Imageware Eyes Biometric Opportunities in Self Sovereign Identity

“By adding biometric authentication to your Blockchain identity, you can guarantee that you, and only you, have control over your private data.” – Kristin Taylor, CEO, Imageware

Imageware is banking on the emerging concept of Self Sovereign Identity. The company has announced that it has joined two industry groups focused on SSI, and that it’s working on biometric authentication solutions with SSI applications.

The Self Sovereign Identity concept revolves around the use of blockchain technology to protect privacy in various transactions. The distributed ledger of a blockchain system means that a single individual or entity can be reliably identified across a number of transactions without the need to ever reveal biographic information; this is why purchases of Bitcoin, for example, can be done anonymously with a high degree of trust in the transactions.

The SSI concept would give end users the ability to control particular cryptographic identifiers that would allow them to selectively share information how and when they see fit, with no need for a third party to be involved in verifying that the information being shared really does pertain to the user in question. Essentially, the aim is to ensure that end users are fully in control of their own identity information.

For Imageware, there is a clear opportunity for biometrics to play a role in SSI, since biometric data can be used to confirm an individual’s identity without the need to tie it to any particular piece of biographic information. That’s why the company is looking to lend its expertise to the SSI community by joining the Decentralized Identity Foundation and the Trust Over IP Foundation, two major standards organizations focused on the nascent decentralized identity space.

In a statement, Imageware CEO Kristin Taylor explained that biometric SSI will make it “much safer and more efficient to electronically authorize what information you wish to turn over to an entity, such as your medical history to a doctor, your age at a bar, your name and address at the airport, etc. By adding biometric authentication to your Blockchain identity, you can guarantee that you, and only you, have control over your private data.”

Taylor went on to assert that her team is working on building solutions to meet the need for strong identity management in the SSI space, and that they expect these solutions to be a revenue driver in the future. Joining the DIF and Trust Over IP organizations will help to fuel those efforts.

“By joining the Decentralized Identity Foundation and Trust Over IP groups, we’ll be able to leverage their network and resources in our efforts to further develop a portfolio of SSI integrated biometric solutions,” Taylor said.

In turning to the blockchain-based decentralized identity space, Imageware joins other pioneering biometrics specialists including FaceTec, which recently revealed that its technology would be used to anchor identity for an ambitious new blockchain project based on a ‘Proof of Existence‘ model of blockchain staking.

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October 4, 2021 – by Alex Perala