Concordium debuts app for anonymous online age checks amid UK rules backlash
Layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain Concordium launched a cell app that enables customers to confirm their age with out disclosing their id.
In keeping with a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the brand new answer — accessible as a cell software for iOS and Android — makes use of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) to permit customers to show their age with out revealing their id.
The app creates an encrypted ID that can be utilized for age checks on third-party providers. Concordium framed the launch as a privacy-friendly various to conventional ID-based programs at a time when issues about government-mandated verification are rising.
“The reality is that the online has by no means had a viable age verification system, leading to piecemeal options which are ineffective at greatest and a privateness threat at worst,” Concordium CEO Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki stated.
A personal age verification answer
ZK-proofs permit a celebration to show they know sure info with out revealing it. This kind of cryptography is especially fashionable amongst privacy-focused cryptocurrency builders, with Zcash (ZEC) using it for nameless transfers and decentralized mixer Twister Money for anonymizing Ether transactions (ETH).
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A Concordium consultant advised Cointelegraph that the service is a client cell software that’s accessible for obtain on iPhone and Android gadgets. Shoppers can create a Concordium ID utilizing the app for about $0.01, which can be utilized for verification on built-in providers.
Concordium stated its app permits verification of attributes equivalent to title, date of beginning, nationality and doc kind. In follow, the corporate stated, none of this info is uncovered to service suppliers. As a substitute, ZK-proofs affirm {that a} consumer meets necessities like being over 18.
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Can the UK’s on-line age verification guidelines defend privateness?
The launch follows controversy surrounding the UK’s lately launched necessary on-line ID checks for age verification to view grownup content material, a definition broad sufficient to incorporate Wikipedia.
Privateness advocates strongly criticized the UK measure, with VPN apps seeing rising recognition within the nation as authorities officers recommend cracking down on them as nicely. The implementation of the brand new measures grew to become obligatory on Tuesday.
UK legal guidelines requiring ID verification for accessing grownup content material are tech-neutral. The native communication regulator, Ofcom, said in its steerage doc that reusable digital ID wallets that share an “grownup/over-18” attribute are a legitimate implementation.
This might probably permit for the usage of a ZK-proof-based service so long as it meets Ofcom’s “extremely efficient” normal and UK information safety duties. A Concordium spokesperson advised Cointelegraph that the agency and its companions “are actively partaking with Ofcom” on their age verification options.
Curiosity in ZK-proofs extends past crypto initiatives. Google Pockets, the search large’s cost and digital card administration software, introduced in late April that it had built-in ZK-proofs for age verification.
“This implementation permits us to supply speedy age verification throughout a variety of cell gadgets, apps and web sites,” Google stated.
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