Skip to main content

Reusable Credentials

One click KYC​

Zyphe's decentralized KYC (Know Your Customer) is an innovative approach to the traditional KYC process, which involves collecting and verifying customer information to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Here's a simplified explanation of how reusable credentials in a decentralized KYC system works:

  1. Initial Verification:

    • When a user first interacts with a company that requires KYC verification, they undergo a standard verification process. This could involve submitting identification documents, proof of address, and other required information.

  2. Credential Issuance:

    Once the user's information is verified, is encrypted, sharded and stored in a secure, decentralized manner, often on a blockchain or a distributed ledger, ensuring they are tamper-proof and owned by the user.

  3. Data Ownership and Control:

    The user has control over their digital credentials. They can choose who to share their credentials with and can manage permissions through a simple interface.

  4. Reuse of Credentials:

    • When the user interacts with a new company requiring KYC verification, they can share their previously verified credentials instead of going through the verification process all over again.

  5. Benefits:

    • Time-Saving: Reusing credentials can significantly speed up the KYC process for users and companies.
    • Cost Efficiency: Companies save resources as they don't have to repeatedly conduct the same verification processes.
    • Privacy Enhancement: Users share only the necessary information, and the decentralized nature of the system can provide better data privacy and security.

  6. Interoperability:

    • The decentralized KYC systems are often designed to be interoperable, allowing various companies and platforms to utilize the same set of reusable credentials, fostering a seamless user experience across different services.

This setup creates an ecosystem where KYC processes become more user-centric, efficient, and privacy-preserving, with the ability to reuse verified credentials across multiple platforms and services.

How it works​

When a user arrives at a company that requires KYC, Zyphe checks whether they already hold an eligible credential and, with the user's consent, shares it through an access grant instead of re-running verification.

  1. Redirect through company website: The user starts on the dashboard of a company that needs to perform KYC, and is redirected to Zyphe to begin.

  2. Starts the onboarding flow: The user lands on the platform and starts the onboarding flow.

  3. Check eligible documents: The frontend asks the backend whether there are eligible documents for that flow.

  4. Return list of eligible documents: The backend checks the user vault for eligible documents.

info

The check runs against a metadata table that holds only references and the minimum information needed for this check. The backend does not have access to any personal information.

  1. Ask the user: If eligible documents exist, the platform asks whether the user wants to reuse a previously generated credential or verify again.

  2. Unlock vault: To reuse a credential, the user unlocks the vault. This can use different authentication mechanisms, a passphrase, a Vault Access Key, or a passkey. Advanced users can run in BYOK mode where the private key is bound to a passkey on their device; traditional users rely on a managed key handled under a strict no-log paradigm. See Data Sharing and Encryption.

  3. Grant access: An access grant is created. Under the hood it is a proxy re-encryption key that lets Zyphe (the proxy) transform ciphertext encrypted under the user's key into ciphertext that only the requesting company can decrypt. Zyphe never sees the plaintext.

  4. Send grant to the company: The access grant is connected to the company dashboard.

  5. Request user data: The company requests the user data through its dashboard on the Zyphe platform.

  6. Request data to DCS: The system pulls the relevant data from decentralized storage, where it is securely stored.

  7. Return data from DCS: The requested data is retrieved from the decentralized storage network.

  8. Display data in the company dashboard: The retrieved data is returned to the company dashboard.