IriTech and partners unveil decentralized wallet with iris biometrics

A trio of companies have completed a proof of concept (POC) for a decentralized ID (DID) smartphone wallet secured with iris biometrics. U.S.-founded IriTech, the South Korean Institute of Blockchain Technology (IBCT) and Integra Micro Systems, an India-headquartered software firm, say the new technology could secure personal data in Web 3.0 wallets and eliminate the risk of wallet loss or theft.

The new infrastructure lets wallets connect to chosen service providers. Should the physical device associated with the wallet be lost or stolen, its private key can be restored using IriTech’s iris biometrics.

At the same time, the companies said that the new technology is GDPR-compliant, so the iris biometric information, wallet private keys and seed phrases are not stored locally, but instead accessed via DID from various government, health and other providers.

The new wallet is also compatible with the Aadhaar ecosystem in India and can be used in the onboarding process for the digital ID.

The collaboration among the companies was first unveiled earlier this year.

Berners-Lee discusses decentralized digital ID ‘pods’ at Web Summit

The founder of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, took the stage at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon earlier this month to examine new web technologies, including his idea for decentralized digital ID.

According to Fast Company, Berners-Lee discussed the Solid project, now being developed by his startup Inrupt. The company uses Pods (personal online data stores) to give individuals control over their own data.

Solid offers a single sign-on (SSO) feature and aims to enrich one’s digital identity as ‘your life progresses.’

While a system for decentralized storage of digital identity and other data may sound like it is intended as part of web3, Berners-Lee says it is not. The distinction hemakes is that Pods are private, in contrast with public blockchain technologies.

The technology has already been deployed in Belgium for digital economy applications and by the BBC in the UK to power its “watch party” feature.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  data privacy  |  decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  iris biometrics  |  IriTech  |  web3