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In the first days of existence, our arrival to the world is registered in a Civil Registry Office, which, on behalf of the State, issues a birth certificate. This is our first identity in society.
From then on, the main facts of our civil life (marriage, death, among others) are also registered in a notary’s office, and complemented by other documents, such as ID and Individual Taxpayer Registry, issued with the function of identifying the same person before different legal facts (enrollment in institutions of education, assistance at health care units, opening of bank account, for example).
If there is a need or interest in driving vehicles, we will need to obtain a Driver’s License, a document intended to identify and certify we are qualified for driving.
Our “collection” of documents, however, will not be exhausted at this point. If we wish to travel to other countries, then it is necessary to issue an identify that is valid abroad — the Passport[1].
Here, it is also important to highlight the large volume of “investments” annually made by companies in mechanisms for identifying clients and partners, especially financial institutions, given compliance rules [2] and the multiple documents and certificates issued by agencies for identification of the same person.
From this framework, the urgent need to replace this traditional and analogical identification model (ineffective, bureaucratic and systemically deficient) by a unique, digital and universal identity system, more in line with technological advances and speed of transactions implemented by Digital Economy, Internet Economy or Web Economy[3].
In seconds, we can send an email to the other side of the world, but we spend hours waiting for the issuance of a second copy of our Identity Card or renewing our Driver’s License. This does not make any sense! It is necessary to optimize the collection of personal data and accelerate its verification, as well as change the way of storing and making this information available, returning ownership and possession of data related to civil identity to individuals, who are the actual owners of their personal information.
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Nowadays, there is an urgent demand in the world for a unique, digital, sovereign and universal identity that gives people the power to choose whether or not to give their personal data to third parties, such as social media and companies, whose access to personal information should only occur upon permission of citizens who, in turn, could choose to discontinue such access at any time.
Despite the lack of knowledge of many people, such replacement of the traditional system of analogical identity by a system of universal and digital identification is already possible with the use of blockchain technology which, despite being at embryonic stage (similar to that of the early years of Internet), has been successfully used in Estonia whose population, more specifically 97.9%, has a unique and digital identity [4].
With a single registration via blockchain technology, individuals acquire more freedom and direct control over their personal data, being able to decide how much, when, and to whom their personal information will be made available. Thus, the use of data should be released by the identity holders themselves, who could even be remunerated for the availability of their personal data. Yet, maintaining identity control with citizens would make it easier to apply the “right to be forgotten”, in line with the new General Data Protection guidelines adopted by the European Union, which will be best explored in a separate article.
In addition, there is considerable improvement in security with management of identification through blockchain, which given its decentralization, hampers the penetration of hackers in the identity system, thus avoiding any malicious modification of identity information by third parties, or even restricting the population to access identification documents, especially passport, as occurred in countries under a dictatorial regime, or in situation of civil war.
It is important to demystify the mistaken belief that a universal identity system would put privacy at risk. Such an assertion is, in fact, a consequence of the lack of knowledge of the stage at which blockchain technology currently is. The fact is that there is not only an open platform, nor a single blockchain where anyone can query or modify information or change the system as a whole.
There are several types of blockchains, classified as “open” or “closed”, depending on how they approach their security model and threats. Blockchains may also be either public or private[5], permissioned or permissionless, with various governance structures and rules that may be implemented in several existing platforms, which allow the use of this technology for a wide variety of purposes, with applications to a wide range of audiences.
Considering the secrecy and security required to implement and manage a single, digital, sovereign and universal identity, such requirements would only be achieved through Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), which may be closed or open permissioned blockchain [6], in which only authorized users have access to all data and may include or suppress information and change the network.
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The debate is long, and will certainly require regulation at international level, so that blockchain technology enables creation of a unique, digital and universal identification system for the benefit of the whole society, really able to avoid abuses by governments and companies, and allowing citizens to exercise full power over their own personal data.
This article was originally published at .
[1] Guzmán, Liana Douillet. In: Oxford Blockchain Program: What are some key applications of blockchain technology, both in the financial services industry and beyond. University of Oxford, 2018.
[2] For example, among the obligations imposed on financial institutions to prevent the use of financial system for the practice of money laundering, it is important to identify, keep updated, and retain customer data for at least five years, from the first day of the year following the closure of current accounts or operations (Law 9.613 / 98, article 10, § 2 and Circular Letter BACEN 2,852/98, article 3)
[3] “(…)a new business model that uses information and technology as communication facilitators, data transfers, and business transactions. ” Revoredo, Tatiana. In: (impacts and reflexes in current society). Linkedin. September 25, 2017. Last access on 4/5/2018.
[4] E-estonia. In: . Last access on April 03, 2018.
[5] Jayachandran, Praveen. In: . Published by IBM Blockchain Blog on May 31, 2017. Last access on April 03, 2018.
[6] Shrier, David. In: Oxford Blockchain Program: Transforming enterprise business models”. University of Oxford. 2018.
After trading sideways within a fairly tight range for the first part of April 2018, the price of bitcoin suddenly shot up on April 12. It started with a fairly abrupt fall from $6900 to $6750 around 7.45 AM GMT and slowly recovered back to $6900 by noon. Some traders that look for significant price movements will have picked up on the sharp downtrend and bought bitcoin in the hope that it would recover quickly. At $6750 it could have declined further as many bears have been predicting sub $5,000 since it started its bear run at the end of 2017.
As soon as it had recovered to $6900, it surged upwards, and within 25 minutes it had gained 16%, up to $8,000, before settling at $7,700. Even for bitcoin a gain of 16%, in such a short time, is quite rare in 2018. Heavy falls are a little more common as bad vibes from the G20, or an Asian regulator can move the market down rapidly.
What caused the market price to rise so rapidly?
When tension mounted between the USA and North Korea in 2017, the bitcoin price moved up, and the threat of a military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria could be part of the reason for the upswing.
News of wealthy families like moving into cryptocurrencies could also be pushing up the price. Even though some people disagree with the way these families accumulate wealth, they are still regarded as some of the wisest investors around. If they are moving into crypto, they are sure to attract other investors.
Trading bots are responsible for most of the buying and selling on cryptocurrency exchanges, and it could have been an anomaly in one of the algorithms that caused the frenzied buying of bitcoin. Another possible reason for the price hike could have been the publication of a research paper about Shariah law and cryptocurrencies. Senior Muslim clerics generally have damned bitcoin since it boomed in 2017, and in March 2018, two Imams in Turkey were dismissed for reportedly owning bitcoin.
An Indonesian company, Blossom Finance, published a 21 page PDF in April 2018 entitled “.” The conclusion is that in jurisdictions where cryptocurrency is not prohibited, it is acceptable under Shariah. One of Shariah’s primary objectives is “preservation and protection of wealth,” and therefore Muslims should be aware of the associated risks when dealing with cryptocurrencies. With 50 countries being predominantly Muslim and a worldwide population of more than 1.6 billion, the market for bitcoin has grown substantially following the release of the document.
Originally published at .
We won’t understand that unless we try to do that. This is true according to my experience. Therefore, I decided to buy cryptocurrency for the first time. In particular, I bought both bitcoin and Ethereum through the internet. Of course the volume of money I spent is a little because I wanted to get just experience of cryptocurrency on this occasion.
The price of both bitcoin and Ethereum increased a bit, and then they took a dive soon. Though I took a loss for the moment, I don’t mind that at all. The most important thing for me is that not I make a profit but I get experience and learn that a lot. To be honest, I didn’t expect to get a profit at all. I’m embarrassed to tell you this, but I have never made profits in the stock market. Unfortunately, it seems that Goddess of investment hates me. It can’t be helped.
Let me mention my real experience a bit here. I have met the person who was involved in cryptocurrency. He insisted that I should start to invest cryptocurrency as soon as possible because he already gained a high profit. When I heard his talk, I felt cryptocurrency was so dubious and questionable. I think that some people gain a high profit, but almost all people are worried about current trend a lot. In fact, I felt odd about the boom of cryptocurrency.
To be honest, I have yet to understand what cryptocurrency is, and I feel so dubious and questionable about it. On the other hand, I think that something dubious and questionable might be an inovation in the far future. The most important thing is that we receive something new without any question, and try to see through the essence of the matter. I don’t see it yet. I’ not sure if cryptocurrency is real or fake.
Though I already bought cryptocurrency, I have yet to understand it perfectly. Maybe, almost all people are the same, and there are few people who understand the pros and cons about cryptocurrency. I predict there will be incidents or accidents about security and transparency about cruptocurrency in the near future. After that, the trend in this market might change dramatically. Of course, nobody knows the future, but I hope this industry will head for right direction in a right way. If something new becomes common practice, they often bring hard conflict to us. It can’t be helped.
Some influencer recommends others to start to deal with cryptocurrency. To be honest, That’s really dubious and questionable. As a matter of course, something new like cryptocurrency has a lot of risks. We have to understand this kind of risks 100 percent if we try to deal with it. The control authority doesn’t catch up with this new trend at all. Even if we got stuck in a hard situation, they wouldn’t help us at all. We have to take a risk, and understand it definitely.
P.S.
I was totally surprised because the price of cryptocurrency I already bought soared. Though I bought it a bit, I might have been able to gain a high profit if I bought them enough. I can understand that some people get stuck in this kind of investment to the full extent. Usually, people get crazy about highly-risked investment like cryptocurrency. We have to be careful with that.
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