VIDT Review, use cases, future prediction

What follows is the byproduct of our research on whether or not V-ID is a good project.  

We have a tendency to FOMO, so read everything with a grain of salt and always DYOR.

What is V-ID?

Anything digital can be altered. How then can you be confident about the authenticity of the digital files you are dealing with?

“V-ID is a blockchain powered document certification service. The VIDT API enables organisations to certify and secure their digital data against fraud and manipulation.”

You can tag digital files using V-ID and anyone around the world can verify its authenticity by simply using V-IDs free checker.

If any information is changed within the file, V-ID flags it.

This technology has an immediate use case in the real world to fight digital frauds. Especially in dealing with:

• Invoices
• Scientific papers
• Contracts
• Official documents
• Diplomas/certificates
• Data from Internet of Things

Watch this quick video to learn about V-ID.

Introduction to VIDT V-ID Blockchain Powered Validation

The V-ID validation service uses blockchain technology to end all document fraud. Our client base, with customers like Airbus Space & Defence, operates in va…

Take a simple example of purported crypto ‘recommendation reports’ that float on the internet. How do you know they are what subscribers were given?

How can you be sure that the document is not manipulated by someone to ‘alter the buy up to and sell at’ prices?

In this simple situation, using V-ID, one could verify the authenticity of the document.

In a world of Deep Fakes, a solution like V-ID can be a lifesaver.

How big is the problem that V-ID solves? 

According to the Javelin Strategy report, Identity fraud cost $16.8 Billion dollars in 2019 alone.  

Obviously this includes credit card and account takeover frauds. However, when a solution like V-ID becomes integrated, there is an opportunity to curb these identity thefts as well.

Fraud Detection and Prevention which was valued at $17.33 billion is expected to grow at an 18% (CAGR) rate from 2019 to 2025.

The more diverse our technology becomes with the advent of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Augmented Reality and reliance on smart mobile devices, the more we grow vulnerable to fraud.

In our opinion, the fraud space is only going to grow bigger and faster.  

V-ID has an opportunity to place itself as a reliable solution by leveraging the blockchain’s resilience.

Source: V-ID

Using V-ID

Any solution’s success will depend on its ‘ease-of-use’. We tested the V-ID ‘certification’ to get a taste of the platform.

When we scanned the QR code of the document, it took us straight to the document where we could easily verify that it was indeed ‘authentic’.

The ease at which you can verify someone’s credentials, certifications, diplomas, etc., is simply awesome.

Users can verify the authenticity of other documents through their free online checker. Obviously, the company has to be signed up with V-ID for the documents to be ‘stamped’ on blockchain.

V-ID promises verification in 5 seconds.  Here is a video that shows how the verification works.

VIDT V-ID verification live demo

The V-ID validation service uses blockchain technology to end all document fraud. Our client base, with customers like Airbus Space & Defence, operates in va…

All in all, the concept behind V-ID is quite simple and easy to use.  

This ease of use accompanied by an amazing use case is what forms the basis for blockchain’s adoption.  The tool makes you forget about the blockchain altogether.

Does V-ID need Blockchain?

Yes. We think V-ID has a blockchain use case.

When it comes to providing a hack-resistant environment and resiliency to the underlying system, blockchain really shines.

The V-ID makes use of blockchain the backend without inundating the end users with the intricacies of ‘how blockchain works’ is quite admirable.

“Currently V-ID offers anchoring in Ethereum, Bitcoin, IBM Hyperledger, Fantom, LTO Network, Digibyte and Binance Chain.” 

For V-ID, in our opinion, Blockchain is not just a fancy jargon to allure people to the project but rather it is a smart technology choice to meet the business objectives.

Team

Source: VIDT

Marnix van den Berg, Founder & CEO, has over 17 years of experience.  He is supported by 3 other Founders on the project.

Pim Voets is the Founder and Lead Concept Design, Ceciel van Helden is the Founder and Lead Programmer, Wico van Helden is one of the Founder.  

The teams section of the website shows about 9 team members and 6 advisors, including Chris Robinson, Ex-CTO of American Express.  

Just between the 4 founding members have a combined experience of over 70 years. Wico van Helden has hands-on experience in taking a company IPO.

Progress, Case-studies and traction

V-ID has been associated with many brands.  They showcase few case studies on their website:

• AMSPEC

AMSPEC is using the V-ID technology to verify the authenticity of their inspection reports

How AmSpec protects data integrity with V-ID

Amspec has started to utilise V-ID blockchain validation technology to protect the authenticity of their inspection reports. This means that recipients of a …

• CMS LAW

V-ID made history by bringing 17th Century Rembrandt to the blockchain.  This verification was made possible with CMS Law acting as notary, collaboration with Duowes Fine Arts and V-ID.  

VIDT Rembrandt on chain – V-ID collaboration with Douwes Fine Art and CMS

For the first time, V-ID’s validation platform, known for securing digital files against manipulation, extends its activities into the physical world, by val…

• NYENRODE

V-ID is bringing certificates and diplomas onto the blockchain.  To this end V-ID has collaborated with NYENRODE and HBO Drechtsteden.

• IBM

V-ID successfully installed the first IBM Watson-connected IOE sensor with V-ID data anchoring.  

IBM & V-ID install first IoE sensor on IBM NL headquarters’ roof

www.internetofenvironments.org

• CALTRIX

V-ID partners with Caltrix Consultancy to offer a tailored solution for any financial organisation to comply with KYC/AML challenges. 

• LTO NETWORK

LTO Network and V-ID entered into a partnership by rolling out an immediately applicable, GDPR-compliant blockchain solution for companies and governments. 

• DVA

This alliance allows for any party to verify the authenticity of the diamond using the certificate, and the authenticity of the certificate using the V-ID service.

The brands with which V-ID has worked with and the diversity of the projects they have been involved in bring a lot of confidence in this project, in our opinion.

Price – Revenue Model

Companies need cash flow to sustain and grow. It is important to have a revenue plan for the company to thrive.

V-ID offers 3 different pricing options that you can see below.

Euro 2 per file may seem like a big deal but companies have the option to use the verification only for sensitive documents.

For example, on invoices or contracts, to ensure authenticity.  

Challenges to consider

One of our favorite projects, ICON, also rolled out the Broof concept which helps organizations verify certification.

Blockchain projects, like ICON, with existing capabilities could potentially ‘extend’ their solutions in the verification arena.  This could pose stiff competition.

The verification problem is so big that it can accommodate more than one player, however, the more players you have the more it dilutes the upside potential.

What Blockchain identity verification will not solve!

Demand for counterfeits

When all is said and done, counterfeits exist because they have market demand.  Without demand a product doesn’t sustain long.

There are millions of people who want to experience luxury on budget, by choice or because of lack of choice.

The projects like V-ID cannot solve the counterfeit market for those who specifically seek them out.  

However, the project does solve the ‘authenticity assurance’ demand for people who are paying the full price for the genuine product.

Market for ‘copies’

Digital products have an amazing advantage which is its major flaw and that is: it can be replicated without much effort.

If someone is deliberately seeking out for a pirated copy of something, there is so little you can do.

VIDT, Coinmarketcap and where to buy and sell?

V-ID Blockchain has its own native crypto with ticker symbol: VIDT.

We have to specify this because there is another project on coinmarketcap with VID symbol and we had few folks who seemed to be confused.

At the time of this writing, VIDT was ranked at 224.

At this time, you can buy and sell VIDT at KuCoin.

In conclusion

Blockchain finds a great ‘real-life’ business use case in V-ID.  

The association of the project, even if indirectly, with big brands like IBM, AirBus and more is just a testament to the viability of this solution.

While it may be possible for other projects to try and emulate the V-ID solution, the focus and dedication of the V-ID team could put up a mighty fight, in our opinion.

Ultimately, the problem of fraud is quite big and could easily accommodate success of multiple players.

In the end, we are coming to the same opinion about V-ID that Chris Robinson, ex-CTO of American Express, did and that is “V-ID is a rare combination of 3 things — A great idea in a large and almost green space market. A company with a proven track record and real-world customers. And, finally, an exceptionally high quality team and advisors.“

Thank you for reading and sharing this article. Stay safe and healthy!

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Everything in this article is an opinion, not an advice of any kind. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and it is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Please consult with a professional for specific advice.

We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information and claims made.

All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

Cryptocurrency Weekly News

What a week for the crypto bulls to come out!

Bitcoin performed exceptionally well and all the hibernating Crypto bulls spewed their predictions all over the internet.  

The hype frenzy was quite unreal and we are worried about the newbies that might buy into the hype and get in at the peak.

While most hypers were hibernating, we are keeping our calm and tracking the crypto space for the past 4 years.

If you want to see all that contributed (and continues to contribute) to the Blockchain, Bitcoin and crypto adoption – you just have to see the most important news since 2017.

In the spirit of continuing the tradition of keeping up with what matters, let’s dive into this week’s digest!

Brave and Guardian bring Firewall and VPN to iOS

Brave Privacy browser that supports the Basic Attention Token (BAT) has partnered with Guardian to bring Firewall and VPN capabilities to the Brave Browser on iOS platform. In an announcement, Brave team disclosed that “with this partnership, the companies are integrating their technologies to enable the fastest, safest, most private Web browsing experience. Brave now offers Brave Firewall + VPN, available for download from the App Store. This partnership allows people to take back control of their own data, browse the Web, and use their apps more safely and securely.”

Ledger market data breach

Unauthorized third party access using an API Key has compromised the contact and order details at Ledger.  A total of 1 Million email addresses might have been compromised. According to the official statement “Contact and order details were involved. This is mostly the email address of our customers, approximately 1M addresses. Further to investigating the situation we have also been able to establish that, for a subset of 9500 customers were also exposed, such as first and last name, postal address, phone number or ordered products. Due to the scope of this breach and our commitment to our customers, we have decided to inform all of our customers about this situation.”

Coinbase explores [more] new digital Assets

Coinbase is exploring more digital assets to add to their platform.  These 19 digital assets include, as per the official post,  Ampleforth, Band Protocol, Balancer, Blockstack, Curve, Fetch.ai, Flexacoin, Helium, Hedera Hashgraph, Kava, Melon, Ocean Protocol, Paxos Gold, Reserve Rights, tBTC, The Graph, THETA, UMA, and WBTC. Obviously, there is no guarantee that all of these tokens are going to be added but it is quite interesting to see some of the good projects making the list.

Putin signs Crypto bill into law

Russia just passed a bill that will allow the companies in Russia to issue digital assets as long as they seek and procure approval from the Bank of Russia.  According to Reuters (translated) “They can be an object of collateral, purchase and sale transactions, exchange of one type of digital asset for another. At the same time, CFAs are not and are not recognized as a means of payment.”

SEC Wants to Start Scrutinizing Binance Chain Transactions

“The Contracting Officer has determined that CipherTrace Inc., is the only source that can reasonably meet the SEC’s requirement […].  CipherTrace products are the only known blockchain forensics and risk intelligence tool that can support the Binance coin (BNB) and all tokens on the Binance network.,” read the official statement issued by the SEC.  This makes it clear that the transactions that people have conducted on Binance assuming they are ‘immune’ from the US government’s scrutiny are going to be surprised by what follows.

Cardano mainnet launched

Cardano has successfully launched its mainnet and introduced its ‘Staking’ phase ‘Shelley’. The entire crypto community has been eagerly waiting for the launch and has received the upgrade quite positively with Cardano (ADA) price coasting at 13 cents. Generally, when the community is not happy with the upgrades and mainnet launch, it tends to show in the negative price action. The stabilizing price movement indicates that the Cardano community has welcomed the mainnet launch.

Thank you for reading and sharing this article. We appreciate you.

We have been tracking the most important news in blockchain and crypto space since 2017. You can check out all the chronicled news here.  

Consider subscribing to our newsletters to receive these news updates in ONE neat email per week along with other freebies that we give away once-in-a-while.

Thank you for reading and sharing this article. Stay safe and healthy!

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We never spam your inbox and we only send one email per week
with updates, news, eBooks, tax updates, and more!
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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Everything in this article is an opinion, not an advice of any kind. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and it is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Please consult with a professional for specific advice.

We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information and claims made.

All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

What Are Smart Cities and the Role of Blockchain In Smart Cities?

IT experts have designed smart cities to develop, deploy, and promote sustainable development practices.

Now, what are smart cities? 

A smart city is a framework mostly composed of Information and Communication Technologies or ICT to address growing urbanization challenges.

A considerable part of a smart city framework or an ICT framework is that it consists of an intelligent network of connected objects and machines. 

These machines transmit information through cloud applications and with the use of wireless technology. 

Cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyze, and manage all this data in real-time, which helps municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions. 

The use of smart phones and connected cars and homes citizens engage with smart city ecosystems. 

A way to cut costs and improve sustainability is to pair devices with the city’s physical infrastructure and services. 

With the help of a smart city framework, we can find solutions to many community problems. For instance: 

• Traffic lights connected to cloud-based applications can receive data from sensors and cars. In return, light cadence and timing in response to real-time traffic can improve, which reduces road congestion
• Parking meters and electric vehicles charging docks can communicate with cars to find the nearest available spot
• With the help of smart garbage cans synced to waste management companies, garbage is collected and scheduled to be picked up when needed instead of the pre-planned schedule
• Instead of plastic cards for driver’s licenses and ID cards, citizen’s smart phones take their place. In return, access to the city and local government services are speed-up and simplified

Together, smart city frameworks help in optimizing infrastructure, public service, utilities, and mobility.

Why Are Smart Cities Being Built?

Urbanization is a problem faced by every country all over the world. 

According to statistics, 54% of the total population of the world lives in cities. The number is estimated to reach 66% by 2050. 

Over the next three decades, urbanization will make another 2.5 billion people migrate to cities, and to keep up with this rapid expansion, environmental, economic, and social sustainability is a must. 

Smart cities can provide such a framework to rely on.

Examples of smart cities  

AMSTERDAM SMART CITY:

A shining example of a well-connected smart city would be Amsterdam. The initiative of making Amsterdam a smart city began in 2009, and it includes over 170 projects. 

It sends traffic and transportation data to related parties such as developers who create mapping apps connected to the city’s transportation system. 

Due to this, navigating the city is simple and easy. The smart city infrastructure supports a floating village of houses, which helps with urbanization with a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative.

COPENHAGEN SMART CITY:

One of the smallest cities in the world, Copenhagen, is known worldwide for its mobilizing expertise. 

In collaboration with MIT, Copenhagen is leveraging open data to build an innovative bike system. 

Real-time data is shared to monitor and manage air quality as well as traffic congestion.

How Do Smart Cities Become Successful?

Along with people, dwellings, businesses, and traditional urban infrastructure, we will need four other essential elements to enable smart cities to succeed. The four elements are:

•     Security that can be trusted
•     Flexible monetization schemes
•     Open information
•     Extensive wireless connectivity

Risks   

Probably the most significant concern about smart cities is the danger of privacy breaches. 

Governments, businesses, and individuals spend millions of dollars on preventing leakage of data to outsiders, and as little as possible is shared. 

The key enabler of sustainability in smart cities would be the complex ecosystem that shares information and combines it in real-time. 

Only with the cooperation of multiple sectors can better and sustainable outcomes be achieved and to receive real-time contextual information, while making sure data is kept secured. 

Role of Blockchain in Smart Cities

The role of smart cities is to incorporate technology as the groundwork to take the edge off the problems that plague the current system. 

Examples of current smart city capabilities are universal identification (ID), green energy, water, pollution management, forms of transportation, wireless internet systems, and promotion of local businesses, to name a few. 

The ‘Internet of Things’ serves the current technology needs of smart cities; this term is used to define the integrated network of gadgets with planted exclusive identifiers. Examples include traffic management and e-commerce. 

A traffic management program called SCOOT improves green light time at intersections by providing inductive loop and magnetometer data to a supercomputer, in London, coordinating the traffic lights to enhance the traffic across the city. 

An astounding forty-seven thousand new jobs in Barcelona were created due to the implementation of a network of fiber optics that provides free and fast Wi-Fi, which supports the IoT and the integration of smart parking, lighting, and water management. 

In Amsterdam, the IoT-based infrastructure was tested by allowing traffic flow, public safety, and energy usage to be monitored and tweaked depending on real-time data. Moreover, cities like Baltimore and Boston have introduced smart trash cans that transfer information to determine the best pickup route for garbage disposal crew. 

India was the pioneer country to successfully enact a smart city project across 12 of its cities, in the year 2015. 

All of the above examples demonstrate the reliance on IoT infrastructure and blockchain can make IoT become more resilient and efficient.  

It is evident that Blockchain gives the groundwork for the management of transactions by providing security and transparency. 

Today many smart cities have a large scale Blockchain implementation or distributed ledger technology. 

By the next year, Dubai is aiming to become the first Blockchain-powered smart city in the world.

Since 2012, Estonia has used distributed ledger technology to keep records of its citizens. 

Companies like Hancom are the emerging suppliers of services and products related to IoT hardware for smart city development. 

The Hancom group will incorporate Blockchain technology to set up a 470-acre smart city development project in Gapyeong Malang Malang, as the basis for smart city development. 

This company also developed the 30-acre Augury Square in Atlanta, which will incorporate the use of cryptocurrency, pushing forward the usage of digital currency into the daily lives of its inhabitants. 

Information collected and kept in a cloud-based framework can be encoded by a Blockchain system to ensure the security of data in a smart city. 

Blockchain can be used for identification, for proof of citizenship, tax data, voting, to name a few. 

The elimination of paperwork in such a system helps to manage and reduce pollution in smart cities. 

Other services that can incorporate Blockchain in smart cities are: 

•     Use of internet sensors to identify general repairs and road maintenance
•     They connect to healthcare services for emergencies
•     They are providing first responders with pertinent medical data
•     Connection of residential utilities and rent to the Blockchain

Blockchain provides the framework to unite the services in a single system capable of tracking, security, immutability, transparency and above all SECURITY.

Thank you for reading and sharing this article. Stay safe and healthy!

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Everything in this article is an opinion, not an advice of any kind. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and it is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Please consult with a professional for specific advice.

We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information and claims made.

All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.