Patent makes consortium IDs practical, according to European startup

A Serbian blockchain-based digital ID software developer says it has been awarded a patent from the U.S Patent and Trademark Organization for authentication for clients on a network. The company, Blinking, says it can offer flexible levels of anonymity appropriate for various use cases.

Blinking‘s researchers say they have patented a way to create identities in a service model, establishing the identities in a distributed blockchain environment. People can create consortium identities within an ID federation.

The authentication technique, according to the company, creates a better balance between user anonymity and data protection, and ease of use. Service users do not have to be fully responsible for their data safety.

A layer of separation is created between users and the organizations that they want to securely patronize. Only with the consent of both parties can the layer be crossed, according to Blinking. Authentication to provide that consent can be through biometrics or other factors, alone or in combination according to the security and usability requirements of the given use case. Only what is needed for authentication is ever triggered.

A match score is obtained based on a consensus of the peers in the network, with the match score and the hashed client identifier stored on the blockchain.

The distributed structure of the scheme means people do not have to have an identity for each vendor (and that each vendor holds).

Blinking plans to commercialize the intellectual property in a new product for the trusted service industry.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometrics  |  Blinking  |  blockchain  |  data protection  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  patents  |  research and development