Know Your Customer (KYC) is a standard identity verification process done as part of a transaction in regulated industries such as financial services. Electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) has emerged as an alternative to the traditional know-your-customer (KYC) process which involves cumbersome and error-prone manual checks and authentication. eKYC is an automated process that uses a combination of technologies including biometrics, facial recognition, multi-factor authentication, and electronic signature, among others, through which businesses can carry out customer identity verification and validation remotely and digitally.
Many contractual processes require the same level of identity authentication, verification, and validation as a know-your-customer process. Therefore, MENA-based contract management platform vendor Uqoud has built eKYC capabilities into its contract management offering. These eKYC capabilities are available throughout the complete contract lifecycle, from the creation of contracts all the way to signing and archiving.
Although eKYC may significantly speed up manual KYC processes and present opportunities for businesses to save time and money, it may also introduce privacy and security concerns – whether real or perceived – and be obtrusive to some customers.
We’ve partnered with Uqoud, and embedded our blockchain-backed provenance technology into Uqoud’s contract management platform, to provide banks and financial institutions in the GCC and MENA regions with an identity service that includes transparent user consent management across multiple parties, enabling them to digitally obtain required know-your-customer information in an efficient, trusted, and secure manner.
This new identity service minimizes the communication overhead between financial institutions and allows them to verify and validate customers without redundant processes or the disclosure of personally identifiable information.
Throughout their life journeys, assets undergo numerous changes, often crossing organizational and trust boundaries, which jeopardizes the integrity of data associated with these assets.
EAM practices have traditionally been centralized and siloed, with current systems often falling short in establishing the necessary trust and capturing all critical provenance data related to an asset.
We believe that our technology can greatly enhance current EAM capabilities, ensuring the data integrity of assets vital to both organizations and society at large. We help identify the assets that are critical to organizations or public service, their lifecycle, and state at any given time, the sources of this data, and the stakeholders involved. We use our provenance platform to properly model and capture, and immutably record this data, and enable its efficient and secure distribution to the various stakeholders.
Resilient supply chains are crucial for ensuring the smooth, reliable, and sustainable flow of goods and services, particularly in the face of disruptions. It is applicable to logistics, manufacturing, retail, among other verticals.
Our primary focus is on business-to-business scenarios, where we can capture all relevant provenance data – such as origin, authenticity, ownership, and location – about any component (e.g. chips) as well as end products (e.g. electronic devices).
This includes tracking manufacture, certification, assembly, packaging, and any other activities associated with these assets, along with detailed records of who performed each action and when. All this is delivered as a single source of truth for all stakeholders.
Decentralized identity (DCI) –aka self-sovereign identity (SSI)– and verifiable credentials (VCs) are transformational innovations in digital identity, providing users with greater control over their digital identities and enabling secure, verifiable sharing of identity information.
Our goal is not to replicate existing approaches to verifiable credentials that focus solely on assertions. Instead, we aim to go beyond that by providing granular provenance information, contributing to a holistic view of specific credentials, whether those are academic degrees or professional certificates.
The widespread availability and use of open data can contribute to more equitable, efficient, and sustainable societies. The growing demand for open data stems from its potential to drive innovation, economic growth, social change, and increase trust in public institutions.
We believe that blockchain-backed provenance is crucial for establishing trust and increasing the usability of open datasets. By improving transparency and visibility, provenance data can strengthen public services and decision-making, ultimately driving innovation and growth.
