This week as I brushed up on my General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) information for our customers, I came across a “checklist” compiled together by the team of Sqreen.io. It was nice to see the legal jargon, finally nicely organized and put together. But, at the end of the day, GDPR briefing still are complex and not very exciting. They aim to protect the consumer, but cost and education for business is going to take some time.

Some of the biggest takeaways for businesses are the costs that are going to grow quickly with the requirement to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO). Any business who is handling data on a larger scale is essentially required to have one these. If you are a United States business and deal with any customers in the EU, you must appoint a representative. This person should handle all issues related to processing. In particular, a local authority should be able to contact this person. For a small business or entrepreneur, you can see how this would immediately affect labor costs; possibly causing the businesses to simply shut down to customers in the EU and avoid falling under this umbrella.

As a global, open market this is a bad thing. Innovation does not have walls and countries benefit each other through trade and intellectual property.

But, we are here and this is the legal situation we have to work with.

From the help of our team with past experience at SAS; one of the largest data analytics companies in the world, we started working on this last year when GDPR was just coming into codification. Looking at a problem that exists is the best way to go into business; aiming to make life easier for those businesses and ensure longevity of the company.

We believe Bridge and the process of our data verification is unique, novel and like nothing on the market. Our engineers and business development team spent a lot of time studying current regulations; stateside and internationally.

In order to be compliant in securities in the United States, you need a process that verifies the individuals identity and evaluates for money laundering/criminal activity. The individual is qualified through a risk score associated with that identity.

Once that check is done and the business clears the individual, they can transact freely.

We designed a blockchain solution that verifies the individual through a public/private key signing; destroying the data after verification. No need for the user to store/encrypt their device like our competitors. Businesses no longer need to worry about data handling and compliance.

Bridge Protocol handles those concerns, reduces compliance costs and eliminates redundant checks done on the same people through different platforms. This will be one of the first enterprise-ready, portable blockchain identities on the market.

We are excited to share our upcoming product.