Privacy Driven Identity Wallet

A low-cost hardware wallet that verifies a person's identity, tracks and encrypts relevant data, enables entitlement distribution and p2p transactions.

Our solution brings identity verification, private data management and the benefits of cashless transactions to the developing countries in a simple to use format of a hardware wallet.

The wallet is solar powered and includes a fingerprint reader to provide basic identification verification and peer transactions offline.  Transactions would be in virtual currency(backed by fiat) with a unique peer signed ledger with hardware tamper prevention.  The wallet is registered to the individual and its system integrity as well as the individual's fingerprint serve as identification for all transactions or data requests.

The wallet and a fingerprint confirmation will authorise any collected data to be safely encrypted and stored in a trust-less storage system, e.g. IPFS. Any encrypted data maybe unencrypted for permitted use when authorised by the wallet and the fingerprint.

The fingerprint verification would confirm local peer to peer transactions as well as be linked to access keys of any compatible online services account.  An online account would be accessible by Internet through smart phone or other compatible Internet device, which could be used by government representatives for aids/entitlement distribution, by identity providers to provide verifiable identity claim or online exchange/banking function to provide financial inclusion.  Similar to an ATM withdraw or cash chip concept, the wallet could withdrawal or deposit money in the accounts as well as have an internal secure storage for peer to peer offline transactions.

In addition to allowing individuals to transact utilising local fiat backed virtual currency through the wallets, our solution also aim to create a better inclusive credit system in the developing countries.  As individuals add known connections and relationships into the wallet for identification purposes, it allows us to better understand the economic needs and capabilities of individuals.  Peers can anonymously report good or bad transactions with individuals.  The reported information will be weighted by the individual reported and reporting in their current standing with their peers and in the society groups they belong.  This will develop a minimal amount of a credit worthiness that can be utilised to provide loans both from the bank and through peers.  Credit worthiness can translate into better interest if culturally allowed or lower transaction fees or higher loan values.

The solution contains the use of innovative technology as well as new economic models:

• Peer to peer distributed storage system for encrypted data storage
• Self-Sovereign identity
• Use of renewable energy to remove the dependency for electricity
• Fiat backed stable virtual currency
• Credit system to enable financial inclusion 

The solution adopts self-sovereign identity model. The wallet will store basic encrypted personal data locally for authentication and minimal offline transaction. Identity providers will be able to provide verifiable claims and perform advanced verification when connected online.

Other relevant data e.g. documents, pictures may be uploaded by a provider to the wallet for temporary safe keeping or may be uploaded directly to the network when the device and fingerprint are present to encrypt the data before being uploaded.

Access to the data must only occur through  our certified software that will limit access and provide for updating(encrypting)/downloading(decrypting) while the device and fingerprint are present.

Device loss or fingerprint altering may be recovered either through representatives of our program or a peer based recognition, e.g. multiple family members may electronically verify the new device or fingerprint.

The self-sovereign identity model will not only be able to prove who we are, but also what we can do. The wallet will manage its own authentication as well as store verifiable claims from other identity systems. The other relevant data may be stored in the distributed peer to peer storage network if choose to. The integration will be cost effective and relatively straightforward as there is no need to build a centralized identity database that is shared by multiple parties. Instead, only programmable interface need to provided in order for other systems to interact with the wallet. Since the majority of the PII data is still stored in the individual providers' back-end systems (only verifiable claim is needed when authenticate), it reduces our system maintenance requirement from regulatory and security point. 

The hardware wallet will verify by fingerprint and have a minimal interface to enter in peer to peer transaction details.  Any Internet connected component will have a modern UI that allows the user to easily enter and view information.

The system will utilise Internet standards for networking and connectivity.  The peer to peer transactions will be NFC based wireless communication.  However, any information or documents will be entered in through integrated software.  Once in the system, the data can be viewed but not made easily portable outside of certified software.  

By keeping the process to authorise information or transactions down to just a fingerprint swipe, minimal communication and comprehension is required.  If the transaction or authorisation is complex, the verification for each access type can be made separate to help enforce a higher level of communication and comprehension outside of the device mechanic.  The person requesting the information may also through the access software be required to confirm that they communicated what was requested and are also responsible for the information through their own fingerprint verification.

At the initial phase, we plan to partner with international development agencies e.g world bank as well as a local government to pilot the solution in a developing country. The goal is to roll out and test the primary features, which are identity verification and aids/entitlement distribution.

The next phase will focus on building the self-sovereign identity ecosystem, on boarding the identity claim providers and drive end user adoption.

The final phase will be building the credit society system which will provide point of sales network for the developing countries and realize the financial inclusion and economical benefits. 

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