SelfKey, a “self sovereign identity” firm, has just completed a pre-sale of KEY tokens raising $5 million. Now SelfKey is preparing to launch its public Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on December 15th. The token sale has a hard cap of US$21.78 million. The SelfKey white paper is a available here. The private pre-sale started at a per token price of $0.01 and the public pre-sale is at $0.011538. The public sale moves up to $0.015 per token (starting in January).

The Blockchain based identity firms is pretty confident in the success of its public ICO. SelfKey’s tech stack is live and in use now to help in the KYC process. SelfKey has some pretty big names backing the concept. It was built with the help of Standard Chartered Bank and has facilitated KYC for token sales such as Airswap, Aditus, Gatcoin, AiX, and Hotoken. SelfKey was also used by Fintech / Blockchain startups such as Polymath, Kommerce, ZILLA, Malabar.ai, TitanFx, DollarSmart, and the Hong Kong based exchange, Gatecoin. NTL Trust, one of the oldest and most recognized citizenship and residency agents, apparently uses SelfKey to process citizenship and residency applications in over ten countries, all via Blockchain.

SelfKey founder Edmund Lowell explained that the company was created to address the laborious and byzantine processes currently in use.

“It all started with the pain of KYC – filling out the same forms over and over again for the business FlagTheory.com. We’d set up a company and then the banks would repeat the work we’d already done. This led me to start KYC-Chain.com, but now I’m more motivated by a larger mission with SelfKey.org. We believe people should own their own identity,” said Lowell.

Identity management and verification is a frequently mentioned service where Blockchain can step in and quickly improve the process. Current ID networks are problematic and prone to unwanted privacy intrusions – as everyone knows all too well.

SelfKey reports that the next generation of this technology platform is an identity wallet and marketplace powered by Selfkey Tokens (KEY). KEY is said to be a utility token that must be staked to gain access to the network and spent to apply for identity notarizations and marketplace listings. Using the SelfKey Identity Wallet, individuals may manage all of their identity documents in a single location – never to be stored on any other server and thus guarding against unwanted access (think hacks). Of course, everything is encrypted and only shareable via a secure hash on the Blockchain.

ID documents may be verified by qualified certifiers by spending KEY tokens. After their documents are verified, users will be able to reuse their identity certifications to instantly apply for multiple products and services, without the need to repeat the verification process.

The SelfKey wallet has set a go live date of January 2018, coinciding with its public sale.

“There are now lots of global citizens who move between countries often,” explained Lowell. “It only makes sense that there is a one-stop marketplace where you can setup an exchange account, access different financial services, apply for a residency or citizenship, and incorporate companies in different jurisdictions without the need for repeatedly filling out the same paperwork and submitting the same forms. SelfKey offers easy KYC on-boarding and a one-click application process for these services.”