Korean Tech Giant LG Is Developing a Blockchain Identity System With a US Firm

LG has partnered with United States-based company Evernym to develop blockchain ID technology.

Asian financial news outlet Aju Business Daily reported on May 26 that LG CNS — LG’s IT services subsidiary — signed a memorandum of understanding with Evernym. The collaboration between the two firms aims to develop international digital identity standards at the World Wide Web Consortium.

A new identity standard for the web

To establish the new standard, the two firms decided to jointly develop a blockchain-based decentralized authentication system to replace international driver’s licenses and passports. Evernym already launched Sovrin, a platform aiming to enable organizations and governments to issue, verify and manage digital credentials such as digital passports.

As Cointelegraph reported in September 2019, Evernym scored a $2 million investment from Overstock’s venture capital arm Medici Ventures. At the time, Overstock’s CEO Jonathan Johnson said:

“Evernym’s platform allows every person, organization, and connected thing to have an independent identity.”

LG CNS and Evernym did not respond to Cointelegraph’s inquiry by press time.

Gabriel Kurman is head of strategy at RIF, a Bitcoin-based solution that develops its own identity management system. Kurman Cointelegraph that he sees such a standard could bring great benefits to personal data security. While he has high hopes for this system, he also highlighted the importance that such solutions be open source:

“I hope that this standard will help future generations to recover the right to privacy over their digital interactions that our generation lost in the past 15 years. Also to make access to ID easier for vulnerable communities. On the other hand, I wouldn’t really like to see this tool used for mass surveillance by tech companies and governments disguised by well-intentioned standards. For that to be avoided, open-source technology is needed as well as public blockchains.”

Blockchain use in digital identity solutions

Blockchain’s censorship-resistance and resilient infrastructure make it a great fit as a foundation for digital identity solutions that need to be secure and always accessible. Decentralized digital identity solutions are one of the most active areas of development of blockchain technology.

Earlier this month the South Korean city of Sejong announced that it plans to use blockchain to store and verify the identities of self-driving vehicles.