Building a Bright Nation

 

Consumers have never been more aware of the value of their data

By David Macfarlane 

Digital identity is now well and truly established as one of the planet’s most significant technology trends. A revolution in the way that individuals interact with public institutions is underway as a result of this, and the private sector is fast getting in on the act too. In an exclusive interview with Dr. Fred Jumelle, executive chairman at Bright Nation Limited, he explains how as data ownership moves from corporations and their shareholders to consumers, the firm’s Ydentity platform offers a scientifically proven solution to the user’s identity based on cognitive neuroscience findings.  

On the inspiration for Ydentity… 

Dr. Jumelle: When the concept of digital identity came to market last year, it was really just a repackaging of the usual documents such as government identifications (ID), proof of address, credentials, education etc.; mostly just know your customer (KYC) packages. But this is not what I believe to be an identity, as it does not define you and who you are. The Ydentity project is really defining you as a person.   My background and academic achievements in the fields of medical statistics, cognitive and behaviour sciences, or sociology, led me to develop Ydentity. From a medical perspective, this was based on the community of behavioural science and its approach to the brain through questionnaires and analysing patients. The sociological aspect was centred on my knowledge of exploring the concept of identity in mainstream society. 

On defining identity…   

The definition of identity is quite vague in regard to the laws of the land. As such, I came to the conclusion that improving the concept of identity would be a great contribution to society. To do so, I decided that utilising neuroscience would be the best approach to take, as it could identify the real you, and the real uniqueness of your brain.    Ydentity is a system that can capture the functions of the brain through a very simple tool that almost everyone nowadays possesses: the smartphone. This tool has sufficient functionalities to capture emotions, from an individual’s face; and from the voice as a signature of how people respond to a series of questions that we ask – so cognitive and emotional responses – which is where neuroscience comes into the process.    

On the target market…   

The target market is everybody who wants to have a second layer on his or her identity package. Those that desire a more advanced digital footprint that corresponds to their real selves rather than the usual package of government ID and related documents which essentially defines their lives but not really them as individuals. Ydentity defines you, not you in your life.     The Ydentity product will be available by the end of this year (2018), or by Q1 of 2019 at the very latest. The way to access it is first to contribute to our initial coin offering (ICO), which is segmented in three parts. The first pre-sale is actually going on now; the second pre-sale will take place in September after we have reached our minimum-viability product (MVP) – we already have the demo app up and running which means people can try the test. At the end of the year we will have the final sale which will also plan to coincide with the release of the token and it being tradable on a third-party exchange.    Clients will include single individuals that want to purchase a Ydentity for themselves, entities that would like to buy a larger number of tokens to then sell on later to private individuals, and corporations that intend to use Ydentity for their customers, for their users in the future.    

On forming a community…   

Creating a Ycommunity is a realistic goal. All the Ydentity holders will be part of the Ycommunity. As a blockchain project, it will be a decentralised organisation. This means there will be no central power; there will be no organising power such as a state issuing government IDs, where individuals are dependent on its centralised power. In the case of the Ycommunity, everybody is a part of its power. And to manage this power, the members will be in charge of controlling the transactions, as well as the oversight and reporting functions on the platform.    I envisage the members transacting inside the community for services such as investing, banking, mutual insurance, dating, gaming and social networking. In order to do so, we are exploring the possibility of a blockchain messaging system between the members.    

On preventing cyber crime…   

We will have two levels of safety. The first one is the blockchain, which will be the distribution of identity on a ledger – everyone in the community will know who is in this ledger. We are also taking care that personal data is not distributed in the ledger, so the ledger will only actually be using the hash stamp of each identity, which will make it anonymous.    We will also introduce a payment coin that is not tradable outside of the community to prevent any criminal activity or fraudulent behaviour. This coin can only be exchanged to another cryptocurrency with a multi-signature wallet – which means a wallet that requires one of our watchdogs or one of the oversight committee to agree on letting the members exchange the payment coin (AssurCoin) for Bitcoin or Ethereum outside the community.

On building a digital nation…   

The ultimate goal is to develop what I call a “Bright Nation”, which is why the company is so named. The goal is for the Ycommunity to become an independent nation using Ydentity, AssurCoin, and also a number of vendors that will actually provide services to allow the community to function as a purely digital nation. We anticipate having 100-200 million Ycommunity members in the not-too-distant future.   

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