CIVIC - in depth analysis, promising token for 2018!

Today I have the honor of introducing the cryptocurrency with a market cap of under 100 million (07/03/18), making it #119 in the crypto world according to market cap.

source: civic.com

In digital age personal information of clients are centralized –banks, hospitals, government, etc. – every company stores thousands or even millions of personal identity information („PII“). These places are tempting for hackers. They need to hack just one system to get so many information. And as you probably know, that’s happening quite often. You can search on deep web or dark web to get know how much costs PII – Social Security Number, drivers license number, credit card number,...

These PII are the most valuable and they're stored in banks, insurance companies,... Other interesting information which is worth something: mobile number, personal e-mail address, IP address, online gaming account credentials,…so it’s not surprising that hackers keep trying to steal them. One from last month: „A document submitted by Equifax to the Senate Banking Committee shows attackers may have also stolen tax ID numbers, additional driver’s license and credit card details, email addresses, and phone numbers.“

Major problems of current identity verification („IDV“):

1. The IDV process is highly redundant as every bank, hospital, government, employer,… have to collect client’s PII.
2. Extreme inconvenience for client’s – it’s annoying every time you apply for a new job, new bank account, sign up for a doctor, you must fill in your PII
3. Security – data vulnerability to thefts as they’re centralized. You must rely on companies that they're able to protect your PII.

source: civic.com

As blockchain’s terminology is quite difficult to understand I’ll make it easy as possible. Let’s have a look at the main points of CVC according to Whitepaper:

Let’s have a user („User“) of the CVC platform („Ecosystem“) who applies for a product from Service Provider A („A“). A verifies the User’s PII using its existing verification methods. User’s PII is stored on his device (it’s crucial because this way all PIIs are decentralized so hackers can’t steal data from all clients at once). Calculated hashes of User’s PII are stored on the blockchain. Later, User applies for a product or service from Service Provider B („B“). Without CVC Ecosystem B would require the User to fill in all PIIs as A did before. But using CVC Ecosystem B can request access to PII of the User. If the User and B agree on a mutually acceptable validator that has previously attested to the data (it can be A, who offers a price (in CVC) for its attestation). Now A enable B to locate and view the blockchain transaction details relating to A’s attestation on the blockchain. B would then be able to recreate the hashes for that PII and compare them to the transaction on the blockchain. If is B satisfied, B can purchase attestation and thus avoid expensive identity verification. The User avoided annoying filling in forms. It’s win-win because A get paid, B saved some money and the User saved time.

Source: Civic’s whitepaper

Smart contracts will enable validators (Service provider A in our case) to offer their attestations for sale to others (e.g. service providers), of course, subject to obtaining the User’s approval). It’s going to improve identity verification efficiency, as validators have their attestation methods.

Possible threats: CVC has one common disadvantage with all cryptocurrencies – price volatility. As the price of CVC is highly volatile then providers using CVC will want some premium for evident risk – CVC can quickly lose its value. Another one is competitors – Self Key, Uport, Blockstack,…Summary

Investing in cryptocurrencies reflects investors’ opinion that in the future, cryptocurrency will be a functional means of payment. In this case, it depends whether companies will adopt CVC Ecosystem.

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Disclaimer: Never invest more than what you can afford to lose. This post is my personal opinion, do your own research before making any investment decisions. If you make any trades after reading this post, it is completely in your responsibility. I am not responsible for any of your losses. By reading this post you acknowledge and accept that.