MatchQR Digital Identity

Without identity a person is no one. Moreover, identity is an inalienable right to any human being. An individual can not be recognized by any government, any institution, or services providers without exercising his right to identity. Furthermore, any transaction between individuals, could not be legally supported. Digital ID solutions grant the users their right for personal identification and using this identity to get access to goods and services, and legal support for specific transactions.

 The solution consists of the integration of biometric and biographical information of a person into a bytearray: 

• Facial biometric

• Biographic information (ID Number, name, Last name, gender, birth date, nationality, etc.)

• Finger biometrics

 Security resides on the highest asymmetric and symmetric cryptography standards. Double encryption process involving RSA keys and Elliptic Curve digital signature algorithm, are used for personal information protection around blockchain process. 

More info:

https://matchQR.com

MatchQR warranties the human right to own a legal identity of any human being in every country. MatchQR is a byte array that contains biographic and biometrical data, this byte array may be printed in a couple of QR codes (and then print this QR codes in paper o a plastic card). There is no need to add special features to the printing process, for example security paper or security cards or chips. The security of this technology resides in the encryption process and the integration of biometric features. The lecture of our byte array does not need internet connection nor database queries. It may be read simply from a mobile App or a desktop SDK.

The security in MatchQR resides on the implementation of highest asymmetric and symmetric cryptography standards. A double encryption process involving RSA keys and  Elliptic Curve digital signature algorithm, are used for personal information protection around blockchain process.

The encryption and digital signature algorithms used ensure:

• Confidentiality

• Authenticity

• Integrity 

• Non repudiation

• Accessibility

• Availability  

Therefore, this aspects entails:

• Sovereign data identity

• Protection against falsification or alteration

• Protection against identity theft.

• Documents’ validation

• Validation via mobile devices

• Availability for replacement and reissuance

• Documents’ useful life

MatchQR ensures the access to identity to vulnerable groups so they can exercise all their civil rights and obligations.

There are 3 main parties involved in the identification cycle:

1. Authority; preferible government, but also NPO, private sector, etc (it requires the enrollment infrastructure).

2. Citizens; who are the bearers of their sovereign identity (they do not need any technology). 

3. Interested verification parties; those who are in need to verify the identity of a human being i.e. banks, service providers, government agencies, etc (they need at least a mobile phone in order to use a free distribution app).

The main beneficiaries are vulnerable and marginalized groups than by their own conditions (economical, social, geographical, etc.) the access to a valid identity is denied. By this denial they are out, first of all, of the legal recognition by governments, then out of the access to good and services that will reduce the gap between most of the citizens and this groups. Finally, MatchQR promote the equity regarding the access to an identity as a part of the exercise of a human right.

MatchQR is a solution that democratize the access to a basic human right, having an identity. We are aware that there are several vulnerable sectors and populations all around the world for whose lacking of identity means being relegated from basic services such as health, legal protection, financial access, etc. Our solution helps governments to reduce the gap of inequity between human beings, no matter their origins. 

MatchQR provide a no connection needed verification and the protection of private data by using encryption methods that creates the concept of sovereign identity, the bearer of the ID guard always his data.

The solution is integrated by four main phases:

1. Enrollment: Consists on gather the related information to the user’s identification.

2. Issuance: Consists on the encryption and incorporation of the user’s personal information in a pair of QR codes

3. Validation: Consists on how an institution warranty the reading and access to the data encrypted in the pair of QR codes and with this ensure the identity of the ID's bearer.

 Some fundamental technical innovative characteristics of the presented solution are:

• Offline solution:No internet or connectivity required

• Non database required

• Validation could be through digital devices such as smartphones

• Distributed processing: As the validation is performed 1:1 within the same device concurrence on centralized servers is avoided

• Multiplatform: validation requires not an specific technology

• Multiprocess and scalable: The issuance may support thousands of transactions per minute (it occurs only once per citizen).

Match QR is the base of official Mexican's Government ID card. With this project we will help the Mexican Government to issue the national ID for a range of 80 to 120 millions of Mexican citizens. We have deploy the project in the physical versión (a PVC card) and due to the COVID crisis, the Mexican Government provided a 100% digital process of having the ID in a so call "digital attestation". The issuance of the digital attestation is 100 % online, so reduces the contact between people and ensure the social distancing. It protects the population. As well the Mexican Government launched a free App so the citizen may verify this digital attestations. Moreover, the Mexican Government gave legal value to this digital attestations, so citizens may proof their legal personality in the face of institutions or good and services providers.

INE's Digital Attestation

Android INE's Digital Attestation Verification App

iOS INE's Digital Attestation Verification App

We would like to create a world wide impact, which means that in a long-term we would like to contribute to provide access to the human right of identity to all people, specially the vulnerable and marginalized groups. Because this groups represent the higher gap of inequity towards the inclusion not only about ID but many other services that come along with this conditions. Besides, nowadays all the efforts lead to de digital ambit, GDPR compliance, biometric and blockchain.

Our short-term outcome is to provide an enrollment system that allows people to receive an ID, this enrollment process must ensure the social distancing, which means, online. The mid-term outcome will be to set, with the government, a certified verification process so this may be the standard in the country, and finally our long-term outcome will be that professional stakeholders, like: health, financial, banking or assurance (for naming only a few of them) services providers, may use this certified verification process as a part of onboarding or KYC purposes. 

The main output is the issuance of a bytearray that contains the biographical and biometrical data of the stakeholders, this bytearray may be printed on a PVC card, any kind of paper of may be valid in a digital format, such as devices likes cell phones or tables.

In order to achieve this output the process starts with an enrollment process. This enrollment may take place in a website where the stakeholders may sign up and proceed with the enrollment. An App to enroll may be deployed as well so government workers enroll the population, specially the most marginalized members in the Country.

By doing this we will contribute to a more equity society, that lefts no one behind, reducing a gap that today exist and is wide. Thanks to this technology we may help to the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups.

The basic input for governments is the technical infrastructure that allows to provide both services, enrollment and generation. 

The Mexican Government has modified its national ID document, so in the back of the card might fit a couple of QR codes. This QR codes may fit in any standard size ID-1. So, incorporate this solutions is pretty simple. In order of making clearer we will explain the identification cycle from our solutions perspective.

There are 3 main parties involved in the identification cycle:

1. Authority; preferible governments, but also NPO, private sector, etc (it requires the enrollment infrastructure).

2. Citizens; who are the bearers of their sovereign identity (they do not need any technology). If there's no need of technology by the stakeholders, so we are talking about an empowerment stage of vulnerable and marginalized groups.

3. Interested verification parties; those who are in need to verify the identity of a human being i.e. banks, service providers, government agencies, etc (they need at least a mobile phone in order to use a free distribution app).

Citizen that benefits from this solution will be ensure in the following aspects, generally associated with identification issues:

• Sovereign data identity

• Protection against falsification or alteration

• Protection against identity theft.

• Documents’ validation

• Validation via mobile devices

• Availability for replacement

This technology may be incorporated to any existing identification system. Also the solution may be deployed from scratch if there are no previous efforts on digital identity matters or it may be added to the existing cards or platforms and even when security in electronic media has been considered (ie. chips) this security may be complemented with digital security.

The solution is integrated by four main phases:

1. Enrollment: Consists on gather the related information to the user’s identification.

2. Issuance: Consists on the encryption and incorporation of the user’s personal information in a pair of QR codes

3. Validation: Consists on the reading and the display of the informations contained in the QR codes

4. Federation: Consists on how third parties services may couple to this identification process by using this technology on onboarding or KYC services. 

 Some fundamental technical characteristics of the presented solution are:

• Offline solution:No internet or connectivity required

• Non database required

• Validation could be through digital devices such as smartphones

• Distributed processing: As the validation is performed 1:1 within the same device concurrence on centralized servers is avoided

• Multiplatform: validation requires not an specific technology

• Multiprocess and scalable: the issuance supports thousands of transactions per minute (it happens only once for citizen)

Citizens need only a couple of QR codes, nothing else. Professional stakeholders or authorities that need to validate those QR codes may do it through a simple App.

Security standards:

• RSA (Rivest, Shamir y Adleman)
• ECC ecp256r1 (also known as P-256 and prime256v1)
• PKCS #11

Biometric standards: 

• ISO/IEC 19794-2
• ANSI INCITS 378-2004 

QR Code bar code symbology specification
ISO/IEC 18004:2015

Our solution works in a completely offline mode, all the stakeholder's data are stored in que QR codes, so there is no need of internet connectivity nor database queries. 

Regarding to low literacy and numeracy from users, it is incorporated the biometry, so stakeholders doesn't need to do anything but place their hand into a reader or their face into a device's camera. 

Our current contract with the Mexican Government settle the service for a range between 80 and 120 million people in a 5 years period. Starting on December 2019.

Nowadays we have distributed around 7 million ID's with our solution.

Due to Covid crisis the Mexican Government have issued 1 million Digital Attestations in three months.

In the short-term, in Mexico we would like to settle as the authorized entity that provides the verification process regarding the interested stakeholders in the onboarding and KYC steps.

In the long-term we would like to offer the digital ID services to other countries in Latin America and Europe, somehow being the standard on digital identity.

We believe that the Mexican scenario may bring light to our solution's performance. Due to the amount of identifications issued and of course by the endorsement of the Mexican Government. We think this may opens the doors with other instances (local and foreigns). We believe that E-government's future will be based on a correct and secure performance of the digital identity. Our solution warranties this performance and the security of the data.

• Customs and traditions: sometimes even if a solution is a great solution, we need to defeat the customs and traditions of what people usually do. And what they believe it will work. Talking about a new technology is complicated, because people may not accept new ideas easily.
• Resistance to change: people is skeptical by nature. When it comes to change in a technological way, sometimes people struggle a little bit, so they prefer to avoid change, because they need to learn once again. And sometimes the have to deal with this situations.
• Confidence and Third Party Endorsement: When it comes to technology, many people or industries rather to use or buy things that are already proved. But how do this products once started their business, at some point they must ask for the trust and reliability of their products, but at the end, perseverance, good work and and patience are the key to success.

• Customs and traditions: we need to evangelize with our solution, we need to spread the word of our good work. Share our success stories and  convince people to look at us.
• We think that everything has to do with change or the capacity of exercising that change. But never remain still. It's all about constancy and perseverance, never take a no as an answer, or trying to transform that no into a yes, there's always a solutions, the important thing is never surrender.
• Confidence and Third Party Endorsement: prior to our INE's contract many people didn't believe in our solution, but Mexican Government endorse our project and that was a huge step so companies and institutions gave a chance to our solution, now we're looking to go to other countries. 

Our staff is formed by 11 full-time people

We have been working in this solution since 2015. We have the intelectual property of algorithms we have developed though the years. Our time line includes a non-stop long list of improvements in our technology.

We are the first solution in the world that can compress the amount of data that we include in a couple of QR's. This allow us to perform reading and verification processes completely offline. By the nature of the World Bank's initiative we think it is mandatory to offer a offline service that strength and empower vulnerable groups and help them to reduce the inequity gap.

We work with Veridos, this partnership happened under the Mexican Government ID project. We supply the digital ID technology and Veridos is the official printer of the physical ID cards in project.

The volume of issued identity documents since December 2019 is around 7 millions. This number may be compared to some countries entire population, for example Uruguay, Ireland, Norway, Qatar, Estonia or Denmark. This may give the idea of the solidity and robustness of our solution.

We work as well with DINSA in Spain. Together we have boosted several projects but one of them, quite remarkable, in partnership with the Spanish health company Quirón is the QuironPrevención Health Passport.

Our business model consist of two moments, the issuance and the verification. Most of the time the issuance of digital identity is brought by an authority (government, NPO, banks, etc). This entities provide to their stakeholders to cost zero a digital ID. The cost of this digital ID's are generally absorbed by the entities themselves. When it comes to the digital ID in a country, the revenue comes with the verification process. 

First of all we have to make clear all the parties involved in the identification cycle:

1. Authority; preferible governments, but also NPO, private sector, etc (it requires the enrollment infrastructure).

2. Citizens; who are the bearers of their sovereign identity (they do not need any technology). 

3. Interested verification parties; those who are in need to verify the identity of a human being i.e. banks, service providers, government agencies, etc (they need at least a mobile phone in order to use a free distribution app).

The Interested verification parties will pay so they can verify the information contained in the QR codes, but not only in terms of data query, but they will seek to integrate our verificación API into their own apps so they may perform 100% digital onboarding and KYC process, most of the time. This API previous signing of an agreement with the authority may allow interested stakeholders to read and deploy the data and biometrics of the citizens.

The business model that best suit on our activity is the "Entrepreneur support". This is because we sale solutions to specific clients. However, the digital identity is a transversal business model, so practically all markets are our target. 

For now we have been financial sustainable thanks to the contract we have with te Mexican Government but this wont last forever. We are having several approaches in different ambits, such as the health industry, tourism, transportations, merchandise assurance and so on.

For us is quite important to contribute to reduce the inequity gap in the mankind. The more inclusion we got, the better for all the actors in the economy. We mustn't forget that we are connected and we're part of one world. The Covid pandemic shown to us that we're closer than what we think.

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For 2020 we estimate expenses up to 300,000 USD.

First of all because we remain convinced that our contribution may help people. There is one undeniable reality, and that is a huge inequity gap in the humankind. If our technology may help in order to reduce that gap we will be more than happy for the opportunity.

As we said, the confidence and third party endorsement is fundamental for a company. By applying to the Mission Billion Challenge Global Prize we think that we will have another kind of attention, we would like to go overseas and proof that our solution is strong, powerful and may work in any circumstances.

We're an IT company and actually doing business is something that we have empirically learned. We are doing this activities in a correct way, however we think we may perform always better.

We are convinced that creating synergy with other companies that may have expertise in different domains will translate into empowering to our selves and learning those principles that we don't master, or not yet. We think that having role models is the best way to learn. 

We would like to partner mostly with governments and the banking industry. 

Despite digital identity is a transversal solution, our business models require first of all an authority. Governments are par excellence this authority, that grants the identity cycle in one country.

The baking industry because they need to have an instrument like our solution to make more and better customers. Transforming their onboarding processes and KYC features.