Governments worldwide reacted to the COVID-19 crisis with an outpouring of financial aid to businesses and individuals that was exceptional for both its size and the speed with which the disbursements were made. 
Federally Chartered Banks and Thrifts May Participate in Independent Node Verification Networks and Use Stablecoins for Payment Activities
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Payments, Transfers, Rewards
Right to anonymous payments
Do we have a right to anonymous payments? If so, is this right linked to certain payment instruments, such as cash? Does this right apply equally to payers in the analogue and the digital world? For most people, the daily payments initiated as market participants are unavoidable. It has therefore become one of our basic needs, like sleeping and eating. The right to anonymity, which can be regarded as an essential pillar of a modern democratic society, is generally derived from the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and informational self-determination.
This right is by no means limited to the analogue world. For example, we have the right to browse the internet anonymously, using appropriate software and pseudonyms. Does this right also apply to the payment act? In the analogue world, this right is indirectly established by the existence of cash. Cash leaves no traces of data and, due to its special status as legal tender, it is a means of payment
See: Bill to overhaul Canada’s privacy laws coming soon
As long as there is still cash as legal tender, we therefore do not only have the option, but also the right to anonymous payments. The interesting question of whether this right can also be enforced anywhere and at any time (e.g. when paying the broadcasting licence fee) has been debated by the German courts for quite some time, at ever higher levels.
Right to anonymous cashless payments
As a means of payment, cash, which is still dominant today, is gradually losing in importance (not, however, as a means to store value). The shift in demand in favour of online retailing has contributed to this, as cashless payments are usually the only option in that area. In the future digital world with, for example, the Internet of Things and automotive payment applications (pay per car), the only thing that will remain are cashless digital payments. In Germany, the right to anonymous online payments is only protected by law for the use of telemedia (Sec. 13 No. 6 of the German Telemedia Act – Telemediengesetz).
The German party SPD was the only party who was consistent and future-oriented in its election campaign program in 2017 in this regard as it demanded a general right to anonymous cashless payment. And rightly so, as why should I have to forfeit my elementary rights from the analogue world when entering the digital world, which is inevitable nowadays? The demand of the SPD party was an important step forward, which unfortunately was again deeply buried in the slightly childish games in the sandpit of the grand coalition.
See: Cadillac Fairview broke privacy laws by using facial recognition technology at malls, investigators conclude
Is this demand even technically feasible? “Cashless + anonymous” is not an inherent contradiction. In contrast to a cash payment, there is always data on the payment process, but not necessarily on the identities of the payer and the payee. This means that digital payments can also be made while maintaining anonymity. You don’t have to surf the Darknet and pay with Bitcoins to achieve this. Digital payments with an anonymous prepaid card (e.g. a gift card) demonstrate how easily this can be done. Since the mid-1990s, analogue cash has been capable of being used digitally 1:1 as an anonymous bearer instrument without any further complications. If technology is not the problem, then what is?
5AMLD: The right through the back door
Let us recall the chutzpah of EU Directive 2018/843 (better known as AMLD5), which has to be implemented by 10 January 2020. In its first draft (2016), the Commission wanted to ban anonymous cashless online payments using e-money. Anonymous e-money payments at the physical POS have not yet been banned, but the thresholds have been significantly lowered (from EUR 250 to EUR 150). In this segment, the door should not be slammed shut completely, as prepaid cards currently still make an important contribution to social and financial inclusion according to recital 14. In addition, according to the Commission’s Impact Assessment Analysis on the draft directive, a ban on anonymous payments in this segment would not be very effective as cash can still be used here.
See: Survey Until Feb 26: Ontario Seeks Input from Individuals and Businesses to Help Shape Digital ID Program
AMLD is obviously intended to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. There was no evidence of money laundering with anonymous prepaid cards. On the contrary, the current scandals show that money laundering in the billions is mainly carried out via non-anonymous accounts by fully identified bank customers (Danske Bank in Estonia, ING Bank in the Netherlands, Deutsche Bank in Russia, etc.). The only remaining argument is therefore terrorism financing. There was vague evidence, which has not yet been verified, that in the Paris attack (November 2015) the Islamic terrorists used an (anonymous?) prepaid card.
The consequence is to abolish the right to anonymous cashless payment on the internet for half a billion EU citizens. As a passionate cyclist, I am delighted that the terrorists did not use an anonymous bicycle when they fled, for otherwise the Commission would have introduced the same questionable logic of compulsory bicycle registration and the use of number plates throughout Europe.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Reddit Partners with Ethereum Foundation to Build Scaling Resources
Reddit | u/jarins |Jan 27, 2021
The social media firm will dedicate developer resources to support scaling efforts for Ethereum.
Via Reddit post:
Reddit admin u/jarins here, with some exciting news to share today: Reddit has teamed up with the Ethereum Foundation to establish Reddit’s first-ever blockchain partnership!
As Reddit continues to grow with more than 50 million daily users and hundreds of thousands of communities, the platform has long maintained a decentralized ethos by empowering users to create, govern, and grow their own communities. Through this partnership, we will be increasing our commitment to blockchain, accelerating scaling and resources for the Ethereum ecosystem, and bringing the value and independence of blockchain technology to millions of redditors.
See: From Voting To Social Media: What Does The Future Hold For Digital Identity On The Blockchain
In many ways, this collaboration started with the Scaling Bake-Off that we hosted in this community with the Ethereum Foundation. In this new stage of our partnership, immediate efforts will be focused on bringing Ethereum to Reddit-scale production. Our intention is to help accelerate the progress being made on scaling and develop the technology needed to launch large-scale applications like Community Points on Ethereum. The scaling technology developed through this partnership will be open-sourced and publicly available for anyone to use.
We introduced Community Points last year to give more ownership and control back to users through decentralized technology. Built on Ethereum, Community Points represent a user’s ownership in a community and rewards them for their individual contributions (such as posts and comments). This project is our first attempt at utilizing decentralized technology to empower individuals to have a sense of accountability and more ownership in the communities that they create and contribute to. Community Points are currently in beta on the Rinkeby network and are being tested in r/CryptoCurrency and r/FortNiteBR.
Cointinue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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COVID-19: Making the case for robust digital financial infrastructure
McKinsey & Co | Olivia White, Anu Madgavkar, Tawanda Sibanda, Zac Townsend, and María Jesús Ramírez | Jan 26, 2021
Governments worldwide reacted to the COVID-19 crisis with an outpouring of financial aid to businesses and individuals that was exceptional for both its size and the speed with which the disbursements were made.
According to the IMF, fiscal measures announced globally amounted to $11.7 trillion, or close to 12 percent of global GDP, as of September 2020. As a result, the pandemic has served as a high-stakes, real-life stress test for the financial infrastructure in many countries, bringing into sharp relief critical gaps and opportunities as well as providing valuable lessons about how to improve efficiency and resilience for the future.
What determines how effectively the money is disbursed, for achieving the design ambitions of the program and delivering the funds rapidly to the intended recipients? This question has been drawing the attention of economic researchers, policy makers, fintech innovators and civil society watchdogs alike. Building on our pre-pandemic research on the economic impact of digital identification and digital financial inclusion, we studied a sample of 12 government economic disbursement programs for both individuals and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in seven countries—Brazil, India, Nigeria, Singapore, Togo, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
See: How will Canada reinvent its payments framework for a post-pandemic digital reality?
Several findings stand out. First, we find that effective programs have three critical structural features of financial infrastructure: digital payment channels, the presence of a basic digital identification system with broad population coverage, and simple data on individuals and businesses that are tethered to the ID.
When these features were present in country-level financial infrastructure, these programs could be optimally designed and delivered quickly. When one or more of these infrastructure features was not present, countries had to make trade-offs between the design ambition (the scope, scale, and specificity of beneficiaries targeted) of their programs and their delivery success (the speed, coverage, and fraud levels in rolling them out).
Second, we estimate that the potential economic gain from building robust digital financial infrastructure is about 20 percent greater now than it was before the pandemic. Before the COVID-19 crisis, we estimated the potential economic gain by 2030 from applying basic and advanced digital ID to a wide range of interactions between individuals and government and nongovernmental institutions to be in the range of 3 to 13 percent of GDP. Finally, the crisis has underscored the resilience and flexibility that a robust financial infrastructure for SMEs and individuals provides, and thus its importance as a critical tool for responding to unexpected and potentially catastrophic events.
Digital financial infrastructure can improve country-level resilience in crises and on an ongoing basis
Beyond the potential economic impact, investing in digital financial infrastructure can help governments protect their populations in other important ways with long-term benefits. Effective government support in times of need helps prevent extreme poverty, hunger, and inequality, among others.
See: NCFA and KABN Systems North America enter multi-year exclusive partnership to promote Digital Identity in Canada
This cannot all be measured in GDP growth. Financial infrastructure is relevant for the effectiveness of broader national government programs in more normal times, as well as interactions between individuals and non-government institutions (Exhibit 4).
Continue to the full report --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Are Stablecoins Better Than Bitcoin?
Guest Post | Jan 20, 2021
If you’re new to the world of investing in cryptocurrencies, you might have heard of stablecoins. These are physically-backed assets that differ quite a bit from Bitcoin and other coins. If you’ve heard of them, you’re understandably curious as to what they’re about. This guide can help you with that.
How are Stablecoins Different from Bitcoin?
As mentioned, stablecoins are tied to a physical asset. Bitcoin is not. It has its own value backed by the electricity that goes into mining it. Stablecoins like Tether or TrueUSD are tied to the value of the US dollar. These are sold on most traditional exchanges. Otherwise, there are also precious metal-backed stablecoins. Coins like these are more often sold on dedicated platforms like Gold Exchange.
Now, you can probably infer that because stablecoins are tied to the value of physical assets, their value is inherently less volatile than Bitcoin. As you may know, Bitcoin can (and has) risen or fallen thousands of dollars at any given moment.
That volatility might be a boon for some experienced investors, but newer ones might want to avoid them. This is where stablecoins come into play.
Stablecoins like SilverCoin allow users to take advantage of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology without volatility. This way, they can invest in things like silver or gold without hassle, from anywhere in the world.
What are the Benefits of Stablecoins
When buying silver or gold physically, investors have to jump through tons of hoops. Buyers need to validate their identity, income, and other information. They also need to find a proper vendor to buy from and will often pay a premium for doing so. After all of that, they need to wait for the assets to be shipped or go pick them up. Then, they must store those assets. This could be in a safe they buy themselves or paying a company to secure the assets.
In other words, investing in physical assets can be a pain. With stablecoins, investors can buy fractional amounts of an asset instantly. There’s no need to reveal any identity, and the coins are held in a free digital wallet. That anonymity is huge for most investors, especially those interested in cryptocurrency. That, and the ability to buy fractional amounts, is significant for investors with fewer funds. It allows users to start earlier than they would otherwise, putting in as little or as much as they’d like.
See: Cryptocurrencies vs. Precious Metals: Which is the Better Investment?
However, it’s worth noting that those looking to profit off of crypto might not enjoy stablecoins as much. Because these coins are tied to a physical asset’s value, the coin only raises or lowers its price as its physical counterpart does. For example, those investing in the Tether stablecoin must realize it is designed to sit at $1.00 per coin, give or take a few cents. There’s next to no way to profit from this.
Instead, it’s more for users to convert funds to another type of fiat or move them around the world faster and cheaper than traditional conversions. While some stablecoins can provide a profit, the reality is that’s not what they are designed for.
So, Which One is Better?
Technically, neither asset is “better” than the other. Both are great at what they’re designed to do, but each has its own set of flaws. Really, whichever one is better depends on what you’re looking for in a cryptocurrency.
If you’re trying to profit off of your investments, Bitcoin is probably the best option. If you’re more of a traditional investor or need to move funds, stablecoins are your best bet. In fact, central banks around the world are planning to release their own stablecoins for customer’s sake.
Regardless, do your research before investing in any asset. There’s always risk no matter where you put your funds.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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OCC says Federally regulated banks can use stablecoins to conduct payments and other activities
Coindesk | Nikhilesh De | Jan 4, 2021
The federal banking regulator published an interpretive letter addressing whether national banks and federal savings associations could participate in independent node verification networks (INVNs, otherwise known as blockchain networks) or use stablecoins. The letter said that these financial institutions can participate as nodes on a blockchain and store or validate payments.
Any banks that do participate in an INVN must be aware of the operational, compliance or fraud risks when doing so, an OCC press release warned.
Still, the OCC said INVNs “may be more resilient than other payment networks” due to the large number of nodes needed to verify transactions, which can in turn limit tampering.
See: Stablecoins: Experience the Stability
Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, said on Twitter that
“the letter states that blockchains have the same status as other global financial networks, such as SWIFT, ACH, and FedWire.”
Brian Brooks, the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, said in a statement that while other nations have built real-time payments systems, the U.S. “has relied on” the private sector to create such technologies, seemingly endorsing the use of cryptocurrencies – specifically stablecoins – as an alternative to other real-time payment systems.
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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency| Release | Jan 4, 2020
Federally Chartered Banks and Thrifts May Participate in Independent Node Verification Networks and Use Stablecoins for Payment Activities
WASHINGTON—The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today published a letter clarifying national banks’ and federal savings associations’ authority to participate in independent node verification networks (INVN) and use stablecoins to conduct payment activities and other bank-permissible functions.
“While governments in other countries have built real-time payments systems, the United States has relied on our innovation sector to deliver real-time payments technologies. Some of those technologies are built and managed by bank consortia and some are based on independent node verification networks such as blockchains,” said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian P. Brooks.
“The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets recently articulated a strong framework for ushering in an era of stablecoin-based financial infrastructure, identifying important risks while allowing those risks to be managed in a technology-agnostic way. Our letter removes any legal uncertainty about the authority of banks to connect to blockchains as validator nodes and thereby transact stablecoin payments on behalf of customers who are increasingly demanding the speed, efficiency, interoperability, and low cost associated with these products.”
The agency letter concludes a national bank or federal savings association may validate, store, and record payments transactions by serving as a node on an INVN. Likewise, a bank may use INVNs and related stablecoins to carry out other permissible payment activities. In deploying these technologies, a bank must comply with applicable law and safe, sound, and fair banking practices.
See: JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business
Engaging in INVN within the federal banking system may enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and stability of payments activities and achieve the benefits of real-time payments already enjoyed in other countries. For example, such activities may be more resilient than other payment networks because of the decentralized nature of INVNs, which allows a comparatively large number of nodes to verify transactions in a trusted manner. An INVN also limits tampering or adding inaccurate information to the database because information is only added to the network after consensus is reached among the nodes validating the information.
Banks must also be aware of potential risks when conducting INVN-related activities, including operational risks, compliance risk, and fraud. New technologies require enough technological expertise to ensure banks can manage these risks in a safe and sound manner. Banks have experience with managing such risks, which are similar to those of other electronic activities expressly permitted for banks, including providing electronic custody services, acting as a digital certification authority, and providing data processing services. Among the compliance risks, banks should guard against potential money laundering activities and terrorist financing by adapting and expanding their compliance programs to ensure compliance with the reporting and recordkeeping requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act and to address the particular risks of cryptocurrency transactions.
Banks should develop and implement new activities consistently with sound risk management practices and should align with banks’ overall business plans and strategies.
Continue to the Full Interpretive Letter (PDF) --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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NCFA’s Fintech Confidential Issue 3 (Dec 2020) is here! Happy Holidays…
NCFA | Craig Asano | Dec 17, 2020
Dear Global Fintech & Funding Communities,
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) and partners are excited to present Vol. 1 Issue 3, FINTECH CONFIDENTIAL, a digital pop-up of the 6th annual 2020 Fintech & Financing Conference and Expo (FFCON20) held virtually across themed 8 weeks from July 9 to August 27 and co-hosted by NCFA and Toronto Finance International.
The main theme of FFCON20 was “RISE”, reflecting the joint efforts of the two associations, NCFA and TFI, to build and increase the success and sustainability of Canada’s fintech and financial sector. There were many moving parts this year and a brand-new digital format with the event bringing together 100+ thought leaders, 50+ partners, and more than 500 attendees, 2 challenges and the inaugural Fintech Draft pitching and demo competitions. Congratulations to the winners: SolidBlock and MazumaGo (formerly DivDot)! Thanks to all the partners, speakers, attendees, volunteers and the entire organizing team for making FFCON20 an impactful and amazing online experience for Canada’s fintech and funding community.
Despite a challenging year for many, the fintech industry continues to demonstrate its resilience, creative capacity, and thirst to create valuable partnerships and financial products/services that benefit millions of consumers, small businesses, and the economy. As covid accelerates the adoption of digital trends, it has spotlighted the social and economic gaps that saw fintechs pivot to work on supportive solutions from mobilizing low-cost capital campaigns to personal finance apps that help users better manage their finances, spending, savings, and investment habits.
Digital identity, CBDCs (and digital assets), AI, and sustainable finance are all taking off as governments and industry work to collaborate on overhauling Canada’s digital infrastructure, data rights, privacy and standards that will set the stage for years to come. The second round of open banking consultations that were delayed due to the pandemic were suddenly announced in November with many organizations, fintechs and incumbent banks coming together to discuss the scope, governance, implementation, and accreditation of a made in Canada OB solution. We urge the OB committee to remain laser-focused on consumer interests while looking globally for insights to implement a principles-based, inclusive, broad-scoped and competitive framework as swiftly as possible.
We hope you enjoy this issue of Fintech Confidential magazine – it certainly makes for great holiday reading! While everyone relentlessly strives to achieve success in 2021, we encourage you to bring in the new year with good health and to be mindful that we are all in this together, and to help others in your community more than ever before. Peace, happiness, and best wishes for an incredible year and journey ahead.
All the best
Craig Asano
Founder and CEO
NCFA Canada
Check out the magazine --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Liquid Avatar, Lumedic, Loop Insights, The Campus Agency and TripXpertz Form Consortium to Manage Verifiable Identity Credentials for COVID-19 Vaccinations
KABN | David Lucatch | Dec 8, 2020
Verified Self Sovereign Identity, together with a complete end-to-end issuance and verification health credentials ecosystem, ensures individuals have full privacy and control of personal healthcare data, including vaccination records, so they can securely start returning back to public life, freely.
TORONTO, ON and GIBRALTAR / ACCESSWIRE / December 8, 2020 / The KABN Network, together with KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. (CSE:KABN) (the "Company" or "KABN North America"), a Canadian fintech company that specializes in continuous online identity verification, management and monetization in Canada and the US, through its biometrically and identity verified Self Sovereign Identity platform, Liquid Avatar (www.liquidavatar.com), today announces the formation of a consortium of industry leaders that will empower people to start getting back to the activities, people and places they have been missing in their lives. The consortium has developed an integrated solution that enables healthcare issuers, individuals and verifiers to have a digital COVID-19 verifiable identity healthcare credential that is secure, user managed and controlled to ensure privacy, transportability and ease of use. This solution supports the foundation for the acceptance of digital Healthcare Passports.
This consortium initially includes the Lumedic Exchange, to power the healthcare credential ecosystem; Loop Insights (MTRX), a leader in automatic contact tracing; The Campus Agency, to support on campus programs at over 2,000 US Colleges and Universities; and TripXpertz, an organization that works with over 1,000 travel and tourism boards, airlines, wholesalers and resorts, together with Liquid Avatar's Self Sovereign Identity platform to empower the worldwide Healthcare industry to issue Identity-based Verifiable Credentials through a secure, effective and cost-efficient ecosystem.
See: Liquid Avatar and The KABN Network Launch Cloud-based Biometric Identity Verification for Self Sovereign Identity, Digital Wallets and Verified Credentials
This ecosystem will allow qualified Health Professionals with the ability to issue a Verifiable Credential that enables venues and other facilities to verify both the issued credential and the known user in real-time to grant access and / or services. This partnership built on a Trust over IP (TOIP) open standards framework, and the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) specifications for decentralized identifiers for credential management, can power interoperable COVID-19 vaccination and other verifiable credentials across a host of user managed and controlled digital wallets and applications. This process can be used for multiple use cases such as Education, Workplaces, Tradeshows, Healthcare, Sporting Events, Concerts, Entertainment, Travel, Places of Worship, Senior Living, and other facilities, venues and locations and opens the door to further opportunities for commercial and consumer opportunities.
Liquid Avatar's Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) platform, which includes user biometric validation and a bank-grade verified identity credential, is available to consumers at no cost. Liquid Avatar enables users to verify and manage their identity and access credentials in a cloud-based, biometrically-secure application. Users have complete control over their digital assets (like wallets, passwords and more), identity, and data through easy to use avatars that can be shared, on a permission-basis with others. The COVID-19 Verifiable Healthcare Credential combines healthcare data with the user's biometrically verified identity credential. When a request is made by a Verifier, the User has a choice of which attributes are shared, creating a private verification transaction between themselves and a verifier. While much of the technology and services are already in place, the launch of the healthcare credential pilot is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2021 to coincide with the expected release of the COVID-19 widespread vaccination program.
This program will not only be able to verify identity credentials for the Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostic and antibody testing, but will also be able to support a wide range of immunizations and healthcare records.
"We want to empower users to return to public life and the things they once did freely, pre-COVID-19, with ease and continued safety, with this and future credentials," said David Lucatch, CEO of KABN. "Our goal is to help get everyone back to life as efficiently and effectively as possible, so a sense of "normality" can be reestablished. Liquid Avatar and the ecosystem, together with this amazing group and a growing list of partners, will potentially enable businesses, schools, entertainment venues, and more do the normal things that they do and give users the power to engage with them as they did before the pandemic changed our lives."
Healthcare issuers and individuals will be granted access to the system at no cost. Verifiers wishing to access the system will be charged a nominal subscription and micro-payment per verification, making it very cost efficient and effective to use the system for small and medium sized enterprises all the way up to major airlines, venues and facilities. The partners are committed to making the services affordable to all parties, so that everyone can get back to their everyday lives.
See: From Voting To Social Media: What Does The Future Hold For Digital Identity On The Blockchain
The KABN Network is working with leading industry partners to provide a safe and effective ecosystem that supports the issuance, ownership and verification of these verified identity and access credentials and is proud to be working with the following partners at the outset of this announcement covering a wide range of technologies, issuer, consumer and verification engagement, with additional partners to be named as the program grows.
Trust over IP Foundation (ToIP)
As a member of the Trust over IP Foundation (www.trustoverip.org) steering committee, The KABN Network is committed to the organization's open-standard framework and tech stacks. ToIP recently released its Covid-19 Credentials Initiative ("CCI") Governance Framework for public review.
"Trust over IP offers an important new model for how to assemble the pieces that create working and reliable digital trust ecosystems. We are very excited to see momentum growing for real-world cases where the model is being used to make people's digital lives simpler and better. This includes the KABN Network becoming part of the Lumedic Exchange," said John Jordan - Executive Director of the Trust over IP Foundation. "We hope to see this momentum continue, and more organizations using the Trust over IP model to create solutions that benefit individuals and businesses."
Lumedic Exchange
The KABN Network, as a founding partner, is working with the Lumedic Exchange (www.lumedic.io), an open-standards, decentralized framework for the healthcare industry giving patients greater control over their health data.
Chris Ingrao, Chief Strategy Officer of Lumedic, a US-based Health technology company, part of Providence Health Systems ecosystem, comments: "Lumedic recently launched the Lumedic Exchange, the first healthcare ecosystem of its kind dedicated solely to community-driven standards development for patient-intermediated information exchange using verifiable credentials, to support secure exchange of vaccination information."
Loop Insights, Inc.
Powering professional sports, entertainment, collegiate and other venues and facilities with Automatic Contract Tracing, Loop Insights, Inc. (www.loopinsights.ai) (MTRX) has developed a fully managed contactless check-in platform that securely transfers contact information and triggers real-time notifications at scale.
"The success Loop has had with our recent NCAA sporting events using our venue tracing and management tools, only reinforces the need for a unified verifiable credential that consumers and businesses can trust. Working with KABN and Liquid Avatar and their digital identity platform will provide our customers - and ultimately consumers - with the level of trust required to provide personal information such as COVID testing results, vaccination proof, payment, and other sensitive personal information required in today's changing landscape. We are thrilled to be one of the first partners to work with KABN and Liquid Avatar on an end to end solution that will provide this safety, security, and peace of mind required to protect consumers looking to return to a new way of life where mobile devices and personal information will be at the forefront of nearly every interaction", Rob Anson, President and CEO Loop Insights.
The Campus Agency
With reach to over 2,000 US College and University campuses and over 1.5 Million Gen Z students, alumni and families, The Campus Agency (www.thecampusagency.com) has been supporting innovative direct to student and online marketing programs for over 40 years.
"We are really excited to be working with KABN and Liquid Avatar and be a member of this consortium. COVID-19 has impacted the lives of students and faculty on college campuses in such a major way, and we are looking forward to being part of a solution that provides campus communities with the tools and resources they need to return to their way of lives, safely and securely," Chris Nyland, Chief Operating Officer, The Campus Agency
TripXpertz
Powering over 1,000 travel and government tourism boards, airlines, travel wholesalers and resorts in US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and around the world, to more effectively reach their intended travel audiences with end to end travel marketing management, booking and analytics solutions TripXpertz (www.tripxpertz.com) is changing the way the travel industry reaches travelers and how travelers can receive better value from their travel experiences.
"Our Priority Protection Passport program is aimed at restoring consumer confidence and trust in travelling again and piece-of-mind while away," says Brad Miron, CEO of TripXpertz. "This partnership gives us, and our multiple program stakeholders, the ability to verify an individual's identity with certainty, while maintaining security and privacy - In the context of Priority Protection Passport, Liquid Avatar and the capabilities of the Verifiable Identity Healthcare Credentials are foundational to what we must deliver to attract, assure and welcome back tourists to destinations."
For more information on the program and / or how to become a consortium partner or participant, please visit www.liquidavatar.com
About KABN North America - www.kabnnaholdco.com
KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. through its wholly owned subsidiary KABN Systems North America Inc. focuses on the verification, management and monetization of Self Sovereign identity, empowering users to control and benefit from the use of their online identity. The KABN proprietary technology suite includes 4 key products:
Liquid Avatar is a verified Self Sovereign Identity platform empowers users to create high quality digital icons representing their online personas. These icons, in conjunction with KABN ID, allow users to manage and control their digital identity and Verifiable Access and Identity Credentials, and to use Liquid Avatars to share public and permission based private data when they want and with whom they want. www.liquidavatar.com
KABN ID is an Always On, biometric and blockchain based digital identity validation and verification platform allowing users to continuously and confidently prove themselves throughout the online community.
KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. is publicly listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the symbol "KABN" (CSE:KABN)
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For more information, please visit www.kabnnaholdco.com or www.kabnsystemsna.com
For further information, please contact:
David Lucatch
Chief Executive Officer
647-725-7742 Ext. 701
ir@kabnsystemsna.com
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