A growing issue these days as crypto gains a bigger presence is that of identification.
With increased government regulations, and implementations of KYC practices- that’s know your customer, it seems that the days of anonymously investing in ICOs are behind us, if you’re a U.S. citizen.
But it’s more than just wanting to be anonymous, there is resistance to these requirements to identify ourselves because… who actually enjoys giving out their personal info? And to have that associated with blockchain technology, a technology that permanently stores information is all the more reason to be apprehensive about this.
But if done correctly, blockchain tech can help alleviate this situation in some ways by at least bringing security in the form of encryption to your sensitive information.
There exists in this world an entity called Equifax, it’s a consumer credit reporting agency that stores very personal information of millions of people. Information like names, birth dates, social security numbers and driver license numbers.
You may have heard about this before or recognized it from the news when its database was hacked in the Spring of this year, but they didn’t release this information until months later.
It is very much a centralized authority and quite frankly, with that amount of sensitive information it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.
Here’s a distributed, blockchain based solution that has the potential to replace things like Equifax.
Today I’m focusing on Civic.
This one is all about securing your sensitive identification information in a way that gives you at least a little bit of peace of mind if you ever need to verify your identity or other aspects of yourself.
Now just as a personal disclaimer, I am not a fan of any use of mobile devices when it comes to securing anything like personal identity or when cryptocurrency is concerned.
You can use their app to scan your documents, and Civic or a “third party verifier” then verifies that the content is valid. Your information is encrypted for security and you’ll then be able to pick and choose which information is shared to whichever entity is requiring your verification. For sure this can help make the verification process much easier than having to take multiple photos of your drivers license for each time you need verification, but I am curious to know exactly who this other “third party verifier”, so if anyone knows an answer to this, go ahead and leave a comment down below.
So in a way you’re centralizing your own verification information for your convenience, but with the distributed aspects of Civic, if your information or someone else’s information is somehow compromised, that incident is compartmentalized and will not lead to the entire network getting compromised.
In addition to making verification easier, Civic also provides identity theft protection in the form of:
One thing that really caught my eye that is listed in the “Coming Soon” section of their website is that they are planning on adding “black market monitoring”.
So many times cryptocurrencies are thought of as black market currencies that is only good for using on the dark web, it’s cool for me at least, to see this kind of effort as a precautionary measure to help prevent ID theft.
The memberships being offered at the moment include the free membership which currently offers the $1 million theft insurance. And there is the standard membership which will cost you $2.95 a month which offers more credit monitoring options and the 24/7 support line.
Additional Reading/Sources:
Equifax Hack
Equifax Website
KYC Explained
Bittrex Dealing with More Regulations
How-To Verify Identity on Crypto Exchanges
Civic Website
hi
What is the point of crypto if we have to give out all of this info? Now certain exchanges want your info and a photo of you to boot. What happened to the crypto in crypto currency?
Take a look at the Bitshares DEX. Low volume at the moment but it's non-invasive.
https://bitshares.org/
Cool. Thanks for the info
I love the idea of Civic and I think it can definitely be a force for good but what is the function of the Civic token really!? I've found very little information about what functionailty it actually has
I couldn't agree with you more, Civic is great. It has the potential to keep the most sensitive personal information of people safe from hackers. In recent years there has been a steady stream of incidents in which the personal information of millions of people was compromised due to hacks. When even Equifax - which is responsible for compiling and safeguarding the sensitve personal information that is the lifeblood of its business - gets hacked, that tells you everything you need to know about the need to improve the safety of our personal information.
Civic offers the real potential, using the blockchain, to prevent these types of hacks from occurring in the future without the need for centralized storage of the information. This will be a compelling value proposition for big business, which will have the ability to access the information they need without the need the gather and store it themselves. Believe me, that is the last thing they want to do, because having that information is costly to maintain and try to protect, which is outside their core competencies and subjects them to expensive lawsuits and humiliating negative publicity when something goes wrong.
I am happy to have a position in Civic and think it will turn out to be a good investment.
Tell me about it. In March 2018, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will be activated in EU, a serious headache for me and other software developpers, loads of work...
Encrypt your identity with NationalSA
I better hope that the big exchanges encrypt personal user data well.
What if a big exchange like Kraken or Bittrex got hacked.
Great read overall! Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on the crypto markets!
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@college-is-dumb/bitcoin-crash-sunday-bitcoin-overpriced-investment-banks-manipulating-futures
@fechaugger that's something I've been thinking about as well. I'm new to crypto and have been blown away about the amount of personal data I've had to share to be able to trade, I am usually crazily protective about the info I share online. I like the idea of encrypting my identity with something like Civic, and I can see the market value in it, but as @heiditravels said, who is the third party verifier?
Right, that's the question.
Great post
Thanks for telling us about this. Interesting that they currently have a free membership level.
Not your best pic. You have had previous pictures that were much better click bait.
Thanks Dave.
Clickbait? Where's the rolling eyes or face palm emoji when you need it!
Why don't you post your videos on https://d.tube ?
Link
@heimindanger
@dtube
Discord Dtube
How long until governments make it a requirement for all citizens to be 'Civic-alised'?
Two old expressions came to mind while I was reading this post. One "experience is the best teacher", and the other "necessity is the mother of invention" . Very timely and generous of you to share up to date developments in this crazy world of crypto.
right on, those expressions literally nail this post on the head. Since I found your comment substantive, you receive a well deserved upvote from me to you @windrockswater
Thank you I appreciate being replied to at all, it's an affirmation. Really appreciate it.
You bet!
I hope it does replace these data stealing thieves. I mean in every sense one is forced to use it and have all private info taken and stored in trust and this happens to millions of people through their negligence. Yes, I hope this replaces and closes up their faulty, shoddy business.
I agree with you completely. The stealing of one's personal information is absolutely ridiculous.
Your absolutely correct. I did a lot of research and invested in CVC Last year when it's was around 0.24$ ( i guess). Lets hope investors and people will realize its importance and potential very soon.
Thanks for such a wonderful post.
@heiditravels Great post. I resteamed
Crypto is all about encryption. Right
So now give me your name address and ssn to participate in the party.
Thank you very much for sharing this topic with us @heiditravels
A new idea but wonderful, I wish you good luck.
good information
I have been trying to buy civic for the last few days via exodus but because of the congestion in the Ethereum network I can't get the orders through. 😒
I was kind of hoping to buy cheap ether when people start questioning the ethereum network's current capacity, but I don't trust the network lol
Buy through Changelly and send back to exodus. I had to do this as well with everything being “temporarily unavailable”. Plus Changelly rates are a lot cheaper.
Civic seems like a great tool to utilize in order to keep yourself and your information safe and out of harms way from the dangers that lie within the so-called black market of the cryptoworld. I was curious to hear your thoughts as to whether or not you think something similar could happen with Civic as we saw with Equifax in hackers demobilizing users information? Civic seems to comprise many valuable tools to help against this sort of occurence with their monitoring system, full time support, alerts, etc. but what is the underlying feature that will allow this to be superior when compared to similar entities?
I am always weary about this sort of stuff, but you seem to really have an overarching and well-rounded understanding of this niche area.... I am curious to hear what you think @heiditravels
I think whether something is attractive to hack or not depends on what information is stored. While you certainly wouldn't want anyone to get enough of your private information to commit identity theft, I'm not sure if it's the most profitable endeavour for a hacker. I kind of assume their priority would be more directly economically related and I certainly hope that neither Equifax nor Civic stores all your necessary payment information.
valid point you make here, thanks for sharing what you thought about my question; appreciate it!
NICE post !
Hi Heidi thank to your posts. If you wish to visit Turkey we will gladly accept as our guest.
Great to see this @heidi! Love the great work of Civic and Vinny! Thanks for sharing!
Lets hope for the rise of civic from all of this. Same here as @eroche, nothing working due to congested network.
Good clarification on how civic works, think a lot of people need to know more about what it is used for (Im talking about myself hahaha)
Thank you Heidi for all of the time and effort you put in to make things easier for some of us to understand. I have learned so much from you.
Thanks for posting this! Really excited about what Civic has to offer
Great sharing
Interesting post, I like these new platforms, and more for us Venezuelans that this is practically our source of revenues.
The only difference between extortion and taxation is scale
I think it has 25X potential I brought atleast 55 at 0.37.
The world is changing, I think that technology is a great tool, it allows us and helps us to obtain many benefits, we must be aware that some specific problems may occur, but technology does not definitely help in communities today. ..
for example, the ATMs that some unscrupulous people can make some scam, but they represent a very small minority compared to the volume of transactions that are made ...
So you have to be aware, take precautions and understand that the world will continue to go and one deside to ride on the wave of change, or let the wave take you revolcanote inside it ...
Anyway, remember it's your decision
I'm a fan of this approach. I hope one day we'll have a global identity blockchain that will help with refugee crises like the one we are experiencing now.
This is nicely crypto blog..
Give each of your posts a very sophisticated way,
I have to vote if I see your posts
You will give me a little support by voting in my comments,
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Nicely bolg Master.
Give each of your posts a very sophisticated way,
I have to vote if I see your posts
You will give me a little support by voting in my comments,
And if you wish to follow me,
I promise you will not be lost,
please
Thank you very much for my profile
according to my forecast it is time to exit from bitcoin market as it is going for a huge correction after christmas.
Nice post about Civic.
I knew about civic as a coin but not a lot has been happening with this technology.
It would be really handy to just have one identification which can be used everywhere without reveling personal information.
Gold is laughable compared to cryptocurrencies. How do you frationalize gold? How do you ship it? It's physical so how do you safely store it. It was good for people 3,000 years ago. Today it is inherently worthless. Soon it will drop in value as crypto currencies climb
Hmm interesting thing keep up the hard work. 👍
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What a charming girl you are!
Hey friends, You have presented your writing every beautiful and the place where you presented the speech is very pleasant. So thank you for your beautiful article and sweet looks.
I also believe in Civic, i read about it a few weeks ago. But i got the feeling that its not coming of the ground.... yet. Im also wondering how secure the system is. If its its getting a hype, also hackers Will trying tot bring IT down.
Sangat menarik :)
Semoga hari mu menyenangkan
Cryptocurrencies may be defined that you have some money or you have no money in your wallet until you make it cash.
.
excellent post !10 out of 10 .congratulations ..
I want you to see my photos .:/
maybe i can be popular too :)
This reads like a press release.
good post
Just what I have been looking for. Thanks
good info i like