Category: NEWS

Netis, led by Tomislav Mučić and Andrej Plankar, deals with finding answers on how blockchain technology helps companies digitize and simplify processes.

Recently, we were guests at the Blockchain Alliance Europe event, which focused on blockchain technology application for business purposes. The event was our opportunity to address more than 200 registered participants from more than ten countries and present our views on the rising challenges in the digital landscape today. What is more important, we introduced the solutions we have developed to tackle them. 

The fact that a greater digitalization of services is needed is not something new. However, the pandemic has made us even more aware of it.  For this reason, our lecture focused on a crucial element that is needed to enable a further expansion and growth of safe and secure online services. 

Jan, who is a blockchain developer and IT project manager in the field of blockchain, distributed storage and distributed computing at our company, introduced Self-Sovereign Identity. This new and easy solution dramatically improves the way we communicate and transact online. 

Here are the key takeaways, and what is best, you can now watch the entire lecture too.

The eSSIF-Lab Business-Oriented Programme is an 8-month programme to accelerate SSI-related businesses and social solutions, structured in 3 competitive stages. It includes business and technical support to integrate SSI technology with market propositions and projects, and will be funded up to €106K, depending on the stage each project reaches.

Aceblock was among 21 companies that have qualified to enter the first phase of the competition, in which our task was to define the proposed SSI-as-a-Service solution, its value proposition and targeted time to market. All that, to clarify the status of our product development and the objectives we aim to pursue during the eSSIF-Lab Call.

Now, we are happy to inform you that the jury recognized the market potential of our solution, which enabled us to enter the second phase of the competition, where only 15 projects will continue their battle. This part will focus more on the productization and platform’s technical deliverables, meaning the competing teams will be challenged to further develop their projects through preparation of mock-ups and a prototype that will ultimately lead to a MVP, business plan and customer onboarding.

The call was launched as a part of an ongoing consultation process to understand better the potential of digital identity, improve citizen experience and access to services, safeguard privacy and combat fraud in the digital space.

The Call for Evidence received 148 responses, coming from technology, professional services, finance sectors and individuals, including ours. The decision to respond to the call is in line with the fulfiling our company’s mission, explains our CEO Tomislav Mučič: »Secure digital identity infrastructure is an essential yet missing component of all online transactions today. From this point of view, we consider it very important that we can contribute with our expertise and technical know-how and engage in a meaningful conversation with governments and regulators to making the new infrastructure secure, efficient and operational.«

The eSSIF-Lab is an EU-supported project which aims at advancing the broad uptake of Self-Sovereign Identities (SSI) as next-generation, open and trusted digital identity solution for faster and safer electronic transactions via the Internet and in real life. It was funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and is framed under Next-Generation Internet Initiative.

eSSIF-Lab is building SSI jointly with SSI ecosystem by using a cascade funding approach, meaning the framework will be built upon extensions that will be selected through the following open-calls:

• one (1) infrastructure-oriented open call targeting (20) open-source technical enhancements and extensions of their SSI framework and
• two (2) business-oriented open-calls targeting (42) commercial competitive SSI components and services.

Currently, only the participants for the first business-oriented call have been selected and announced, meaning elsewhere applications are still open or in the process of evaluation.

Below you can see proposal distributions by countries: the call has received 54 proposals from 21 countries; however 161 in total started from 24 different countries. 

When users introduce themselves to businesses online, they most often do so with a combination of a username and password that becomes their identifier. It works in the same way as if you had written your information to a directory. Each organization establishes its own directory that represents their customer base and over which they have overall control.

This is also the reason why users need to register for each new service; with each of the next steps requiring them to disclose more to the business. In doing so, the latter gradually gain insight into their lifestyle and purchasing habits, whereas the rapid technological development and globalization allow them to thoroughly analyse them through their age, gender, location, interests etc.  This kind of segmentation is also a prerequisite for businesses to be able to reach their customers with more personalized messages and offers.

Do passwords and usernames guarantee us security?

Entering the same personal information at each new registration soon becomes tiring for users. An even bigger problem is the security of such information, as the combination of username and password should not be duplicated or stored on computers with Internet access, which in practice means that users have dozens of combinations at the same time, which they tend to quickly forget.

Some digital services therefore offer users the option of logging in with the same identifier, or in other words a combination of a username and password that they otherwise use to access the most popular platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or Google. This seems like an ideal and easy solution, but it’s important to note that this provider an access to the personal information that these platforms have.

In many countries, some services, especially those of a more sensitive nature (e-taxes, e-education, online banking, etc.), are also accessible with the help of personal digital certificates, certificates or through a dedicated application. From a security point of view, such solutions are actually safer, but far more expensive for providers. The user experience also suffers, as installing them is usually more complicated and limited to just some personal devices, and it also increases the number of steps required for a particular task through validation and codes via sms or email.

Who am I when I am online?