DECENTRALIZED IDENTITY VERIFICATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS

摘要

The present invention involves systems and methods that allow participants in cryptocurrency networks to exchange cryptocurrency for traditional currency legally and safely without requiring the use of a traditional exchange or online brokerage as a fiduciary. The invention accomplishes this through the use of a decentralized identity verification protocol that allows a service provider to verify the identity of a participant and then publish an identity signature on the participant's cryptocurrency address or addresses. The invention enables full compliance with Country specific customer identification program and anti-money laundering requirements, and maintains the ability to independently satisfy requests for information or data retention requirements if requested by legally authorized parties, but does not require that the participant store the private keys or access controls to their cryptocurrency on an exchange or brokerage service.;The invention serves to verify a participant's identity in full compliance with US Bank Secrecy and Patriot Act provisions or similar regulations where identification may be achieved through non-documentary or documentary identity verification procedures. After passing the applicable verification procedure, the service provider stamps the participant's cryptocurrency address with a transaction containing an identity signature. This identity signature within the transaction consists of a public indicator of the participant's Country and subdivision, a compliance level code, an ID type indicator, and an identity hash. The identity hash is created from the digests of cryptographic hash functions where the participant's personal information is used as an input. The service provider signs the transaction with their authorized private key that corresponds to their publicly accessible public key. This serves as a publicly verifiable confirmation that the identity associated with the address in question was validated by the service provider authorized to act on behalf of the regulatory authority.;The participant may then purchase and sell cryptographic currency from and to a third party exchange or brokerage service legally and safely when using their verified cryptocurrency address. This is because the third party is able to confirm compliance by openly referencing and verifying the identity verification transaction present on the address. Subsequent transactions where the third party sells or purchases cryptocurrency for the verified participant are similarly stamped with a transaction conforming to the identity verification protocol. This allows the third party interacting with the verified participant's address to observe any regulations limiting the amount or frequency of transactions over a variable period of time. It follows that this address could be used with any third party or participant in the cryptocurrency network that observes the decentralized identity verification protocol, all without requiring the third party or participant to collect and verify personal information redundantly. The ability to verify an identity remotely also eliminates the need for the third party to act as a fiduciary holding the private keys or access controls to the verified address. Lawful requests for information by authorized authorities are served to the service provider as digitally signed transactions that may then be linked to the participant's identity and transactions, allowing the protocol to observe subpoenas or similar lawful requests for information. The encrypted personal information may be held in escrow by the service provider indexed to the verified cryptocurrency address for such purposes. An alternate embodiment would store the encrypted personal information in a decentralized network of other participants, with the information accessible for retrieval using the public key of the verified cryptocurrency address and decryption using the corresponding private key, decentralizing the process entirely except for the identity verification step.

主权项

1. A method for uniquely identifying an individual comprising:
providing personal information for an individual; using an element or plurality of elements of provided personal information as an input to a cryptographic hash function or a plurality of cryptographic hash functions; identifying standard identification numbers at a subdivision, national, and international level; using the digest of the cryptographic hash function or plurality of cryptographic hash functions to create an identity hash, where this hash uniquely identifies an individual within a subdivision, nation, or globally if a standard identification number is used as an input, while leaving the identity hash cryptographically impractical to reverse and the individual's provided personal information secure; associating public geographic identifiers with the identity hash that reveal the subdivision and Country associated with the identity hash; associating a compliance level code with an identity hash that reveals the level of verification associated with any documentary or non-documentary identity verification procedure, and if a standard identification number was used and the identity hash is unique to a subdivision, nation, or is globally unique; associating an ID type indicator with the identity hash that reveals the type of identification that was used alone or with a plurality of other elements, salt, and other data to create the identity hash, also indicating if a standard identification number was used and the identity hash is unique to a subdivision, nation, or is globally unique; associating other identifying data or metadata to the identity hash; creating an identity signature for an individual comprising: the identity hash, or a concatenation of the identity hash and any or all of the geographic indicator, compliance level code, ID type indicator, or other identifying data or metadata; associating the identity signature with a cryptocurrency address or plurality of cryptocurrency addresses by sending a digitally signed transaction to the address or plurality of addresses, or by digitally signing a transaction sent from the address or plurality of addresses where the transaction contains the identity signature and the digital signature is provided by an authorized service provider who created the identity signature and optionally the documentary or non-documentary identity verification procedure directly, through a lawful agency, or through the use of an authorized vendor.