Identity verification is something that has become an everyday part of life, far more so than in the past. While technological advances have made our lives so much easier in many ways, this is one area where things have only become more complex. So many institutions in both the public and private sectors must verify the identities of users, customers and citizens in order to render services. This process is time consuming and tedious for all parties involved, and in many cases, quite expensive for the party conducting the identify verification. Civic (CVC) is a project that aims to disrupt this dynamic by dramatically simplifying this process through blockchain technology. This project has to the potential to make countless people’s lives a lot simpler, and save companies billions of dollars. Intrigued? Let’s explore what makes Civic so unique and how you can easily add some of this promising token to your portfolio WITHOUT using a centralized exchange.

The Problem

The digital, connected era has made it very easy to share information, but every technological breakthrough brings with it a new set of risks as well. It has never been easier to share personal data online, but this connectivity also creates opportunities for identity theft which did not exist in previous eras. Every website you create an account on, and each database where personal information like your name, date of birth, or social security number (SSN) are stored is target for hackers. Identity theft is an ever-growing problem, and should it happen to you, the consequences can echo into your life for years to come.

There is also simply tedious experience of having to confirm you identity over and over using current methods. Let’s look at the example of booking an international flight. Currently, there are multiple stages in this journey where your identity must be checked and verified: 1) Booking the flight 2) Checking baggage/checking in for the flight 3) Boarding the plane 4) Claiming your baggage 5) Going through customs, during which your passport must be authenticated and stamped 6) Checking into your hotel.

That’s a lot of steps.

That’s customer/user experience. But there is another side to this problem which is equally important, and that is the burden placed on companies, nonprofits and government agencies to perform verify IDs, run background checks, and other, similar services. Financial institutions in particular spend astounding amounts of money conducting such checks in order to comply with KYC regulations. According to the Civic white paper, it can cost a bank around $20 to run KYC compliance to onboard a new customer, and this has to be done each time that same customer signs up for a new service, (applying for a loan, opening an account, etc.). For banks with millions of customers, it is easy to see how the costs can add up very quickly. According to a report by Thomson Reuters, the average cost for financial firms is $60 million, with some larger institutions spending up to $500 million to comply with Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and KYC rules. (No, that’s not a typo.)

Clearly this is getting out of hand. Luckily, the Civic ID platform may offer a way to cut through this Gordian Knot of complexity, costs and tedium.

The Civic Platform Solution

The team behind civic decided to solve this problem by creating a universal, secure, encrypted IDV solution that uses blockchain encryption and biometric verification to prevent identity theft, reduce costs for businesses and institutions, and streamline the customer/user experience.

Here’s how it works: in any IDV use case, there are generally 3 parties involved. The user whose ID is being verified, the entity requesting the verification, and third party that verifies the information about the user. With Civic, it is not the personal data about the user, but hashes of the data which is stored on the blockchain. Once the data has been verified by the third party (government, credit bureau, etc.) the corresponding hashes are now stored on the blockchain, and from that point forward, users and service providers no longer have to go through the whole IDV process from the bottom up. The hashes are readily accessible.

With Civic, all your personal information is encoded and encrypted on your phone using the Civic Secure Identity App, and you can share it safely and smoothly with any organization or website that is a Civic partner. In this way, IDV can be done much faster and more smoothly, and Civic never actually sees your personal data; only you can the service provider do.

Civic Secure Identity App

Let’s go back to our travel example. Beginning with step one where you book your flight, rather than entering in your information manually, the website sends you a QR code which allows you to safely send all your personal information such as name and passport number, and verify it with your fingerprint to ensure that you are indeed the owner of that information. This process can be repeated at the check in desk, and when you arrive you at your destination, where immigration control officers can just check your Civic account instead of scanning a passport, as well as the hotel. Multiple steps all replaced by simply scanning a code and verifying with your finger print.

This could, theoretically, eliminate the need for physical IDs and documents such as passports, and offer much stronger protection for your identity, as well as the need to create usernames and passwords.

What about our banking example before? Well, Civic allows for safe, reusable KYC credentials, vastly reducing the burden on financial institutions. They save money, you save time, everybody wins.

The potential applications don’t stop there; imagine if you get hurt or sick while abroad and have to go to the hospital. Using the current siloed methods of medical record keeping, the foreign doctors obviously don’t have access to your medical history. But with Civic, you can carry that information wherever you go, and instantly provide them the data they need to provide the best possible care.

A range of potential use cases for Civic (CVC).

The Civic team envisions this platform being used for a variety of applications ranging from the financial, travel and medical ones described here to e-signatures, e-commerce, and even cryptocurrency applications, such as logging into exchanges or participating in token sales.

CVC Token Performance

Civic had its ICO last summer and hit an ATH of $1.31 USD in early January 2018. During the correction, Civic’s price took a beating, as all altcoins did. Currently, it stands around $0.17 USD. In the midst of a bear market with BTC’s price backsliding, altcoins like CVC are not likely to make you rich in the next two weeks. Having said that…the costs of identify verification services aren’t going down anytime soon. There is a demand for solution, and Civic is offering one. This could potentially be a good long term hold.

The Best Way to Buy Civic (CVC)

Nobody likes having to create dozens of different accounts of various websites. Centralized exchanges require all users to create accounts, and hand over personal information. Isn’t it somewhat ironic that if you want to buy CVC using a centralized exchange, you have to go through bunch of steps which CVC itself is design to eliminate?

Luckily, now you can add Civic to your portfolio easily with Faast. Our instant exchange allows you to simply connect your Ledger wallet, for instance, and start swapping 100+ cryptocurrencies in and out of your wallet right away, without creating an account.

There is no need to hand over your personal data, and just as Civic never sees your information, we never see your private keys. We couldn’t take your money even if we wanted to.

It’s safe, fast, cheap and private. Just as cryptocurrencies were meant to be.