Oasis Labs and Equifax turn to blockchain to verify Web3 user identities

Securing identity is difficult at best, let alone in a decentralized, blockchain-powered Web3 economy. With businesses and financial service providers still legally responsible for preventing fraudulent transactions and implementing adequate consumer protections, there is a great need for solutions to verify user digital identities.

In an effort to address these challenges, privacy blockchain provider Oasis Labs today announced a new partnership with Equifax to co-develop a Web3 Know Your Customer (KYC) solution, which will provide a blockchain-powered identity management and verification solution for companies that take in use this new iteration of the World Wide Web.

The solution provides companies with an identity verification and introduction process for AML compliance, which combines document-based identity verification, liveness checks and a selfie match to ensure compliance with international AML regulations.

It is an example of an approach to identity management that will enable organizations to ensure KYC diligence for users without compromising their privacy.

Secure identity in a Web3 world

The announcement comes as the Web3 economy begins to grow, with researchers expecting the global Web 3.0 market to reach $81.5 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.7%.

However, one of the main barriers to this growth is the lack of transparency about user identities, which makes it difficult to prevent fraud.

“As the web3 economy continues to evolve, so does the need to expand and further develop identity management and KYC solutions to reduce risk and build trust in on-chain transactions,” said US Information Solutions Chief Revenue Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships at Equifax, Joy Wilder.

“We are working to not only build a better, more efficient decentralized identity and on-chain KYC solution, but to help accelerate the adoption of Web3 and bring more trust to the industry,” said Oasis Labs founder Professor Dawn Song .

One of the unique selling points of the service is that it gives users control over their personally identifiable information (PII). All PII is processed within smart contracts protected by Oasis’ Sapphire confidential runtime solution, allowing it to link a digital wallet to an identity without compromising user privacy.

Other providers develop Web3 KYC solutions

While the Web3 market is in its infancy, Oasis is not the only vendor looking to focus on improving the security of the space by simplifying the deployment of KYC checks.

One such provider is identity infrastructure provider Parallel Markets, which recently announced the launch of Parallel Identity Token, a KYC and AML solution designed specifically for Web3.

Parallel Identity Token can verify critical aspects of a wallet owner’s identity to verify compliance with international regulations, without storing or displaying any PII. At the beginning of this year, Parallel Markets announced it was raising $7 million in Series A funding.

Another contender is chat and collaboration provider Symphony Communication Services, which last raised $165 million in funding in 2019 and earlier this year announced a pilot to produce a solution that users can use to create digital identities to interact with brands in Web3.

However, the partnership between Oasis and a prominent legacy financial provider like Equifax has the potential to add new credibility to the Web3 ecosystem, and this new identity verification service.