How useful it is to issue digital certificates on the blockchain?

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Blockchain technology is used in several ways in varied industries for offering high-security managing distribution systems and recording valuable information. Blockchain records all transactions without any verification from third parties. An evolving issue in recent years is - counterfeiting certification. It is posing serious threats to people. Issuing paper-based certificates manually is prone to errors and time- consuming. Day by day, the number of people's data is increasing, so deploying a system for both issuing and verifying digital certificates based on blockchain technology can solve issues of forged documents.

What is the current problem with document certification?

Many organisations and businesses need original documents for verification purposes before further processing. Some valuable documents like (birth certificates) exist only once. Parties involved in verification and issuing other certificates may experience hesitancy to handle these sensitive documents and that can result in damage or even loss. Many parties are unable to protect the valuable physical pieces of paper with this process. Another big problem comes from data theft. Many people have reported it. So the question comes: how can this issue be solved? Creating digital proof or digital certificates certified or signed by respective institutions or authorised organisations can be beneficial. With blockchain-based digital certificates, you can access and verify the digital asset's authenticity without depending on any intermediary or third party. Traditional data records like paper files deteriorate over time. storing records like digital certificates on the blockchain can help in safeguarding sensitive credentials from destruction & damage. Blockchain document security methods can help users seamlessly secure their sensitive documents.

What about blockchain solutions?

Blockchain technology has brought a revolution in storing and sharing data. The mechanism of cryptography helps in keeping information fully secured. Blockchain offers a digital ledger or decentralised database of data. Centred on computer networks that approve updates before data get recorded and verified. It lessens the reliance and vulnerability of centralised data storage. Instead of handling physical pieces of documents, issuing and storing digital certificates in blockchain can be advantageous to users. You can efficiently utilise the benefits of blockchain, like - authentication, encryption and decentralisation. Every certificate consists of references of both issuer and receiver with a hash (a sign of document), that is stored in the public database. It is identical in the number of computers throughout the globe. These digital certificates with blockchain technology have vital additional advantages over any other certificates.

How does blockchain make digital certificates work?

When a digital certificate is issued, data gets digitised. A digital identity gets assigned to every certificate. All of the digital certificates are tagged as well as traceable. Original documents are stored safely in the computer networks in the blockchain which are known as nodes. In totality, blockchain makes digital certificates highly transparent and secured. It also makes it easy to unfurl any fraud because this technology can expose any forged or outdated certificates.

Are these digital certificates tamper-proof?

Yes, the digital certificates are tamper-proof not by just signing but right after the beginning of the transaction. A signing algorithm produces a signature that is encrypted through a private key. The digital signature in these certificates can never be forged without having access to the private key of the user or members. With the help of document security QR codes, users can secure their valuable credentials.

What are the potential benefits of issuing digital certificates on the blockchain?

Blockchain has evolved to be beneficial for the financial industry. This technology is the most talked about and sought-after technology used in the world. There are innumerable benefits of issuing digital certificates on the blockchain. Some of them are here: a) Require fewer resources for issuance: Issuance and maintenance of digital certificates on the blockchain require a very less number of resources. As a result, the whole process saves time, effort and human capital. b) Digital certificates are conveyable: Contrary to physical certificates, the digital ones issued on the blockchain need not be carried around every place. Digital certificates are there to exist for a lifetime. These certificates can be easily accessed on any of your devices from any part of the world. c) Ideal as Identity proof: Digital certificates based on blockchain are the best substitution for the traditional proofs of paper identification. Digital certificates are issued on a highly secured framework of blockchain which is fully secured. These verifiable certificates can be easily traced all the way back to an issuer. This method makes the procedure transparent. You can use the blockchain document security method for securing and storing your valuable documents. d) Gives overall data security: Paper certificates can also take days and months to get issued and dispatched. Paper certificates can be altered without issuing the institute's knowledge and that is risky. Digital certificates issued on the blockchain can not be altered by any person. If someone tries to tamper with it, then verification will fail. This makes data in your digital certificates fully secured as well as traceable. e) No third party requirement: Blockchain verification of digital certificates can be performed by any person having access to the network. There is no need for any third party interference for verification. Digital certificates can be verified even if any organisation that issued them no longer exists. f) For micro-credentialing: Every data remains encrypted in the digital certificates issued on the blockchain. Organisations or businesses can issue "micro-credentialing" for recognizing, career skills, learning and so on. It can help both students and organisations. g) Comes at an affordable cost: Using blockchain is not expensive. With the help of the blockchain-powered platform, you can issue digital certificates for numerous services with ease. You may need no extra software or hardware and be done with an internet connection. So in nutshell, the unique features of blockchain technology make issuing digital certificates easy and tamper-proof. Blockchain technology simplifies and facilities the entire process of issuance of digital certificates. It also helps in the easy transfer of these certificates leading to the expansion of contents and information. We hope in the next few years, more and more organisations will come forward in embracing digital certificates issuance on the blockchain. A blockchain document security system can help you to secure sensitive credentials with ease.

Do You Think Blockchain can be the Right Solution for KYC Verification?

Posted on October 20, 2021

Know Your Customer or KYC is a supervisory requirement that supports the present-day global economy. However, the current processes of KYC have been inefficient and outdated. Across the world, financial organizations conduct time-consuming, cost-heavy checks to verify customers’ identities and make sure they are not entwined in illegal activity like money laundering or bribery.

Not only do enterprise companies and institutions experience huge fines if they fail to comply with current regulations, but they mostly need to navigate between different regulatory borders. They also have to store and protect massive swathes of user data. Hence, professionals have started using the technologies that support the base of decentralized finance or Defi to offer solutions for problems that conventional financial institutions encounter.

Blockchain can aid in redesigning outdated KYC processes by enabling the impact outsourcing and decentralizing of personal data. At the same time, they allow the owner of the data to upkeep full control over their data. To evolve and deal with ever-increasing regulatory requirements, institutions should look to innovative technology to advance their current processes.

Practice of KYC

The whole KYC processes differ across the board. On a general level, daily processes like opening any bank account or sending payments demand you to fulfill certain criteria, and the responsibility of confirming that you do fall completely on the institutions offering services. In such times the authorities might ask the customers to provide a passport photo along with the address.

In other areas, institutions may need customers or companies to offer proper billing documents or locator forms to create their ground, residency, or even provide details of the source of funds they are using. The higher the stakes, the huger will be the scrutiny. It simply means that transactions of huge value often need in-depth checks.

There are indeed clear benefits to such processes that guard the financial services and promise the legitimacy of the economies. However, the labor-intense and resource-heavy aspects of KYC make it a concern for institutions around the globe.

The thought Behind Blockchain for KYC

Every company must verify its identity somehow, and it is specifically important for financial organizations. Verification boosts the companies to know their customer. Here, KYC protocols help the companies to ensure they know who they are dealing or doing business with. In a typical sense, it encompasses a long, protracted practice. In these, certain documents are shown, and some background checks or verification takes place.

The stress to increase KYC compliance has been emerging from regulators who are eager to stop the growing sophisticated financial crimes the world is seeing each year. But there is a powerful way to deal with all these problems. Blockchain KYC solutions can be of great help as they have a secure, public digital ledger to provide nearly instantaneous and secure identity verification. Since blockchain has an immutable nature, fraud might turn out to be a thing of the past for the record you keep there.

For example, you can use QR-based blockchain KYC in which there is a unique hash value in the secure QR code. This code is linked to the QR code on the blockchain network; hence, one can access the data of KYC only if the hash value of QR on KYC matches with the unique hash value on the blockchain network. Hence, it proves to be an efficient and future-proof solution.

Role of Blockchain for KYC

Many businesses have started embracing a digital signature’ that would keep a secure copy of all your KYC-compliant documents that they store on a blockchain. Specifically, if this is a public blockchain, it would have a decentralized nature and is both transparent and secure.

A bank or any financial organization looking to confirm customer identity will need permission to access the personal information. Here, blockchain-based KYC can play an efficient role. Since it is standardized, every financial organization globally would be able to share and view the same information.

One can do updates to personal information in the blockchain. It means any institution using the system will also be aware of any information alterations. Similarly, customers will be able to update their personal information throughout all their accounts with their digital signatures. KYC based on blockchain would mean that nobody would need to contact each institution with changes. Also, the institutions are never going to miss such changes as they do in the present time.

The Bottom Line

Blockchain for KYC is one of the most promising tools of decentralized technology. It serves a real need by reducing the KYC administrative costs as well as lost time. Not to forget, it is increasing security and transparency too. If you are still unsure how blockchain-based KYC can work for your institution and which software products for KYC are right, let us discuss it at ProofEasy.