Former Jumio exec joins digital ID web 3.0 project

Move over Worldcoin, there’s a new kid on the block vying for the attention of the digital identity industry and it has just hired an executive from identity verification company Jumio.

Formerly known as Subspace, Autonomys (pronounced as “autonomous”) has created a decentralized identity protocol named Autonomys ID (Auto ID). The company was founded in 2021 by Jeremiah Wagstaff and Nazar Mokrynskyi. The duo, however, are stepping back from their leadership roles and have named former Jumio CTO and chief scientist Labhesh Patel as their new CEO, bringing his expertise on digital ID, KYC and identity verification.

The company says that its digital ID “empowers both humans and AI agents with robust, secure, and privacy-protecting identities.” Details are scarce on how it plans to verify its users and how exactly will the ID be used but the company suggests it will take a different approach than Worldcoin.

“Auto ID enables you to prove your humanity and create a unique identity on-chain without subjecting yourself to invasive biometric scans,” the company says.

Worldcoin is a crypto project known for scanning the irises of its users during sign-up for its digital ID to distinguish whether they are humans or bots. The collection of biometric data, however, has landed the company in regulatory hot water in many parts of the world. Worldcoin’s plan is to distribute its tokens to all eight billion people on the planet as a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Autonomys also suggests it will experiment with UBI.

“In contrast to projects like Worldcoin that promote a future of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and relinquished agency, Autonomys empowers you to benefit from your effort and capability,” the company says.”

The Palo Alto, California-based firm says that its proof-of-personhood can then be used across various dApps and services. Autonomys offers a decentralized AI stack with distributed storage, distributed computing and a dApp suite.

According to Patel’s LinkedIn profile, Autonomys has raised US$39 million in venture capital funding.

Article Topics

Autonomys  |  decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  web3