Trust Stamp CEO discusses interoperable metaverse wallet with biometric authentication

Gareth Genner, CEO of Trust Stamp, envisions a future for the metaverse where the company’s biometrically-authenticated interoperable avatar will make using digital assets across different metaverse platforms as easy as using a credit card.

It is an image he laid out at a virtual session hosted by the Rutgers Law School FinTech and Blockchain Collaboratory, where he detailed the kind of metaverse applications he foresees the company’s ‘MetaPresence Vault’ solving. Genner explains the MetaPresence Vault as a metaverse digital identity that allows the user to transfer their assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs across different metaverse platforms. Like a bank in the real world, it will have ATMs, branches, and standalone kiosks in metaverse platforms to grant access to the user’s metaverse safe to make payments and transactions.

But besides facilitating financial payments, Genner says the MetaPresence Vault will rectify identity and security issues that plague the metaverse. He lists passwords as a vulnerability and inconvenience because they can be lost or stolen. People have also lost access to their crypto assets due to lost, stolen, or forgotten keys. Biometrics alone are not the ideal solution either, Genner asserts, as unlike passwords, they cannot be changed. “So, the storage of biometrics is an incredibly dangerous practice unless they are appropriately protected,” he says, remarking that data losses in 2021 amounted to 4,145 substantial publicly disclosed breaches of the storage of biometric authentication, leading to over 22 billion identity records being exposed.

This is where the MetaPresence Vault comes in. “So, what is really important as we transact anywhere, including in the metaverse, is the concept of establishing trust. At its core, trust requires identity. The concept of MetaPresence is the creation of an identity — a MetaPresence — that can assert its attributes across platforms as its owner chooses. The MetaPresence in an identity that is authenticated through biometrics but linked to the credentials for platforms, for assets, and in order to allow the ownership and transfer of assets within the context of the personas to which it’s attached.”

A video played by Genner narrates how the MetaPresence Vault would function to protect people’s crypto wallets in the metaverse. It is said to leverage trusted identity through Trust Stamp’s Irreversibly Transformable Identity Token (IT2), that first performs facial recognition with a selfie video that also checks for liveness in conjunction with AI. It will then take a picture from the front and back of an ID document to check for validity and anti-spoofing technology that matches it to the user. The narrator says that MetaPresence discards biometric information and images for security purposes, providing security from breaches. From there, the user can store their identity credentials, custodial wallets, and multi-asset wallets for metaverse uses. To login to a web or MetaPresence Vault branch, the user provides a PIN or selfie to confirm their identity. To create a new IT2, it will perform a liveness verification check. The IT2 will serve as an authenticated identity to access a digital safe deposit box and establish trust across metaverse platforms without exposing sensitive data; and as long as the user has their biometrics, they will not lose access to their private keys and credentials, the video concludes.

The IT2 technology makes use of patents filed by Trust Stamp that checks for passive liveness in photos and video, and protection of biometrics through irreversible tokenization.

Genner says the aim is to make using digital assets across metaverse platforms as easy as using a credit card or transacting in foreign currency. Trust Stamp also aspires to have a branch in every metaverse platform and across the web so users can access them inside or outside the metaverse. He adds that the MetaPresence is in closed beta with plans to open for participants in the near future, and will open a second metaverse branch soon. The intent is to offer it as a commercial product for enterprises that wish to provide it to customers, but they see it as a free service for the metaverse.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric liveness detection  |  digital assets  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  encryption  |  identity verification  |  metaverse  |  secure transactions  |  selfie biometrics  |  tokenization  |  Trust Stamp