choose what information to share with whom

and how much, and improved security comes by decentralizing the database and eliminating a single point of failure risk. Providing information would be as easy as pushing a button instead of bringing a bunch of documents to let’s say the bank teller. Also, any changes in the evolution of the ID are traceable and timestamped.

in another case scenario, Imagine a scene where you wouldn’t have to display your government identity proof each time you wish to prove your identity, rather you just use your phone to scan a QR code and the system would know its you.

The features of such an identity are the following:

1. Digital: No paper required. Everything is on the web and it is automated.
2. Decentralised: No single siloed database would be used which may be susceptible to security infringement.
3. Sovereign: Your identity is under your control and not under government’s control, and it is all in your phone.

The system is based on a distributed, decentralized model in which multiple parties collaborate and build trust over a business network. The emergence of blockchain began with Bitcoin, which is a public blockchain that can be used by an individual or entity for the exchange of cryptocurrency. The underlying blockchain technology was then applied to enterprise use cases by leveraging permissioned blockchain platforms in which one or more peers/nodes represents a participating entity, and this network of nodes is used to broadcast transactions and reach consensus before it is committed to the ledger. Each node is intended to be self-sufficient with the ability to serve any distributed applications and/or existing enterprise applications. Each of the participating entities interacts with the blockchain network through its respective node via certain integration techniques.

Application Programming Interface (API) based – Communication with each blockchain node can be enabled by using a blockchain specific software development kit (SDK). This SDK layer can connect to the local or remote blockchain node (via gRPC, HTTP, IPC, etc.) and enable the posting of transactions to the blockchain node. The SDK is usually available in multiple programming languages such as NodeJS, Java, Python, GoLang, Rust, etc. This SDK functionality can be exposed as REST APIs so that it can be consumed by off-chain components such as a web-based or mobile application as well as the existing enterprise applications of an organization. A standardized integration mechanism is available by which transactions can be submitted to the blockchain network, and ledger data can be queried. This API layer becomes a part of the Distributed App (DAPP) layer that is provisioned with each blockchain node. API management (security, throttling, monitoring, etc.) is required for production-grade implementations.

Event-based – Smart contracts are not allowed to
directly invoke or consume any external interface, but custom events
can be triggered from it. These events can be captured by the
blockchain SDK layer and used to send out updates and notifications to
the off-chain components. For example, this technique can be used to
update an existing legacy or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
as soon as the blockchain ledger is updated. This event-driven
integration ensures that blockchain can initiate interactions and
integrate with the external world.

This is set to be a next-generation identity solution with an ambition to give everyone access to a mobile phone by creating a digital identity infrastructure that is fundamentally inclusive. To do this, it will help individuals establish a trusted identity – or ‘Proof of Existence’ – that is independent from public infrastructures and non-dependent on official identity documents, postal addresses or banking systems.  

The end-to-end solution uses back-end blockchain technology to certify a customer’s KYC related information, the customer’s experience and interaction with the app remains streamlined and easy: users do not need to know what blockchain is in order to use the platform, and the service works on any mobile device through a USSD menu or smartphone application.  

Customers are guided through the enrolment process with help from a Gravity agent who visits them at their home or in their community. To begin, the customer uses a USSD menu in their own mobile device to self-declare their KYC-relevant information, including:

• First name

• Last name

• Phone number

• Date of birth

• Gender

• Nationality

All of these identity claims are then anonymously sealed on a public blockchain and stored on a second permissioned and cryptographically secured distributed ledger. At this point, confidence in the customer’s identity is at a base level.

It's still an idea not yet implemented and developed.

We are hopeful that once it is developed in 12months over 1,000,000
identities can be created, and in five years we shall be able to have
solved Identity related challenges for over 50,000,000 people in over 20
countries across the Sub-Saharan Africa.

-Our most important goal is design the platform upon which blockchain identities will be authenticated.

-Pilot in Benin, Niger and Ghana

-Establish partnership with tech companies to with the potential to design the platform from zero to scale.

-Partner with governments and states to implement the identity platform all across Africa

-Carry out fundraising drives to raise investment capital that will aid us in the way forward in running and maintaining the platform this will be through donations, grant applications, venture capital etc.

1-Acceptance of the technology by governments
2-Financial constraints

3-Technical team

1-Using the connections and network acquired from this competition for example the World Bank, we shall get a better makerting platform and endorsement that will help us convince potential government customers to joinin.

2-We shall try as much as possible to leverage the available
opportunities to raise funds through grant applications and also
licensing our IP to get money.

N/A

The team is composed of 4 entrepreneurs working together to bring this model to the market.

-We are very experienced individuals in both business and technology.

-Three of the team members are soft ware engineers with over 5 years each.

-We also experienced in design innovative market products that add value to millions of lives.

-Above all we are committed to our cause and nothing can be a limit to how much we are set to accomplish.

We currently have no partnering organizations because we are still in the idea phase.

For Enterprises

Enterprises benefit from a cost-effective identity utility that is interoperable with anyone who uses Decentralized Identifiers. Authorized employees can seamlessly access restricted data without the need for usernames or passwords. Organizations gain the ability to create dynamic identity management rules with ease.

For Governments

The solution provides interoperable identity management infrastructure that enables citizens to connect with separate government services using the same digital credentials.

For Social

Decentralized social networks, peer-to-peer messaging apps, and sharing economy apps can benefit from features such as user centricity and data portability.

Individuals

Solution is designed to put people in control of their own identity information. Individuals can aggregate digital credentials about themselves from various parties and decide how to share them. It gives people the independence to freely change services without losing their online identity.

The solution gives individuals total  privacy and control of their personal information, while making data shareable on a trusted network, and ensuring security of identity transactions.

In humanitarian response, blockchain has the potential to be used for information management, coordination of aid delivery, management of crowdfunding, tracking supply chain, cash-transfer programming and boosting humanitarian financing. The technology can provide solutions to existing challenges in humanitarian assistance such as transparency and accountability. Blockchain also can allow organisations to gather large quantities of data about vulnerable populations by using the distributed database component. To maintain data privacy of these populations, organisations can use private blockchain to allow only certain networks to gain access to the data.

-Sale of IP

-Fundraising drives

-Investment capital

-Grants and donations

N/A

We shall need to raise about $500,000 by end of 2021 to help us successfully pilot the platform and service in other countries.

By end of 2020, we shall only require about about $150,000.

First, to receive capital for our project to enable its
implementation and testing. Without capital to push the project, it all
remains just a dream.

Secondly, we hope to network and meet different intellectuals from around the globe. From whom we hope to gain pieces of advice and knowledge about our vision. And we trust it will have so much impact on our future projects.

Also we applying to particularly get a
platform through which we can Market, network and acquire more relevant
contacts to help us in the development, implementation and scale of the
project

We shall require more help in assembling the technology as well as
finding the market for the products as well as getting endorsement for
more financial opportunities.

-ICT Companies

-World Bank

-World Food Program

-UNHCR

-African governments.

-IBM Blockchain Services

Each of these organizations will help us in one way or the other via
development, prototyping, piloting and scale of the project,
fundraising, marketing, implement among other services as need may
present itself.