CULedger, a consortium of American credit unions exploring potential use cases for distributed ledger technology, has teamed up with DLT specialist Evernym on a digital identity system.
Dubbed MyCUID, the tool uses a P2P network of distributed, private agents working in parallel with the distributed ledger to give credit union members a lifetime portable digital identity.
This identity does not depend on any central authority and can never be taken away, say the partners, and, by enabling selective disclosure, identity owners can also control how much data is shared in a particular context.
John Ainsworth, CEO, CULedger, says: "By giving individuals control over their personal identifiable information, MyCUID will create a truly secure and privacy-preserving flow of information to promote balance, fairness, diversity and competition in the digital economy."
A collaborative effort among Cuna, Best Innovation Group, the Mountain West Credit Union Association, PSCU and other industry partners, CULedger is a "research-to-action" initiative that is investigating the viability of a private, permissioned DLT that can be used by credit unions.
The group has been working with Evernym since last year, tapping the vendor's public permissioned ledger network, called Sovrin, designed exclusively for self-sovereign identity.
Ultimately, World Council of Credit Unions CEO Brian Branch claims, MyCUID could help his members serve the two million people around the globe who are underbanked.