Mastercard and Microsoft have joined forces to create a universal, digital ID technology. Although not much has been officially announced about the plans, it is clear that the two companies want to streamline everything from shopping to basic services such as health care.
Yesterday Mastercard and Microsoft announced the project. Details were hardly given, but the companies made it clear that they were working on a way to prevent individuals from having too much hassle proving their identity. The hole then is about the problems that sometimes occur with the many online accounts that people have.
End of the hassle
The technology is mainly aimed at putting an end to the hassle of logging on to every possible webshop where people want to buy something. In the future, people would no longer have to enter their address and account details every time. The project therefore offers a safe, direct way for people to confirm their digital identity wherever they want, whenever they want.
Ajay Bhalla, chairman of Mastercard’s Cyber and Intelligence Solutions, explains in a statement that the digital identity landscape today is mainly fragmented. The underlying idea behind the system that Mastercard and Microsoft have created is that people will be the focus of attention. Working with Microsoft brings us a step closer to achieving a global digital identity service and we look forward to sharing more details soon.
Optimize services
The technology should optimise financial services by gathering all the data concerning payments, addresses and perhaps also discounts in one place. Digital identity is the cornerstone of how people live, work and play, said Joy Chik, business vice president of Microsoft’s Identity Department. We believe people should be in control of their digital identity and data, and we look forward to working with Mastercard to bring new centralized identity innovations to life.
A Microsoft white paper seems to provide some context for the technology. It seems to be built around blockchain. In a white paper, Microsoft writes that decentralised identifiers, among other things, can play a crucial role in a digital identity. A server could link and check those identity details.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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