Richard Smith

Anyone who has interacted with ChatGPT has experienced this unsettling question: “Is this thing human or not?”&nbsp;



That question is, in essence, the long-awaited failure of the Turing Test.



We’ve been unwittingly using the Turing Test as a proxy for online identity for decades now.&nbsp; Over time, it would become clear whether we were interacting online with a person or a machine.&nbsp;



With the advent of ChatGPT and generative AI, however, we can no longer rely on the Turing Test as a proxy for “I’m human.” And digital personhood ultimately requires some way of knowing whether or not we are dealing with a real person.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Web3’s vision of digital personhood has relied on both decentralization and the Turing Test to be able to say, “I’m human and I control these digital assets.” When ChatGPT broke the Turing Test, it showed us that decentralization alone is insufficient for digital personhood.



If we’re serious about digital personhood, then it’s time to get serious about digital identity.&nbsp;&nbsp;



We have to architect Web3 to support identity from the top down.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What makes a human, human?</h2>



Many may be surprised to learn that the digital identity movement has its own Satoshi-like figure who authored the definitive white paper on digital identity a full seven years prior to Satoshi’s famous Bitcoin white paper.&nbsp;



In 2005, Kim Cameron brought the stone tablets of identity management down from the mountaintop when he published his landmark paper, <a href="https://www.identityblog.com/stories/2005/05/13/TheLawsOfIdentity.pdf">The Laws of Identity</a>.



While Kim may not have been as mysterious as Satoshi, his work on digital identity was as definitive as Satoshi’s work on decentralization.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Kim put forward a problem statement for digital identity that was as simple, clear, and concise as Satoshi’s problem statement for decentralization.&nbsp;It’s instructive to look at them both together.



Kim’s identity problem statement (2005):&nbsp; The Internet was built without a way to know who and what you are connecting to.



Satoshi’s decentralization problem statement (2012): Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments.



While these two problems are distinct, they are inextricably intertwined. We have to know who and what we are connecting to online (Kim/identity), and we have to be able to do so peer-to-peer, without an intermediary (Satoshi/decentralization). This is just as true in the digital world as it is in the real world.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In a post-Turing Test world, however, the problem of identity has taken on a new urgency because machines are increasingly able to spoof people.&nbsp;We will not enjoy the full fruits of decentralization without also making digital identity a top priority.



Toward the end of his life, Kim gave us yet another way to think about the challenge of digital personhood. He gave a <a href="https://www.kuppingercole.com/watch/eic2019_14_09_cameron">talk</a> where he said that, when it comes to our online lives, “Content is what we are, aspects of our identity, but we don’t own it, we don’t keep it, we can’t control it. Basically, we lack a digital shelter that would offer the same fundamental privacy as a home.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



In short, we are digitally homeless.



Just as personhood is impaired by homelessness in the real world due to lack of privacy, digital personhood is similarly impaired by digital homelessness in the digital world.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Digital personhood requires a digital home — a digital place where we have the power to decide what parts of our digital selves we share with others and when and how we do so. That digital home is inseparable from our digital identity.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Decentralization isn’t a sufficient principle for overcoming our digital homelessness. If we don’t also architect for digital identity, we will never know who or what we are connecting to online and AI bots will overwhelm human beings.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Up until now, we’ve been able to skirt the architectural demands of digital identity because when push came to shove, we could lean on the Turing Test as a proxy for our humanness and we could manage our dispersed digital selves without ultimately requiring a centralized digital home. With the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, those days are gone.&nbsp;



Kim Cameron, unfortunately, is gone too, but his Laws of Identity live on. All those who aspire to true digital personhood would do well to remember that Kim came before Satoshi, and identity comes before decentralization.&nbsp;



As Kim said, in the online world, “content is what we are.” Now that generative AI has rendered human-quality content virtually free, we should make sure that we have an alternative method to value and recognize personhood in the digital world.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Dr. Richard Smith – Berkeley Mathematician and PhD in System Science – is a fintech entrepreneur, the CEO of The Foundation for the Study of Cycles, and the author of The Risk Rituals newsletter. He has built a reputation as “The Doctor of Uncertainty” amongst his academic peers and has helped government agencies and Fortune 500 companies alike make sense of complex sets of data. In his upcoming book, The Risk Manifesto, Dr. Smith will aim to further educate investors on how to circumvent self-destructive instincts and adopt a systematic way to manage their fear of risk. With his background in mathematical theories of uncertainty combined with his investing and trading experience,Dr. Smith is a regular speaker and lecturer and particularly enjoys opportunities to share his knowledge and help others gain an edge in the market.
</div>


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Web3 Has an Identity Crisis on its Hands

Casey Wagner

The White House has included crypto in its updated list of areas to watch in emerging technology.&nbsp;



In the latest national security standards report, President Biden’s team lays out parts of the tech industry it will “prioritize” creating standards around.&nbsp;



The strategy is designed to “strengthen both the United States’ foundation to safeguard American consumers’ technology and U.S. leadership and competitiveness in international standards development,” the White House said in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/04/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-national-standards-strategy-for-critical-and-emerging-technology/">statement</a> Thursday. Having universal standards ensures technologies are consistent in terms of safety and security, the statement added.&nbsp;



The federal government said it would be focusing on “digital identity infrastructure and distributed ledger technologies, which increasingly affect a range of key economic sectors,” per the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/US-Gov-National-Standards-Strategy-2023.pdf">report</a>.&nbsp;



The list also includes biotechnologies, artificial intelligence and semiconductors.&nbsp;



The report comes just after the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/05/02/cost-of-cryptomining-dame-tax/">Digital Asset Mining Excise</a> (DAME) <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-mining-tax-biden">tax on crypto mining firms</a> Tuesday. If passed, it would trigger a 30% tax on the cost of the electricity used by bitcoin mining to address “the economic and environmental costs,” the CEA said.&nbsp;



The proposal has the industry up in arms. Public bitcoin mining firm <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/riot-blockchain">Riot</a> said the tax would set the US back as a leader in the crypto space.&nbsp;



“It’s hard to overstate how bad an idea this is,” Riot told Blockworks. “This proposal would push financial innovation and jobs away from America to other jurisdictions overseas, while causing harmful environmental outcomes and increased national security risks for the United States.”



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White House Tackles Digital Identity, Distributed Ledgers in New Tech Standards

James Cirrone

San Jose Deputy City Manager Rob Lloyd said Thursday he envisions a future where blockchain technology is used to vote in city, state and even federal elections.&nbsp;



“The 40-hour workweek, worker rights, [worker’s] comp protections — those usually start at the local level and then work their way up to state and get adopted by federal — I think the same pattern is going to happen with blockchain-driven voting,” Lloyd said.&nbsp;



He added that zero knowledge proof technology could be used to ensure voter anonymity, while also guaranteeing that their vote is forever recorded on an immutable digital ledger.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roblloyd/"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-54551" width="200" height="200" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=400 400w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=257 257w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=261 261w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=219 219w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/rob-loyd.jpeg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/roblloyd/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn</a></figcaption></figure></div>


Lloyd’s comments were captured on a Web3-focused <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/1WaCG5F1YCZ7pibHTY5bjw?si=V1mwOkmKSASgW8bRNC940g&amp;nd=1">podcast</a> called “On Chain On Air,” which was hosted by Ashley Spradlin, head of education at Metis, an Ethereum layer-2 <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rollup</a>. This latest podcast featured Lloyd and University of San Francisco Professor Jonathan Reichental, both of whom are based in and around Silicon Valley. 



Reichental, who also advises governments about new technology through his firm Human Future, acknowledged the potential of blockchain-based voting. However, there’s one big problem, he said.



“The reality is we&#8217;re moving further away from electronic voting,” Reichental said. “The challenges that have occurred, or the appearance of challenges, has given people hesitancy around electronic voting.”



“People aren&#8217;t ready for it, and people are not going to accept it in the short term,” he added.



A July 2022 CNN poll found that Americans’ trust in elections has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/politics/cnn-poll-elections/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eroded</a> over time. Shortly after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, 36% of people were “very confident” that elections were representative of voters’ wishes. A year and a half later, just 16% were very confident.



The public trust dilemma exists with blockchain technology as well. While built to create <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/issue/29722677" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decentralized trust</a> systems, the myriad human failures behind crypto-adjacent centralized players over the past year have resulted in flagging public perception: <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/voyager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voyager</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/celsius" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Celsius</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blockfi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlockFi</a>, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ftx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX</a> are just a few examples.&nbsp;



But Reichental said that falsely conflating crypto speculation with and blockchain technology holds back potential breakthroughs.



“We have to be really clear that these are two separate items. Blockchain is the technology, the platform. Crypto is an application that runs on top of blockchain.”



Lloyd pointed to one such use of blockchain technology that has absolutely nothing to do with crypto as a form of money: Marriage.



Utah County, Utah has opted for digital marriage certificates, where couples can choose to have a record of their legal union <a href="https://www.utahcounty.gov/dept/clerk/marriage/digitalvspapercertcopy.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stored</a> on public Ethereum. Additionally, Americans from any state or locality can get married online through Utah County.&nbsp;



“Utah, of all places, took the leadership position…and they said we&#8217;re going to allow digital marriages and they&#8217;ve actually been unlocking use cases for blockchain more than any other state that I&#8217;ve seen,” Lloyd said.



The state’s service provider is using Ethereum because it is “a hundred times more reinforced than any redundant backup system ever devised,” according to its <a href="https://titanseal.com/faq" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FAQ</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Identity management</h2>



Another potential use case for blockchain technology to conduct government business is, what Reichental referred to as, “self sovereign identity” or SSI.



“[With] SSI identity management, we don&#8217;t ever have to get concerned with crypto and yet, we&#8217;re using the very best of blockchain technology,” Reichental said. “We can get authenticated without the recipient knowing personal information about us.”



Currently, to access most government services, you have to log in to multiple sites and remember all your login credentials. With a digital identity solution in place, Reichental said dealing with bureaucracy would be easier because the government would simply be able to authenticate you through whichever blockchain it decided to use.&nbsp;



Reichental also offered up a hypothetical situation where a person gets pulled over by a police officer. As it stands now, to verify who you are, a cop will take your driver’s license back to their vehicle.



In that situation, “you&#8217;ve lost control of your identity,” he explained. And in our society, you’re forced to hand over identifying documents to people all the time.&nbsp;



“In a properly implemented SSI environment, the cop can take a barcode or QR code, and he or she never sees the information, authenticates against this blockchain environment that&#8217;s being used, comes back and says, ‘yes, this person is who they say they are,’” Reichental said.



Digital marriages, SSI, electronic voting and paperless records could be the future, but according to Lloyd, who is actually responsible for administering government services, three criteria need to be met before blockchain technology can gain widespread civic adoption.



It needs to be stable, first and foremost. Second, vendor platforms need to begin adopting crypto as a form of payment. And finally, there needs to be a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/regulation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regulatory</a> framework, he said.&nbsp;



“When we see those three things, then we&#8217;ll know that the industry is at a point where we can really drive hard at it because we&#8217;ll have the basics on which we can create programs and maintain them and sustain them over time,” Lloyd said.



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How Blockchain Can Make Government Work Better For Citizens

Michael Bodley

Venture capitalists are paying attention to cryptocurrency to fiat payroll processing solutions again — in at least one recent instance.&nbsp;



The latest indicator: Rise Works, which bills itself as a “web3-enabled payroll &amp; compliance solution,” has closed its seed round, the startup told Blockworks exclusively. The US-based startup works with DAOs, including the crypto staking specialist Lido (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ldo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LDO</a>), as well as a number of other types of decentralized organizations looking to compensate their personnel via digital assets.&nbsp;



The 2023 demise of a number of traditional Silicon Valley banking solutions, including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), left crypto industry participants and their backers still holding dry powder with what they viewed as an opportunity to capitalize. Results have been mixed.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/silicon-valley-bank-meltdown-has-little-to-do-with-crypto">Silicon Valley Bank Meltdown Has Little to Do With Crypto&nbsp;</a>



In late March, on the heels of SVB’s collapse, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/svb-contagion-rippling">contagion from the venture capital favorite bank spread to Rippling</a>, one of the top solutions for crypto companies when it comes to payroll and other back and middle-office operational and financial needs.&nbsp;



Around that same time, Rippling <a href="https://www.rippling.com/blog/rippling-raises-500m-in-series-e-funding" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised</a> a massive $500 million Series E round, according to the company, which described the round as “an unusual financing” in a March 17 <a href="https://twitter.com/Rippling/status/1636820635505786880" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>.&nbsp;



Enter Rise Works.&nbsp;



Its recently closed round was co-led by Sino Global Capital and Polymorphic Capital, CEO Hugo Finkelstein told Blockworks in an exclusive interview.



Other participating investors included Draper Associates, Hashkey Capital, Paradigm Shift Capital, WW Ventures, P2P and Cosmo Capital.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How Rise Works… works</h2>



The company is looking to capitalize on voids left for solutions in the wake of the series of prominent collapses of both traditional finance and crypto-native firms in that particular line of business, Finkelstein told Blockworks.&nbsp;



The startup’s differentiators, Finkelstein said, include its focus on DAOs. Decentralized organizations like DAOs have unique compensation structures for contributors or in-house employees, and are often headquartered or based in various jurisdictions — whether in the US or abroad.



“The fact that we’ve built ourselves on the blockchain,” is Finkelstein said is what makes Rise unique. “We can onboard DAOs very efficiently, very fast. That&#8217;s how we’ve won deals compared [to] our competitors over time, because we have the infrastructure ourselves.”



One of the prominent voices in the Lido ecosystem — who goes by the pseudonym “adcv” and holds the title of “<a href="https://steakhouse.financial/bios" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chef</a>” at Steakhouse Financial — told Blockworks that Rise Works is “handling all of the compression of crypto to fiat payments for people who need it,” adding that “some of these [traditional] technologies are unfortunately still a few steps behind.”&nbsp;



Lido is a Steakhouse Financial client. Adcv described the Steakhouse as a “a consulting firm that acts as a CFO-for-hire for DAOs.”



Finkelstein said Rise is intended to straddle the “Web 2.5” line in a manner that appeals to both crypto native types and traditional companies. The startup’s solutions for payroll work with both fiat- and crypto-based treasuries and corresponding internal accounting systems.&nbsp;



The startup’s on-chain solution is built on the Arbitrum (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/arb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ARB</a>) blockchain and fits <a href="https://erc725alliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ERC-725</a> token standards for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-is-decentralized-identity">decentralized identity</a>, Finkelstein said.&nbsp;



Crypto firms looking for compliant payroll processing solutions often run into a series of thorny problems when it comes to setting up the right backend solutions for the right jurisdiction under the right regulator. The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cftc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFTC’s</a> series of crypto enforcement actions against crypto companies with US business has placed the industry on edge so far in 2023.&nbsp;



US regulators <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-boost-crypto-enforcement">have also been staffing up</a> in terms of personnel with crypto experience. Crypto market players as a result have been especially on edge when it comes to setting up compliant solutions, solutions that match know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering provisions, especially.&nbsp;



And not just in the US; countries including India <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/india-crypto-kyc-aml">have amped up their own compliance standards</a> for crypto players that fall under their jurisdiction.&nbsp;



Tim Draper, the managing partner of his Draper Associates, told Blockworks in a statement that “work is becoming borderless, and more people are looking to be paid in cryptocurrencies.”



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Built ‘On The Blockchain’ DAO Payroll Processor Rise Works Gets Sino’s Dollars

Sebastian Sinclair

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed two bills into law on Wednesday related to blockchain and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/daos">DAOs</a>, as the state seeks to further support innovation of developing technologies.



The first bill, <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/HB0470.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HB 470</a>, requires Utah’s Division of Technology Services to launch a pilot program for digitally verifiable credentials on-chain in a bid to “prevent the unauthorized alteration of electronic records.”



As part of the bill, the division will be held responsible for providing recommendations to government entities on implementation while establishing procedures for protecting personal identifying information.



The pilot program will be set up so the government can make use of those credentials and report on its progress to the Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Interim Committee by October.



The second bill, <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/HB0357.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HB 357</a>, seeks to establish that DAOs which have yet registered as for-profit or non-profit entities shall be treated legally as domestic limited liability companies.



Specifically, the bill “establishes the requirements of a decentralized autonomous organization to be recognized by the state.”



It also lays out the purposes for which a DAO may be set up, while membership requirements of DAO members as well as their inherent rights are formalized.



If a DAO satisfies certain criteria, it will then be considered a separate legal entity from its members with the ability to defend lawsuits in its own name, a section of the bill reads.



A limited liability DAO’s name must include the acronyms L.L.D, LLD or LD which stand for &#8220;limited liability decentralized autonomous organization&#8221; or &#8220;limited decentralized autonomous organization.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Utah’s blockchain, crypto drive</h2>



The laws follow the Utah legislature’s passage of its Decentralized Autonomous Act last month, which enhances anonymity bylaws designed to protect organization members. It also establishes clearer tax guidelines surrounding them.



Earlier this month, Utah signed three further bills into law which established the <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/HB0335.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockchain and Digital Innovation Task</a> Force, tasked with making policy recommendations surrounding the new tech. 



The state’s Division of Finance will also be required to deal with <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/HB0456.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third parties</a> in a bid to accept digital asset payments and affording the division powers to create regulatory standards.



A framework for <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/SB0182.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital assets ownership</a> seeks to define terms and provide a basis for understanding and legally defining ownership through control.



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Utah Law Furthers Adoption of On-chain Credentials and DAOs

Shalini Nagarajan

Blockchain domain name provider Unstoppable Domains teamed up with Polygon Labs to launch the digital identity .polygon, giving users a new way to enter Web3 applications and the decentralized web.



Having the .polygon domain name allows users easier access to the many dapps, games and metaverses, built on the Polygon blockchain, according to a <a href="https://polygon.technology/blog/unstoppable-domains-and-polygon-labs-launch-polygon-web3-domains" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> Tuesday.



People will have the option to create profiles and connect these with their social channels, and display on-chain tokens such as tickets and awards.



From March 16 onwards, Unstoppable Domains will launch exclusive access to premium .polygon gaming and digital domains, meaning users can claim names like gamer.polygon or 00.polygon.



“User-owned digital identity is the future of the Internet, and with the Polygon ecosystem, we’re putting the power of user-owned digital identities into more people’s hands,” said Sandy Carter, chief operating offer at Unstoppable Domains.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-is-decentralized-identity">What Is Decentralized Identity? The Pillar of Web3</a>



Unstoppable Domains and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum-name-service">Ethereum Name Service</a> (ENS) are the top two blockchain domain name providers. Web3 domains are essentially non-fungible tokens that can be traded, but they are more popular for being used as a shorthand name for crypto wallet addresses. These can be used to transact across a growing number of apps, wallets, exchanges and marketplaces.



Unstoppable recently partnered with Polygon on another initiative in Africa last week. To address the lack of female representation in the Web3 industry, both brands committed to onboarding six million African women to Web3 over the next five years.



They launched a diversity and education group called Women of Web3 to expand access to user-owned digital identity through free Unstoppable domains, which are available to claim until April 8.



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Unstoppable Domains and Polygon Launch New User-Owned Digital ID

John Gilbert

Mastering Decentralized Identity: The Pillar of Web3

<div id="highlights-block_634d1932a233e" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Citizens will be able to access their digital IDs via their smartphones</li>
 <li>The tech-savvy nation ranks highest among developed markets for smartphone use</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



South Korea plans to leverage blockchain technology for the use of digital identity cards as the country pivots towards a post-COVID-19 era of remote work and online verification processes.



The country’s government will allow citizens to verify their identity via digital IDs embedded into their smartphones, replacing Korea’s resident registration cards by 2024, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-16/south-korea-aims-to-boost-economy-with-digital-id-on-blockchain?leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a> Sunday.



It comes as South Korea — one of the most digitally developed countries globally — seeks to bolster economic growth following the pandemic. The country was among the most <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-17/how-south-korea-is-beating-covid-despite-600-000-new-cases-a-day" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">significantly impacted</a> among developed nations.



According to a recent <a href="https://unctad.org/webflyer/why-robust-digital-identity-systems-are-essential-fostering-trade-and-development" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> by the United Nations Conference on Trade Development, the pandemic accelerated the shift toward digitization. As such, cybersecurity concerns are front and center in an increasingly hostile environment safe storage of sensitive data.



Blockchain-based IDs are one attempt to alleviate some of that strain placed on countries seeking to bolster their defense against cyberattacks which have, at times, wreaked havoc across <a href="https://www.interpol.int/fr/Actualites-et-evenements/Actualites/2022/INTERPOL-Working-Group-highlights-cyber-threats-across-the-Americas" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Europe</a>, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/cyberattacks-reported-us-airports/story?id=91287965" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the US</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-14/optus-says-customers-do-not-need-new-passports-after-data-breach/101538178" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Australia</a>.



The initiative will leverage the benefits of storing user data in a decentralized manner while keeping citizens’ phone data, including how and where they use their digital IDs, private from the government, per the report.



South Koreans rank as some of the most technologically-savvy individuals across the globe.



Research conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for International Student Assessment in 2011 showed its younger generation topped other nations for use of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/educationkoreatopsnewoecdpisasurveyofdigitalliteracy.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">online learning</a>.



South Korea also ranks at the top for <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/321408/smartphone-user-penetration-in-south-korea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smartphone ownership</a>, with roughly 96% of all Individuals of any age owning at least one smartphone and using it at least once per month. The US stands at roughly 80% on the same metric.



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