Authenteq offers biometric and blockchain technology to defeat internet trolls

Icelandic digital ID startup Authenteq has developed a solution to address the problem of internet trolls, VentureBeat reports. The company’s Trollteq uses blockchain and facial recognition to verify the identity of users, while keeping their information private.

The solution verifies user identities with a government ID and a selfie, and performs facial recognition the company says is driven by government-grade AI, with proprietary liveness detection, and allows users to log in to a platform in less than three seconds.

Because users are only allowed to sign up for one account on a given platform, trolls are prevented from simply opening another account with a different email address, or otherwise faking a different identity. User identity information is stored on the device to preserve privacy, so platforms accepting it will need to allow users to remain anonymous or find another way to identify them.

“The sad truth is that trolls have taken over a large swath of the internet. Our mission is to remove their greatest asset — their ability to hide behind fake names and identities, while still protecting their identities and freedom of speech,” said Runarsson. “Any website or commenting system such as Disqus can instantly add Trollteq to their site or customers — we can scale up to a billion identity authentications in under 90 seconds. This means we are robust enough to handle even Twitter or Facebook user IDs.”

The technology can also be applied to other identity verification use cases, such as unlocking car doors.

Authenteq has raised $1.9 million in funding and grown to 17 employees since it was founded two years ago.

Article Topics

Authenteq  |  biometrics  |  blockchain  |  facial recognition  |  identity verification  |  online authentication