Following the successful implementation of its eID+ electronic identity and e-government platform together with the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen, Swiss startup Procivis is launching VETRI, a blockchain-based project expected to shape the future of digital identity and personal data management. Amid wide-spread recognition and support from digital identity experts, the project is currently finalising the terms of a forthcoming token sale. At the beginning of December, Procivis presented the pilot version of the first implementation of its eID+ electronic identity and e-government platform. The solution, named “Schaffhausen eID+”, has been developed together with the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen and can serve as a blue print for the future application of the Procivis eID+ technology in government settings.
Spurred by the positive reactions eID+ has triggered from state authorities, private companies and nongovernmental organisations in Switzerland and across the globe, Procivis has further developed its vision for a future, blockchain-based digital identity platform. As digital identities and personal data become more and more intertwined and the monetary value of this data is increasingly being recognised, Procivis has taken the idea behind eID+ a step further and created a roadmap for its new project called VETRI. Based on Procivis’ trusted eID+ platform, VETRI will offer a fully self-sovereign digital identity solution, giving people complete ownership and control over their personal data, and combine it with a secure and transparent marketplace to match identity owners with data consumers. This will allow identity owners to directly monetise or otherwise make available selected personal information stored in their VETRI wallet in a safe and anonymised way, if they wish to do so.
For data consumers, the VETRI marketplace will serve as a platform to acquire highly targeted and trustworthy information in a compliant, transparent and anonymised way. The service will be of particular value to brands and advertisers, but also to market, social and healthcare researchers. By matching identity owners and data consumers directly, the costs currently charged by data aggregators such as social networks, search engine providers and data brokers, will be omitted. VETRI is designed as a non-profit initiative, and there will be no fees or commissions charged for transactions. All proceeds will directly flow to the data owner. Furthermore, VETRI will not be able to access, read or collect any information stored in identity owners’ VETRI wallets. This removes the risk of creating so-called data “honeypots”, which can become a target for hackers. Once VETRI is deployed, Procivis intends to establish a foundation, which will own and govern the VETRI platform. The underlying code will be made available under an open-source license.
The objective of VETRI, which is to give people back control over their personal data and to push back the dominance of big corporationsthat collect and use such data for monetary gains, follows the same spirit as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force in May 2018. Furthermore, VETRI will provide users with advanced privacy and security features to manage their personal data, which will be cryptographically protected as well as compliant with GDPR. This, in turn, will give peace of mind to data consumers using VETRI, as they will be sure that their activities on the platform are aligned with GDPR regulations.
To bring the idea for VETRI to life, Procivis will draw on the support of the community by means of an initial token sale. The company is currently in talks with early backers and expects the initial token sale to commence in January 2018. Procivis is thrilled to have already gained support for VETRI from leading industry experts, such as renowned blockchain entrepreneur Malik El Bay, Member of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, and President of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland and Blockchain Source founder Lucas Betschart, who all have recently joined VETRI’s advisory board. They are united in their ambition to create a better, safer, fairer and more transparent way to manage and use personal data in the digital age.
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About Procivis
Procivis is a Swiss venture founded in autumn 2016 by blockchain entrepreneur Daniel Gasteiger. The company offers an “e-government as a service” platform to enable the digitisation of societies and the provision of online public services across the globe. Procivis has implemented the pilot version of its eID+ platform together with the Canton of Schaffhausen in December 2017 and announced the launch of VETRI, its blockchain-based personal data management platform.
