Who Verifies the Verifiers?

As the world becomes increasingly more digital and connected, many potential opportunities are opened up to the global population, including some life-changing and essential avenues and services that will not have been available to them before. However, with this comes an equally expanding opportunity for those with ill intent to abuse new systems or scam users. Therefore, it is vital that measures be put in place to ensure people, businesses and their belongings are secure and safe to interact as they enjoy the benefits of worldwide connectivity.

We have discussed before how, without adequate means to prove identity for people, companies, objects and devices, safe and meaningful interactions are impossible to achieve. This has been proven time and time again when we find out about the amount of fraud discovered to have taken place on the internet, costing billions of dollars each year, and when we find out about massive data breaches which expose the personal details of millions. With this in mind, though blockchain technology has such an amazing potential to revolutionize the way so many industries operate and open up new opportunities for individuals and businesses alike, measures have to be taken to ensure the same failures the internet experiences are not inherited by blockchain. At Blockpass, we aim to secure a specific and essential part of this space, namely, identity verification. 

There have already been plenty of examples of the issues caused when blockchain technology goes unregulated, with the ‘Wild West’ days of crypto dogging the reputation of blockchain even now, and compliance with regulations is needed to bring back trust and to provide a safe and secure environment for people to work with. This need for regulatory compliance is what Blockpass is both facilitating, supporting and improving, initially with KYC services through our KYC Connect® solution and with more to come. Nevertheless, though we seek to aid businesses and protect users and their information, people should also ask: ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’, or, perhaps more appropriately in this case, ‘Who verifies the verifiers?’.

To this end, to prove that Blockpass is a trustworthy and secure option, we have undergone audits and checks to demonstrate how much work we put into making our security watertight. In addition, as a way to show this and demonstrate our commitment to cybersecurity, we recently applied for and were awarded the UK Government’s ‘Cyber Essentials Certification’ - a Government-backed scheme to protect organizations and give a clear picture of their cybersecurity measures. A record of the certification can be found by searching for Blockpass on the UK Government website here.

Though this certification proves Blockpass is protected against the most-used cyber attack methods, it is only one step in the journey to provide and prove our commitment to making Blockpass’ services and the blockchain ecosystem compliant and secure, and further developments can be expected in the coming months. 

By Matthew Warner