63 Self-Sovereign Identity Use Cases for the Fintech Industry
This list of self-sovereign identity use cases has been compiled from our experiences across various industries and specifically working with fintech companies. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list nor one in sequence of interest. As we expect to find more self-sovereign identity use cases over time, please let us know of any omissions (info@northernblock.io) and we will add it to this list.
1. Password/user name-less access
Usernames and passwords are far from secure but until now they have been some of the best security steps. With Self-Sovereign Identity, customers and employees will be able to authenticate into their SSI wallet using biometrics on their mobile devices, and this will store their encrypted authentication and access credentials for each application. So, when a user wants to access an application through the SSI wallet, they don’t have to remember their username and password, so long as they have successfully signed into their wallet. SSI can be used to replace MFA, KBA and other security bolt-ons.
2. Authentication for employees or contractors
Upon on-boarding of employees or contractors to an application, a verifiable credential of employment or contractor status will be issued to the person. From this point on, that person will have that status, as accessed through the SSI wallet. The credentials could of course expire, as would most likely be the case for contractors.
3. Off-boarding & GDPR
Making sure that a customer can leave efficiently may not seem like a good outcome, but in a world of trust it is important. Enabling your privacy compliance for off-boarding can be made much easier with SSI.
4. Provenance of a home/asset
As an asset, such as a home, is updated, records of this history can be tied to the asset. This includes assets such as: homes, condos, apartments, factories, offices, machinery, IoT devices, software & hardware, creative assets (written work, presentations, music, art, etc.), Storage of this history would not be directly stored in any central data repository, but instead within SSI Wallets, where Verifiable Credentials can be tied together to form provenance proofs.
5. Up-selling a product
With your customers consenting to share their credentials with you, knowing what products and services a customer has purchased, outside of your relationship with them, can be leveraged to up-sell them your products and services more easily at a later date.
6. Minimizing wait and servicing times in customer support
An SSI implementation ensures that both parties are who they should be (bi-directional authentication), facilitates the start of any service call and increases trust between the parties. Furthermore, 40% of calls to service centers result in consumers needing to reset login information (which of course can be completely removed with SSI.).
7. Know Your Customer/Client (KYC)
Adherence to KYC compliance requirements are made easy with SSI through the implementation of selected Verifiable Credentials before a client is fully-on-boarded. These could be as simple as a self-uploaded Driver’s license matched to a selfie plus a liveness test to more complex KYC requirements.
8. Accredited Investor Status
Accredited investor status (or any other sophistication status) are often difficult to track and ensure compliance to local regulations. With SSI the underlying Verifiable Credentials are stored with the investor, facilitating compliance at all times. For example, if an investor needs a certain level of knowledge, the compliance test can be stored as a Verifiable Credential along with knowledge of their investment profile and assets under management.
9. Trusted data transfer
Ensure that the sender and receiving end are who they should be. No more money or data sent to the wrong destination (nor the time wasted verifying both nodes’ addresses).
10. Recruiting simplification
By reviewing candidates’ (employees, contractors, interns) Verifiable Credentials, reduce the time validating the capabilities of candidates. Furthermore, look at more modern hiring practices such as the use of predictive analytics which depend on accurate information, that SSI can help provide efficiently.
11. Procuring contracting services
By reviewing contractor/supplier Verifiable Credentials, speed up and improve your procurement of services. Also, make the process more complete by including verifiable user feedback (not just vendor created self-comments).
12. Travel & Cross-border trust (people)
Save travel enabling Verifiable Credentials on a digital wallet (Passport, Visas, Inoculation history, Bills of Lading, etc.).
13. Employee Personal History
Employees attendance, medical leave and vacation schedules can be tracked against their employment terms.
14. Ticketing – Ensuring that only real people buy tickets for events (i.e. On-line Seminars)
Running a special event for your organization? It could be internal training or external education, with Self-Sovereign Identity you can ensure that only those invited are really in attendance (on-line) – could include a liveness test in real time for additional identification assurance.
15. Authorization of employees for access to assets
Grant access to assets (facilities, software, information) based on their Verifiable Credentials. This can either augment or replace your traditional IAM systems.
16. Loyalty programs
Keep track of loyalty programs across multiple organizations or people with Verifiable Credentials. This includes the ability to have these expire on certain conditions.
17. Maintenance records for an asset (Home/car/etc)
Each time an asset is maintained, issue a Verifiable Credential linked back to the asset.
18. Verifying age (i.e. to purchase financial services)
Confirm someone’s age against a government issued ID (Birth Certificate, Driver’s license, Passport) without exposing any other personal information.
19. Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Track if this person or organization has a valid history, leveraging their Verifiable Credentials. If you are interested in this self-sovereign identity use case, contact us as there is a lot more detail behind this one that we’re actively pursuing.
20. Skills inventory
What skills does this employee, customer or prospective hire have? Keep track with Verifiable Credentials issued for each skill (not at the job level).
21. Opinion surveys of employees
What to track that only employees take a survey? Use employment Verifiable Credentials to confirm it is really them (and verify with real-time biometrics for added confirmation). The added bonus, it can easily be done anonymously.
22. Private voting (club, company, organization)
Need to conduct a shareholder’s meeting? Use Self-Sovereign Identity to have the meeting held on-line and ensure that only members attend and vote. This technology could also support Proxy voting far better than today’s mail-in or in-person process.
23. Up-selling a service
Up-selling is a hard practice if you aren’t really sure what the customer already has. With Verifiable Credentials, you can be sure of their purchases including ancillary products like warranties and insurance. Furthermore, with Verifiable Credentials, organizations can ask for information/proofs about other products not sold by them but influential in the purchasing process.
24. Personal preferences for data/interests
Personal preferences are often entered for a site,… and then the next site… and again. With Verifiable Credentials you can keep your preferences once and shared many times.
25. Affiliation/membership certificates
Keep track of your employees and customer’s affiliations, memberships or associations with groups.
26. Provenance of a product
Keep track of changes to a product; This data is best stored inside SSI Mobile Wallets as Verifiable Credentials, and not on a public ledger, so the implementation of this with SSI is non-trivial. Contact us as we have good solutions for this: info@northernblock.io
27. Warranty storage and retrieval
Has someone bought a warranty on a product or service? With a Warranty Verifiable Credential keep track of it before it automatically expires (or renews).
28. Insurance certificate
Keep track of your insurance coverage with an Insurance Verifiable Credential. These would also include expiry dates and limitations.
29. Asset confirmation (to know that a node on the network is/does what you think it should)
IoT enabled devices can retain their own Verifiable Credentials which can be used to verify remotely their capabilities and authenticity. An example could be a company’s printer which could also have:
- A insurance certificate
- A software version certificate and
- A maintenance contract Verifiable Credential.
With these credentials remote users can send jobs to the printer knowing that the device is capable of executing the job, it has the latest software and it’s maintenance is up to date. Why is this in the list of self-sovereign identity use cases for the fintech industry? Because this use case can be applied to any IoT device and its affiliate contracts.
30. Temporary Authorization of contractors
Provide contractors with temporary authorizations. These authorizations could be to physical or digital assets, with the authorization set to expire at a point in time (i.e. today, Friday, 28th of February).
31. Version control
Keep track of the version of a digital (or physical asset) remotely.
32. Real-time access control (based on who is in the room, who else gets access)
Provide access management dynamically. If there is a VIP in the room, restrict access both by level and number of people.
33. Written content licensing
Keep track of the licensing of written content by attaching a Verifiable Credential to the content.
34. Control for posting on a user forum
User forums are notorious for poor management of users. Decrease that problem by providing Verifiable Credentials to posters tied to their behaviour. For example once a poster has a thousand posts on a platform without a complaint, they can post on another platform with no restrictions.
35. Address proof for shipment
Get a shipment delivered anywhere by providing proof of purchasing/delivery for that shipment.
36. Proof of credentials of a financial advisor, etc
For a professional, they should have their Verifiable Credentials available at any time and verified for each transaction, to satisfy all compliance regulations.
37. Education credentials for job applications
From a person’s perspective, keep their education credentials as Verifiable Credentials.
38. Land Registry as proof of property ownership
Looking to leverage property for another investment? Use your Verifiable Credential of that property to facilitate that and future transactions.
39. Customer service surveys of valid customers
Push a survey to your customers for a specific product or service without issues a long string of letters or numbers for them to enter.
40. Verified email
Want to know if that email is legitimate or not? Make sure it’s coming from a verifiable connection of yours. SSI can eliminate forms of spam.
41. Verified/attested signature
Keep track of a signature with a Verifiable Credential.
42. Verified Business – Address, Director, Website, etc
Associated with a business are various credentials including but not limited to:
- Corporate address
- Mailing address
- Directors
- Tax information
- Website(s)
- Insurance
- Employees
43. Proof of purchase of goods or services
Need to show proof of purchase? Simply show the Verifiable Credential and you can verify it against the product’s barcode or serial number.
44. Verified Immigration status for immigrants for job or education application
Special status Verifiable Credentials can include immigration status. Could also apply to other special status’ such as:
- Disabled/Special Needs
- Native/Aborigial
- Veteran
- Old age (although this can be calculated against other credentials)
45. Verified credentials of a charitable organization for fund-raising / donations
Raising money for a charity? Provide a Verifiable Credential from that organization to prove your identity to fund-raise.
46. Multi-party processes like co-ownership/co-signing purchases
You have signing authority for/with someone else? Provide a Verifiable Credential to that facility.
47. Secure communications (Chat, Zoom, etc.)
What to make sure that your communications are secure? Use Verifiable Credential proof workflows as a front-end to any process.
48. Compliance management & reporting
Want to make sure that only accredited people can perform certain tasks? Use Verifiable Credentials to limit access.
49. Article/presentation/IP royalty tracking & payments
Provide access to digital IP through a credential.
50. Enforcement of digital rights (i.e. limiting a person to 5 free articles – no matter how many email addresses used)
A more complex variety of digital rights can be limiting a person to a certain number of access to a digital platform. This is especially useful if the credential is transferable across several platforms.
51. Validating marketing or product campaigns with vetted testers
Running a marketing test usually involves a set of paid & volunteer testers. Keep track of them with Verifiable Credentials including their activity and loyalty.
52. Customs/Cross Border processes and duties
Keep track of shipments’ credentials and their usage.
53. Proof of address for access to goods and services restricted by area
In cases where you can only buy a product with proof of residency, Self-Sovereign Identity can help you.
54. Self-on-boarding
Provide the ability for prospects & customers to provide a set of self-attested credentials that meet the minimum set of credentials. For example, on-board with a driver’s license, selfie and a passport (matching the images).
55. Mortgage applications
Applying for a mortgage is a relatively complex task:
- Show proof of ownership
- Show proof of income/employment
- Show insurance coverage
- Show valuation
With Verifiable Credentials, these are straightforward.
56. Loan applications
(secured and unsecured)
Like a mortgage application.
57. Income proof for financial services
From a payroll system, provide proof of income over a short or long period of time.
58. Employment proof for financial services
From the EMS, provide proof of employment.
59. Verified bank balance for Auditors
Keep the Auditor’s verification of a bank balance with a Verifiable Credential.
60. Verified Receivables for Auditors
Keep the Auditor’s verification of receivables with a Verifiable Credential.
61. Identifying family members / next of kin as beneficiaries, co-signers
Save these terms as Verifiable Credentials for those with family powers. When needed, the family members can invoke these Verifiable Credentials to act on behalf of someone else and ensure full compliance.
62. Certificate of Power Of Attorney
Save the Power of Attorney as a Verifiable Credential.
63. Single Sign-on
Although with SSI password-less (and account name-less) achieve single sign-on through your device.
Related Links:
Ultimate Guide – Verifiable Credentials for Fintech Businesses
SSI for Organizations – Everything You Need to Know
How To Build Self-Sovereign Solutions For Mid-Tier Fintechs
