Accenture, Microsoft Create Blockchain Solution to Support ID2020

Accenture is leading a “call to action” and responding with blockchain and biometric technologies to support ID2020, a global public-private partnership dedicated to solving the challenges of identity faced by more than 1.1 billion people around the world.

Approximately one-sixth of the world’s population cannot participate in cultural, political, economic and social life because they lack the most basic information: documented proof of their existence. Establishing identity is critical to accessing a wide range of activities, including education, healthcare, voting, banking, mobile communications, housing, and family and childcare benefits. The goal of ID2020 is to make digital identity a reality through a technology-forward approach that will leverage secure and well-established systems.

Accenture, in partnership with Microsoft and Avanade, has developed an identity prototype based on blockchain technology – a type of database system that enables multiple parties to share access to the same data with an extremely high level of confidence and security.

The prototype, which builds on Accenture’s capabilities in blockchain and its experience developing and deploying large-scale biometric systems, runs on Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud platform that offers global scale, flexibility and security. The prototype is designed to empower individuals with direct consent over who has access to their personal information, and when to release and share data. It is a sophisticated decentralized, or “distributed,” database architecture, maintained by multiple, trusted parties on the blockchain, eliminating the need for a central authority.

The prototype does not store any personally identifiable information, instead tapping into existing “off-chain” systems when the individual user grants access. Accenture and Microsoft – founding alliance partners of ID2020 who have pledged financial and technology resources – demonstrated the prototype at the ID2020 Summit at the UN.