Yesterday, the payments firm Mastercard announced it is joining the ID2020 Alliance to explore digital identity solutions.
The ID2020 Alliance was founded by Accenture, Microsoft, Gavi, Rockefeller Foundation and IDEO. Partners include NGOs, private companies and UN agencies.
The
ongoing pandemic has led to the emergence of digital-only solutions
that require users to prove who they are. Digital identity could play
a significant role in facilitating access to a range of digital
services.
“We
must work together to establish consistency and common standards
across the globe that can make this a reality, addressing real
challenges faced by people every day and sparking continued
innovation,” said Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber & Intelligence,
Mastercard.
Last
year, Mastercard said it was exploring
decentralized digital identity for
verifying financial transactions, government interactions, and online
services. It is a well-established fact that digital identity could
enable banking and other services for people with no physical papers
or credit history.
The
World Bank estimates over
a billion people lack
any form of legally recognized identification. This hinders their
access to vital services, including healthcare, social protection,
education and finance.
Several solutions are being developed globally, but ID2020 believes collaboration and global partnerships are key to digital identity adoption.
“Digital identity can be a powerful force multiplier to enhance social and economic opportunities for all people,” said Dakota Gruener, Executive Director of ID2020. “But to fully realize that potential, governments, technology companies, financial institutions and civil society must collaborate. We are delighted to welcome Mastercard to the ID2020 Alliance and applaud their commitment to privacy-protecting, user-centric digital identity.”
Gruener recently penned a Harvard whitepaper about COVID-19 immunity certificates for the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
The
ID2020 Alliance enables partners to pool in funds and other resources
to develop digital identity projects.
The
Alliance has already launched pilots and
recently worked with the Government
of Bangladesh to
launch a digital identity program for vaccination in the country.
Digital
identity has
myriad applications, and Mastercard previously joined the Trust
over IP (ToIP)
Foundation. Other members of the consortium include Accenture,
Evernym, IBM, DIDx, and R3.
Evernym
is the company that initiated the Sovrin
network,
the public self-sovereign identity network. South
Korea has
three separate decentralized identity projects.
Last
month, Microsoft, Evernym, ID2020 and many others formed the COVID
Credentials Initiative (CCI)
to use digital identity for keeping OVID-19 spread in check.
