Melbourne-based ShareRing has been tapped as the primary digital id supplier to start testing its tech for the Australian authorities’s US$4 million verification expertise trials accredited late final 12 months to implement social media restrictions for underage customers.
The blockchain agency will launch a pilot program with college college students in Darwin, testing its self-sovereign id platform that enables customers to soundly and securely present age verification whereas retaining management of their private information.
Trials are set to start subsequent week as Australia appears to implement new laws by December, banning youngsters underneath 16 from creating social media accounts, with platforms dealing with fines as much as US$30.7 million for non-compliance.
ShareRing’s use of reusable digital IDs helps handle privateness issues from Australians who’ve voiced towards the danger of ID theft in government-run databases. These issues have been round since final 12 months when the laws was accredited for trial.
The tech “eliminates the necessity for repetitive verification whereas sustaining prompt trustless verification and a privacy-first strategy,” Tim Bos, ShareRing’s founder and chief expertise officer, informed Decrypt.
In contrast to typical centralized id methods, ShareRing’s blockchain-based tech helps take away potential single factors of failure or information breach dangers if just one entity, equivalent to a authorities, has management of the information.
It permits customers to confirm their age with out importing private paperwork, as an alternative sharing solely cryptographic proof, retaining information within the person’s management, and lowering publicity to breaches from nefarious, would-be hackers.
Constructed on the Cosmos SDK, ShareRing’s tech gives a method to create customized blockchains, on this case to be used in serving to display screen out age-inappropriate content material on social media platforms by verifying customers, with out essentially exposing their private info.
Utilizing Tendermint, a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, ShareRing can course of registrations with effectivity whereas additionally permitting it to hook up with different blockchains.
The corporate claims it has secured accreditation underneath the UK’s Digital Identities and Attributes Belief Framework and joined Choose ID, the UK’s first Reusable Digital ID Community for monetary providers.
Trials for Australia are being led by Age Examine Certification Scheme (ACCS), an impartial evaluation consortium. ACCS will test age verification applied sciences earlier than the social media restrictions take full impact throughout the 12 months.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
