Fujitsu develops blockchain-based digital identity play
The process of distributing credentials with the new technology
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd has announced the development of a digital identity exchange technology that uses blockchain to prove reputation and improve trust in validating a user.
According to Fujitsu, its digital identity exchange tech makes it possible for individual users and service businesses involved in online transactions to confirm the identity of the other parties.
The technology was developed based on Decentralized Identification (DID) -- a system in which a third party guarantees the accuracy of a given individual's identity and personal credentials -- utilising blockchain that Fujitsu said analyses the risk of falsification, as well as allows for trustworthiness of the other party's personal credentials when a user conducts a transaction online.
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The company said its tech achieves this through a mutual evaluation of the users when a transaction occurs, and by inferring the relationships between users based on past transaction data.
"Fujitsu's new digital identity exchange technology promises a future in which people can enjoy online services more safely, offering user-friendly features including graphics to visualise the relationships between users, as well as a unique 'trust score' that make it easier to determine each user's trustworthiness before starting a transaction," Fujitsu said in announcing its new product.
Evaluations, such as reputation and rating, for each user in a transaction are recorded as a series of transaction data that Fujitsu said, when stored on blockchain, can improve the reliability of insights into the trustworthiness about each user.
Fujitsu's system converts the transaction data about individuals shared on the blockchain into a graph structure. A trustworthiness score is attached to each user by weighing factors including how many trusted users evaluate them highly.
"Even if a user colludes with a third party to improperly raise their evaluation, the graph-structured relationships will reveal information such as the weakness of their relationships with other users, giving the system the potential to identify misrepresentations," the company said.
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"Users can have their credentials verified with only a partial disclosure of relevant data, allowing for safe and highly-reliable transactions without forcing users to offer unnecessary personal details."
Fujitsu said it will continue to develop a digital identity exchange technology as a "trust-based service platform" supporting digital business, conducting trials in a variety of fields, beginning with the finance industry.
The company also said it aims to implement this technology during fiscal 2019 as a new functionality in its Fujitsu Intelligent Data Service Virtuora DX Data Distribution and Utilization Service, which is a cloud-based solution for data utilisation powered by blockchain technology.
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