FacePhi Provides Onboarding Tech for Decentralized ID Project in South Korea

FacePhi’s facial recognition technology will be featured in an innovative decentralized identity project in South Korea. The project is being carried out in collaboration with City Labs, which has been asked to turn the island of Jeju into a smart city with a unified identity framework.

Once the smart city is up and running, Jeju residents and visitors will be able to create and store a secure digital identity in a wallet on their mobile device. The IDs will be based on blockchain technology, and could be presented as proof of identity at any businesses or establishment that is part of the smart city. For example, people could use the IDs to board public transit, access government services, or to gain entry to some private establishments.

For its part, FacePhi will be supplying the onboarding technology that people will need to use in order to create a Jeju smart ID. The company’s facial recognition tech can also be used for subsequent identity verification.

The Jeju project has the backing of the government of South Korea, which is hoping that a decentralized ID will give people more control over their personal information. In that regard, ID holders will be able to choose what information gets shared, and when and where they share it. Jeju itself is the largest island in South Korea, and welcomes 15 million visitors on an annual basis. FacePhi, meanwhile, is participating in its first decentralized identity project.

“Being able to be part of this project is a milestone for FacePhi,” said FacePhi President and CEO Javier Mira. “We are convinced that the future of biometrics as a technology to authenticate users is to move towards this decentralization, encouraging each citizen to have their own digital wallet and to decide when and how they want to use them to identify themselves, without depending on a third party to validate your information.”

The news builds on FacePhi’s prior successes in the Asia Pacific market. The company opened new offices in South Korea in 2019, and it has since entered into the country’s regulatory sandbox through a partnership with Daegu Bank. It has also provided facial recognition technology for a hospital and a forensics firm.

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September 7, 2021 – by Eric Weiss