Liquid Avatar digital wallet app rolls out, approved for convenience store age verification

Liquid Avatar Technologies has released a new version of its mobile app designed to enable users with biometrics-backed verifiable digital identity credentials, and reached a deal with the Ontario Convenience Stores Association (OCSA) to develop a program for age verification at more than 8,000 retail locations.

A program called ‘Smart Age’ will be created by Liquid Avatar and the OCSA to enable privacy-preserving age checks for age-restricted product purchases. Lottery sales represent one only one category of age-restricted goods sold at convenience stores in the Canadian province, and make up 17 percent of total revenues, according to the announcement.

“The LAVCE platform together with the Liquid Avatar digital wallet is perfect for age-verification functions for small businesses,” Liquid Avatar CEO David Lucatch said. “C-stores sell more age-restricted products than any other retail setting and are provided with the least number of resources. We know that our modern and cost-efficient tool will give confidence to these operators that not only is the patron who they claim to be, but that they are, indeed, of age.”

The partnership represents the first major commercial step towards potential widespread adoption for Liquid Avatar.

The updated Liquid Avatar Mobile App forms the basis for a full commercial rollout and offers a series of new features, including a completely revamped user interface.

The tool now also enables holders to use verifiable digital ID credentials based on blockchain technology to share personally identifiable information (PII), including health testing, vaccination records and government identification.

The Liquid Avatar Mobile App was first launched earlier this year as a pilot program and has in the last few months registered more than 13,000 downloads.

“From the beginning, our goal has been to provide consumers with a cloud-based platform and services that give them full control over their information and privacy, and protects them against loss, damage or theft,” Lucatch said in a separate announcement.

“I believe that we’ve achieved that—and we’ve achieved it at no cost to the consumer,” he said.

In terms of specific new features, the Liquid Avatar Mobile App now offers a revamped, face recognition-based login experience, as well as a new user interface across the app.

Users are now able to use the digital ID solution to share any of the personas associated with an avatar by QR code or through email, messaging, or social channels.

The sharing of information has been enhanced with the addition of more privacy and data control settings, all of which are biometrically secured via facial recognition.

In addition, Liquid Avatar Technologies has improved the digital wallet app’s augmented reality (AR) experience, enabling users to see unique offers and virtual rewards, coupons, and other discounts by pointing their phones’ cameras at specific physical locations.

Liquid Avatar has equity stake in Indicio.tech

Together with the commercial steps taken with the digital wallet app update, Liquid Avatar has been expanding its support for the decentralized identity ecosystem. The company quietly announced it had made an equity investment of $100,000 into Indicio.tech, a decentralized identity host and developer, earlier this year.

The investment will reportedly aid Liquid Avatar Technologies in developing solutions, including for COVID-19 test results issuance and verification, in line with the same data privacy principles and technical standards as the Province of Ontario’s plan for Digital Identity.

To encourage future adoption of its technology by businesses and government alike, Liquid Avatar also confirmed it will offer a software development kit (SDK) for both iOS and Android.

Engineers will be able to embed the SDK in different apps, for use with corporate and government portals, and other solutions designed to support digital wallets and verifiable credentials easily and effectively.

“This significant update to the Liquid Avatar Mobile App provides a framework, together with the Liquid Avatar Verifiable Credentials Ecosystem (LAVCE) and our upcoming SDKs, to create an interoperable system for holders, issuers and verifiers to be able to integrate with other apps, services and providers similar to card and payment networks and ATMs,” said Lucatch.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  blockchain  |  credentials  |  data protection  |  decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  Liquid Avatar  |  mobile app  |  privacy