Crypto Cards, Wallets, and Phones Make the Case for Biometric Privacy

Some new announcements from the crypto world this week are helping to illustrate the growing role of biometrics in this still-emerging part of FinTech.

Hong Kong-based COCA, for instance, has announced the launch of physical debit cards that are meant to blend cryptocurrency with everyday financial services activities, building on COCA’s previously launched virtual debit cards and a digital wallet solution. Importantly, COCA’s Physical Debit Cards makes use of what COCA calls “anonymous biometrics” and Multi-Party Computation (MPC).

MPC ensures that sensitive information, like private keys, is securely distributed among multiple parties, preventing any single entity from having full access and reducing the risk of theft. Combining it with biometrics that don’t connect to biographical information could provide a secure and private method for handling cryptocurrency transactions with a physical debit card.

COCA also says its system uses an “Anonymous Biometric Backup” system for account recovery that uses facial recognition “to protect user identity.”

Meanwhile, Spain-based Privado ID has announced a new “Privado ID Web Wallet” that uses biometrics for “Proof-of-Uniqueness attestations” using a device camera. The company is pitching its digital wallet to third parties for use in their own projects, and has already seen it integrated into a blockchain platform called Linea, which is using it in a “Proof of Humanity” system.

And then there’s the “Up Mobile” smartphone from Up Network, which is being pitched as the world’s first smartphone built on AI and blockchain technology. In particular, it has been developed on the Move programming language, which was designed for writing safe and flexible smart contracts. Move was developed by Facebook (now Meta) for its Libra (now Diem) blockchain project, though it has since found broader applications in other blockchain platforms.

Movement Labs, which is dedicated to the Move programming language, is providing the blockchain technology that underpins the Up Mobile phone. As for biometrics, Up Network explained in a press release that “AI algorithms are employed to process and create unique digital identifiers using facial recognition and fingerprint data, ensuring that each user can only register once.”

As in other crypto projects, the biometric tech is used to ensure privacy. Up Network describes it as “zero-knowledge proof” technology through which “identity is proven without revealing any of the biometric data.”

These projects, together with the very high-profile Worldcoin project, which takes a similar approach to biometric pseudonymity in its digital ID platform, are making the case for biometric privacy in Web3.

–

July 11, 2024 – by Alex Perala