What do AI titans like IBM, payments giants like MasterCard, and blockchain wizards like CULedger have in common? They’re all working together to advance global standards for secure digital ID.
Organizations today struggle to protect and manage digital assets and data. This is especially true in increasingly complex enterprise environments that include the Internet of Things (IoT), Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and more. Furthermore, these technologies erode what little consumer confidence is left with respect to privacy and personal data.
Consequently, consumers are wary of adopting new services because of issues with security and digital identity. Those same issues hinder technological innovation. Without a global standard to ensure digital trust, these trends will continue.
But there’s a solution. The Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation consists of nearly 30 organizations hosted by the Linux foundation. These companies are standardizing digital ID to enable the trustworthy exchange and verification of data between any two parties on the internet. With ToIP, if a person claims they are 21 years old, has a regular income, and lives at a certain address, this simple ID mechanism guarantees that claim’s authenticity. In a world of uncertainty in the digital realm, this technology is a must.
And it’s not just financial institutions who are involved in this project. Healthcare, business and enterprise software, and others are deeply invested as well. This Linux Foundation project protects both consumers and businesses in these increasingly uncertain times.
The open governance model of the Linux Foundation is particularly suited to this broad, pan-industry collaboration. The intersections of business, legal, and social needs must drive this initiative, and for one industry to call all the shots would stunt the efforts of many other potential stakeholders.
“The ToIP Foundation has the promise to provide the digital trust layer that was missing in the original design of the Internet and to trigger a new era of human possibility,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “The combination of open standards and protocols, pan-industry collaboration and our neutral governance structure will support this new category of digital identity and verifiable data exchange.”
CULedger is a founding member of this project and contributed their MemberPass and the MemberPass Registry to the ecosystem. Both enable verification of consumer ID without relying on vulnerable pain points like passwords, security questions, PINs, or physical ID.
“The credit union movement is based on the idea that trusted interactions between people connected by a common bond are the best interactions. A self-sovereign, secure, trusted identity, like MemberPass, is essential in the world ahead, and CULedger is paving the way for credit unions and financial cooperatives worldwide to pioneer this important effort and bring this frictionless digital experience to more than 270 million credit union members. The work developed out of the Trust over IP Foundation will be the cornerstone to facilitate these trusted interactions in the new digital age. We are excited about the opportunity to be working with other leading organizations in support of this effort,” said John Ainsworth, president/CEO, CULedger.
Read the original press release here: Cross-Industry Coalition Advances Digital Trust Standards
For more information about the ToIP Foundation, please visit www.trustoverip.org. For more information about CULedger’s MemberPass Registry, see https://www.memberpass.com/registry/
