The current KYC process is cumbersome, unsecure, repetitive and often misses the mark of regulatory compliance with the mismanagement of Personal Identifiable Information (PII). Do you know where your information is being stored, and how it is handled after the KYC process?
Based on research, last year the legal service industry averaged an estimated 248 Billion dollars in the U.S. alone. In 2,000 businesses around the globe, including in the banking, technology, and real estate sectors, legal research company Acritas found U.S. companies spend on average .40 percent of every dollar of revenue earned on legal services. Bridge Protocol (IAM) is currently the only Identity Verification (IDV) service focused on ICO and business requirements for legal services, regulatory compliance and streamlined KYC process
The Identity Verification space may seem saturated to the untrained eye and often when the term Know Your Customer (KYC) is presented in a business plan, investors tend to believe that all companies are targeting the same application of the KYC process. After extensive market research I have found it common that many companies have minor areas of overlap and in any case where there was relevant overlap, Bridge Protocol (BP) came out on top!
Here are a few key points:
- Bridge has a low circulating token supply within the Millions which creates a great potential for high value. Compare the available supply of existing tokens in relations to their value and you will easily gain confidence in the potential value of the Bridge token (IAM).
- They are the only KYC/IDV provider focused on legal services industry and regulatory compliance. Both of these industries are recession proof, mandatory and yield high returns.
- They are built on the NEO blockchain optimized for IDV, digitization of crypto currency and smart contracts to maximize the application and functionality of their core purpose.
- Initial soft cap of 2 Million was drastically exceeded within 24hrs of the ICO launch raising over 10 Million dollars!
Bridge was developed by Project ICO which is full service ICO designer that launches business on the blockchain providing all inclusive services of legal, marketing, and technical engineering. Through Bridge, Project ICO is designing a set of solutions to streamline the identification process, while maintaining the high standards legal groups have been setting as the precedent. Such processes include an Identity Management System (IMS), and Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK). The IMS will hold basic information about an individual (i.e. user over 18 years old or country of origin), ensuring sensitive data is protected. It will also allow for the flagging of metadata on suspicious transactions, similar to when a credit card company flags suspicious charges on your card.
Now that crypto space is absorbing so much economic wealth and destabilizing centers of financial power, governments will move quickly to regulate this space and ensure that there is a high degree of accountability and accounting. Investing in Bridge Protocol is buying stock in the foundation of the future. Many companies may not survive the retroactive effort to become compliant and this is a fact as many have already been delisted from exchanges or completely abandoned their efforts at the mere thought of adhering to regulations.
Bridge Protocol will build a marketplace of micro-service which offers a variety of legal services. They will drive the innovation and ease of use of these services by teaming application developers with these service providers to create intuitive interfaces for customer use. BP will be self governing; utilizing internal audits to ensure micro-services are within regulatory compliance while remaining flexible in their business structure to dynamically adjust to new regulatory requirements. Auditor services will also be available to ICOs as a service to make suggestions on improving regulatory compliance.
How can Bridge Protocol protect you?
Through the use of a technology called Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) interested parties can validate you without you directly providing sensitive data.
PKI is a two part system using what is called digital certificates, also referred to as keys. The certificates are mathematically related like a key is related to a door. One key is called the public key (the door anyone can touch) and the other is the private key (key you keep in your pocket, this stays secure)! Anyone can agree when standing in front of a door that:
- The key (private) opens the door (public), and
- The door (public) is opened by the key (private)
Quick review
Public certificate: accessible by anyone and used to allow for a challenge to your authenticity, verify your identity and package information solely intended for you.
Private certificate: held by you as the other piece of the puzzle. Used to sign documents which can be compared to your public cert and also access (unlock a door) information solely intended for you which has been wrapped in a package (encrypted) with your public certificate.
Ok let’s continue!
BP creates your digital identity by generating this key pair from a centrally trusted source called the Certificate Authority (CA). The CA is like the neighborhood Barber that knows everyone and can verify anyone that has been to his Barber Shop. The public certificate can be provided to any third party which could then go back to the Barber and say, ”hey do you know this guy?”. Once your verified, the third party has a high level of assurance that you are cleared to conduct business and you can whip out the ONE THING that ONLY YOU EXCLUSIVELY have, your private key, and sign any participation document.
Anyone also has the ability to wrap (encrypt) information using your public key and ONLY YOU have the ability to open it with your private key. It is like Christmas time when someone wraps a gift with publicly available wrapping paper, but because they wrote your name on the wrapper, only you can open it.
As we started this article, so shall we finish!
Legal services was a 248 Billion dollar industry in the United States ALONE imagine the global potential. This is a long term HODL with potential for astronomical returns.
While there are a few high-visibility alt-coins in the cryptocurrency space for KYC, there are many die-hard investors who swear by one or the other. They believe that their choice will be crowned the Next Best Thing. We question whether we should be constructing such a pecking order in the first place, when Bridge will soon over shadow them in the time to come :).
Author: Michael Philbert