Blockchain startup Twala unveiled its digital self-sovereign ID (SSI) at the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) 2022 Philippine Identification Summit last September 27-29 highlighting the economic benefits the technology can deliver to the country.
During his presentation, Alex Quinit, co-founder and chief technology officer of Twala, said the current process organizations use for proving their customers’ identities is time-inefficient and costly. “When opening a bank account, we are often asked to provide at least two government-issued IDs. For employment, we are being asked for police and NBI clearance, our academic credentials, and many more. It will take some time for these relying parties to verify our documents as they have limited ways to verify the authenticity of our documents.”
He added this process makes Filipinos more vulnerable to identity theft and fraud as they are not usually made aware of how their data are being processed and shared.
Qunit said SSI can help enhance this process. SSI is a digital ID concept that functions on the central tenet that people must have sole ownership and control over how their personal data are used and shared.
A key part of SSI is ensuring the communications between the identity holder and the party that will receive the data do not involve third parties. As such, Quinit noted the best way to implement SSI is through blockchain, where no intermediary is needed.
Across the globe, Quinit said, blockchain-based SSI models are already being explored or used. In the Philippines, Twala has developed an SSI model inspired by the European Union’s electronic Identification, Authentication, and Trust Services (eIDAS) 2.0.
