The company launched its digital identity mobile app beta Monday, according to CEO Colin Campbell, offering to the public some of the Factom blockchain-powered anti-forgery mechanisms the companies have been building for the U.S.’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since November. The full platform is expected to go live in the coming weeks.
Digital signature platform Off-Blocks is bringing its government-tested document verification tools to the public.
Off-Blocks’ public service seeks to infuse trust across digital file sharing. People and companies have an inherent need to authenticate any number of documents, Campbell said. While signing PDF contracts is perhaps the most well-known digital signature use-case, Campbell said that increasingly digitized workspaces and lives require more robust platforms.
Campbell said he built the file-agnostic Off-Blocks platform for the everyday, any-situation user that might need to verify a screengrab, a video or music file.
“The big difference is you can sign any file in any format, however it’s presented two you”, Campbell said. “Imagine how you could interact with the digital world around you.”
He said the service could be used by creators seeking to validate their digital rights and even car crash victims that need to provide photographic “evidence” to their insurance providers.
Campbell said he’s positioning his service for wide adoption, in the belief that a second-layer solution is the «only way to bring the masses to blockchain.»
Market realities dictated Campbell’s partnership with Factom. He could not afford to pay often high and volatile transaction fees associated with public blockchains like bitcoin and ethereum, he said, and many of his prospective clients balked at interacting with cryptocurrency, still untrusted in some enterprise circles.
If all goes according to plan, Off-Blocks’ first users will have no idea a blockchain’s involved.
“You won’t find a single mention of the word ‘blockchain’” in the app, Campbell said. “It’s become a bit of a dirty word.” (The beta does mention the term, though.)
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a valuable technology. Campbell saw no reason to burden everyday users with buzzwords; he does not consider himself a “tech guy”, and therefore believed that he had more to gain by staying quiet on the back-end complexities than attempting to educate a public still largely ignorant about blockchain.
“Most applications now on a blockchain are built by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, trying to impress their mates”, Campbell said.
North Korea to Hold Its Second Crypto Conference, Telegraphing Openness
North Korea, which is believed to be using cryptocurrencies to finance weapons of mass destruction, will be holding its second cryptocurrency and blockchain conference next February.
The event follows the first conference, in April 2019, which attracted 100 people. It was declared a success by the North Koreans, and a larger second conference was promised.
The 2020 event is being sponsored by the Spanish Korean Friendship Association and organized by the North’s Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. According to the conference’s official website, “top ten market cap cryptocurrencies” are assisting on the technical side, though it is not clear from the announcement what that means exactly.
As was the case in the first conference, restrictions appear to be liberalized. U.S. citizens are again welcome, and digital devices can be brought in for the conference. Internet access will be available.
The conference will run from Feb. 24-25 and be held at the Pyongyang Science and Technology Complex, a bizarre atom-shaped structure opened by Kim Jong-un in 2016. On the 26th, private business meetings may be arranged.
North Korea has been accused of stealing about $2 billion worth of crypto currencies and using them to support its weapons development. South Korean and Japanese exchanges have been identified as targets, with phishing being utilized to hack into user accounts.
More generally, the borderless nature of crypto has raised concerns that the North may use coins to get around international restrictions on trade and financial exchanges.
In addition to possibly helping the North achieve crypto advances, the conference may also have propaganda value, both telegraphing a sense of openness while also sending a warning to the West.
On a less obviously sinister level, conferences are a roundabout way for North Korea to boost tourism, and the 2020 crypto event includes an extensive travel itinerary, with everything from a tour of the Tower of Juche Idea to a two-day ski trip.
