European startups seek patent for privacy-preserving digital ID based on UWB, DIDs

A pair of European companies say they have developed a way to cryptographically bind physical presence to a decentralized identifier (DID) to create privacy-preserving, auditable and immutable Verifiable Credentials that can function as digital identity for regulated environments.

Switzerland-based Web3 and AI engineering firm The Hashgraph Group and Italian ultra-wideband sensing provider Truesense SRL have jointly filed a patent application for the proprietary Continuous Identity Trust Infrastructure (CITI) they have co-developed.

The system described in European Patent Application Nr. EP26425032 (BE-627223) uses ultra-wideband spatial sensing, a short-range, pulse-based radio protocol that senses objects with accuracy to the centimeter, the companies say in the announcement. The system uses this technology to confirm the vital signs and physical presence of the user within a defined zone, and then binds the event cryptographically to the users DID, which is stored in a digital identity wallet like The Hashgraph Group’s IDTrust. The software issues a VC which embeds the presence binding token, zone identifier, timestamp and cryptographic hash anchored to a distributed ledger network for tamper-proof auditability. Third party verifiers can then confirm the validity of the credential through selective disclosure with a zero-knowledge proof module.

The Hashgraph Group Co-founder and CEO Stefan Deiss says “CITI is the first solution that cryptographically links a real-world UWB spatial-presence event to a decentralised digital identity credential. This unique invention with Truesense strongly aligns with the progressive direction of EU regulation and meets the digital sovereignty agenda under the IPCEI-CIC program,” he says, referring to the Important Projects of Common European Interest – Compute Infrastructure Continuum.

The partners also say CITI aligns with the decentralized trust and interoperability standards used by the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI).

Truesense Founder and CEO Armando Caltabiano says: “CITI is designed with a compliance first mindset, while offering spatial presence and decentralized ID across different ticketing and gate systems, smart city components, industry/manufacturing, healthcare infrastructure, and regulated environments. This joint invention with The Hashgraph Group is a distinctive privacy-preserving identity trust infrastructure that converges physical credentials with digital verification systems.”

UWB has also been applied to smart cars and smart homes.

The Hashgraph Group launched its IDTrust self-sovereign identity (SSI) platform on the Hedera distributed ledger last year.

Article Topics

decentralized identifiers (DIDs)  |  digital ID  |  patents  |  The Hashgraph Group  |  Truesense  |  verifiable credentials