By Piyush Bhatnagar

Government assistance can be essential to individual wellbeing and economic stability. This was clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments issued trillions of dollars in economic relief.

Related: Fido champions passwordless authentication

Applying for benefits can be arduous, not least because agencies need to validate applicant identity and personal identifiable information (PII). That often involves complex forms that demand applicants gather documentation and require case workers to spend weeks verifying data. The process is slow, costly, and frustrating.

It’s also ripe for fraud. As one example, the Justice Department recently charged 48 suspects in Minnesota with fraudulently receiving $240 million in pandemic aid.

The good news is that an innovative technology promises to transform identity validation is capturing the attention of government and other sectors. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) leverages distributed ledgers to verify identity and PII – quickly, conveniently, and securely.

Individual validation

Any time a resident applies for a government benefit, license, or permit, they must prove who they are and provide PII such as date of birth, place of residence, income, bank account information, and so on. The agency manually verifies the data and stores it in a government database.