FFCON Week 5 Wrap-up: Digital Identity & Convergence Marketplaces

Digital identity has become particularly relevant in our modern age with the rise in technology, and the trend isn’t slowing down. This means it is crucial to deliver new frameworks and infrastructure to support digital commerce, online interactions and social identification in more secure and robust ways. This poses some important questions – What exactly is digital identity and why does it matter? How important is consumer ownership of their own data and how can businesses and government adapt to this?

Liquid Avatar Demo

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TEDx: Why Digital Identity Matters Globally 2020 and Beyond (Info | Video)

The session kicked off with a presentation by David Lucatch of KABN about the importance of protecting one’s digital identity.  David is a strong advocate, and the main point that he wants to emphasize is that our everyday actions online generate lots of data that have tremendous value. In his words, we as users are data generating machines. Different businesses and corporations have generated a lot of profit with the usage of this data. Lucatch believes that ownership of data should be a basic human right that the government should protect. He believes that data needs to be treated as currency for transactions for organizations that want to deal with them.

“You are a data generating machine,” David Lucatch, Co-founder, Director and President, KABN Systems North America

KABN followed up with a demo of their app called Liquid Avatar that functions as the digital identity of the customer. Utilizing biometrics and blockchain, Liquid Avatar provides the tools to set permissions and control for the customer’s private data, potentially reducing any opportunity for digital identity fraud. You can learn more about their app here: https://liquidavatar.com/

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Panel:  How Businesses and Government Need to Adapt to Consumer Ownership of Data (Info | Video)

Later in the session featured a panel that offered different insights from four distinct perspectives on digital identity from the point of view of government, investor, technology, and the user. Each exhibited support for the idea of decentralized identity and moving ownership of data from the corporation to the user. In addition, it was discussed that data protection is crucial to protect new entrants into the market. This is because incumbents have lots of power if consumers are not in authority to control data streams.

“The key to the adoption of any technology is you have to develop value,” Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada

4 important roles in digital ecosystems to create value

As was the case with all emerging technologies in the past, the idea of building trust with the consumer was promoted as a crucial step in delivering value and making digital identity usable for the average user.

Panel: Blockchain as the Foundation for Market Convergence: A Peak Into the Future (Info | Video)

Neoflow Screenshot:

Before the panel, Patrick Mandic of Mavennet gave a demo on his product NeoFlow. The aim of the product is to offer efficient solutions and bridge digital islands in the oil and gas industry. Patrick believes that the building blocks of transparency in the industry are identity, trust, and finance, all relevant factors to the topic of the panel. Neoflow is used by border control agencies and relevant government entities and provides tracking of key value chain events as well as digitization of relevant documents. You can learn more about Neoflow here: https://www.mavennet.com/solutions/neoflow/

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This next panel featured different perspectives on what the future may look like with markets. One idea discussed was to encourage different competitors to collaborate, with the end result being a better market for everyone. This involves finding the right individuals and government organizations that align with a shared vision/initiative. The panelists believe blockchain will have a lot of significance and will play a big role in transactions in the future. They believe that government and the central bank will play a vital role in innovation and cooperation that can speed up the adoption of blockchain.

Conclusion

An important takeaway from the panels is the importance of having transparency and having consumer ownership of their data. Moving ownership of data from the corporation to the user is an important step in being able to deliver value. The idea of transparency is also relevant with regards to the future of markets. Building a good rapport between government and competitors will play a key role.

Be sure to join us for the next session about Currency Wars, Digital Assets, and the Rise of Decentralized Finance! Learn more here: https://fintechandfunding.com/ffcon20-whats-on-this-week/