Note: This article was updated on November 18th with a more detailed roadmap

ICONLOOP’s MyID Alliance has officially launched with 39 partners in the sectors of finance, securities, e-commerce and manufacturing.

Their vision? Implement a trusted decentralized ID (DID) ecosystem through ICONLOOP’s proprietary solution, MyID. Their mission is threefold:

  • User-Centric: Develop use cases and solve user inconvenience
  • Business Focused: Expand the business based on trust authentified by financial sector
  • Glocalization: Glocalize MyID-based business model, connect and expand the IDs of countries around the world 

Jay Kim, Business Director of the my-ID project and CFO of ICONLOOP said, “We are happy to launch MyID as a first step to establish a blockchain-based digital ID ecosystem. Our partnership includes financial institutions, non-financial companies and even a global partner such as YOTI. With our mission of glocalization, we are planning to expand our business overseas as well.”    

Why MyID Alliance?

MyID Alliance is ready to expand the DID ecosystem. 

1. Expansion of DID ecosystem based on the trust built by the financial sector

MyID is authenticated based on proven technology from trusted financial institutions such as banks, securities and insurance firms. This means that these IDs can be accepted in various sectors such as public, e-commerce, Internet, manufacturing, education, NGO and even overseas. 

2. MyID’s inclusion in the FSC’s “Innovative Financial Services and Regulations Sandbox” 

MyID has been recognized as Korea’s only ID verification platform that can be applied throughout the financial sector. 

3. Verified DID technology

MyID is one of Korea’s first DID services registered on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Method Registry, which enables rapid project implementation based on high stability and convenience of blockchain technology. 

MyID Alliance Partners

Currently, MyID Alliance is comprised of 39 members in various fields. 

Ecosystem partners, all from the financial sector, are those who will be involved with verifying and issuing identities. “These companies will not only issue identity but also apply the issued MyID directly to our services,” said an ICONLOOP spokesperson. When MyID is released sometime in the first half of 2020, it will be introduced to ecosystem partners first.

Growth partners represent future use cases for MyID. In other words, these are the companies that will leverage MyID once the ID is verified and issued by the above ecosystem partners. Lastly, general partners are those who don’t have concrete plans as of yet, but have an interest in adopting MyID and collaborating. 

Ecosystem Partners

Growth Partners

General Partners

Global Partner

Legal Partner

MyID Alliance Advisors

Hun Jae Lee

  • Chairman, MyID Alliance’s advisory committee
  • Chairman, Future Consensus Institute Yeosijae
  • Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy

Je Yoon Shin

  • President, Financial Education Council
  • Senior Advisor, Bae, Kim & Lee LCC 
  • Former Chairman (Cabinet Member), Financial Services Commission

Gun Hee Lee

  • Professor, Sogang University’s Business Admin and MBA School 
  • Former Technical Advisor, Financial Services Commission
  • Former Supervisory Advisor, Financial Supervisory Committee

Jong Goo Lee

  • Senior US Attorney, Kim & Chang
  • President of Self-Regulation Council, Korean Blockchain Association
  • Former Commissioner, Financial Services Commission

Jung Wook Lim

  • Managing Director, Startup Alliance Korea
  • Former CEO, Lycos
  • Former Reporter, Chosun Ilbo IT department

Event Speakers

On November 5th, partners and advisors of the alliance gathered at ICON’s office in Seoul to commemorate the big event, dubbed the ‘MyID Alliance Partners Day’. Speakers included recently appointed advisory committee chairman, Hun Jae Lee, ICONLOOP’s Josh Choi and Jonghyup Kim, as well as partners Shinhan Bank, POSCO, YOTI and Yanolja.

Hun Jae Lee, chairman of MyID Alliance’s advisory committee, opened the conference by explaining blockchain technology’s potential to open up the future. “To lead the global blockchain market, we need to respond to this quick change to a new paradigm,” he said. “In an era where we have to think about how to open up and participate in the future, I think Korea is ranked third to fourth in the blockchain sector. If we dig in more actively, will play a leading role in developing a new economy.”

Lee explained that people, especially in Korea, equate blockchain to crypto and speculation. “I want to change this perception with MyID, that’s why I joined MyID Alliance as an advisor,” he said.

Josh Choi, ICONLOOP’s Chief Communications Officer, stated that the most important aspect in the digital economy is trust between players. He explained that MyID is different from other DID services because it is the only DID service based on the financial sector. In other words, financial institutions can issue certified information for the MyID service, resulting in a much higher level of verification than any other businesses. Choi added that ICONLOOP had its own solid blockchain technology that could power the MyID service.

“We are also looking for ways to utilize MyID in the public sector,” said Choi. “Normally, public institutions don’t want to own personal information. We can solve this problem by using MyID’s authentication process.”

Hyunki Jang, Shinhan Bank‘s Head of Digital R&D Center, spoke about two areas where blockchain can be used in the financial sector. The first is for digital asset management, and the second is through DID services. “MyID service can reduce the three steps of real-name verification, which our financial sector currently has, to just one step,” he said. Shinhan Bank hopes to increase customer convenience through the implementation of DID services in digital asset management, global remittance and payments.

Daeho Shin, Director of POSCO Venture Group, plans to build a smart city in Korea’s tech-friendly city Pohang, so that startups, corporations and organizations can cooperate and work together. “We are planning to issue a blockchain-based local currency that can be used in this smart city,” said Shin. “Especially with MyID service, we will be able to solve ID verification issues by authenticating degrees and personal information a lot quicker.”

Thom White, Future Technologies Team Lead at YOTI, a global identity platform, explained the company’s goal to securely prove your digital identity. YOTI, which stands for “Your Own Trusted Identity”, offers identity verification, age verification, biometric e-signing and authentication services. Through the alliance, YOTI will ensure ID registration and issuance via their mobile app, and MyID will be used to verify the personal information. “DIDs will replace ID cards in future distribution markets,” said White.

Jongyoon Kim, CEO of Yanolja, a hotel booking app, said, “In many occasions, our customers use different login information when they use our service. With MyID, we can avoid this.” Instead of waiting in long queues at check-in, MyID could verify client identities much more quickly and thus improve customer experiences.

ICONLOOP CEO Jonghyup Kim took the stage last to emphasize a new paradigm shift. “As the ID management paradigm shifts from centralized to self-sovereign, ownership is shifting from service provider to user,” he said. “We are ready to open a new paradigm, one where people can own and administer their data based on consensus, in a decentralized environment.”

“All of our ID cards will be digitalized,” he said. “And MyID is going to make this a reality.”

Roadmap

  • First half of 2020: Personal info certification in financial sector  (Focus on “Untact”, ie. non-face-to-face, processes in the financial sector) 
  • Second half of 2020: MyID available on mobile (expand MyID partners to non financial sector)
  • First half of 2021: Mobile ID Platform (People can utilize and manage their personal data via mobile)

“My ID will be available as a mobile ID card in the second half of 2020 and will evolve into a digital ID platform and a user-centered service by 2021,” said Jonghyup Kim.

Q&A 

During a brief Q&A session following the main presentation, ICONLOOP’s Jay Kim and Josh Choi answered a few questions. Here are their responses. 

Q: How can MyID be used internationally? Doesn’t it have to follow local regulations?  

A: There are several regulations that differ depending on each country. But the thing is, Korea has very high standards when it comes to DID services, compared to other countries who are quite open to this. So we assume that once MyID passes these boundaries, it will not be difficult to be accepted internationally.  

Q: If MyID is used in other platforms, customers will need to download the MyID app and that would be one more hurdle for them. How can MyID overcome this? 

A: We are considering some solutions such as app to app, so customers don’t need to download a new app while they are using our partner’s services.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about the partnership with Samsung?

A: Samsung joined as a security ecosystem partner. At present, ICONLOOP is discussing ways to secure MyID’s on smartphones with security solutions such as blockchain keystores and KNOX. As a result, MyID is also likely to be embedded in Galaxy smartphones without a separate application. (Source: ET News) 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR