Digital identity company Civic Technologies recently announced the launch of the Civic Wallet and its release on the App Store and Google Play. The wallet offers a safe way to store and transact with digital currency.

In addition, the company also announced that it is providing secure and regulation-compliant health checks for employers called Health by Civic™ in response to a market need for proof-of-health verification.

Digital Identity for Global Transactions 

Civic Wallet holders can send and receive funds to usernames, addresses and QR codes after creating a verified identity, making it easy for friends and family to complete global transactions. Digital currencies including BTC, ETH, USDC and CVC may be sent internationally with low fees for a limited time.

Vinny Lingham, CEO and co-founder of Civic, said “By design, Civic Wallet puts you back in the driver’s seat with more control over your digital identity and money with no more seed phrases or passwords to remember. And, we’re looking forward to offering proof-of-health verification as a new, privacy-focused element of your digital identity.”

Protecting Digital Transactions and Accounts

When users sign up for Civic Wallet, they are authenticated as a real person using both AI and blockchain-based technology. Civic Wallet holders have more control over the information they share with third parties once they are verified. In addition, the platform is built to protect personally identifiable information (PII) because no PII is stored directly on a blockchain, only an attestation of the information.

“The beauty of user-controlled information is you can use something called zero-knowledge proofs to effectively control what happens with the usage of the data. As an example, a zero-knowledge proof would be—if I had a COVID-19 vaccination as you walk into a building and you could tell the machine that you had the vaccination but not give any information about yourself,” said Lingham. “And using a series of cryptographic proofs, the machine can reasonably assume to a high degree of certainty that you have had the vaccine and you are cleared to enter, but not take your personal information with that transaction. And so, cryptographic proofs are a way of solving a lot of these privacy issues.”

Civic Wallet users can protect their digital currency with the company’s $1 Million Cryptocurrency Protection Guarantee, which is provided by Coincover and insured by Lloyd’s of London underwriters. All verified Civic Wallets are automatically covered by this protection, meaning that the digital currency is protected with account and key recovery. In addition, because Civic Wallet is non-custodial and multisig, users can easily restore their account if they lose their phone. If users lose their Civic Wallet, the company will work together with its partners to recover access to the user’s funds by moving them to a new account.

“What makes the Civic Wallet different is there are no seed phrases or passwords to remember. It’s purely based upon your identity as a person. So you can lose your phone, you can fall in the ocean—whatever the case is—but you can’t lose your keys, you can’t lose your funds and you can’t lose your credentials, because we can restore it,” stated Lingham.

Accessing Proof-of-Health Information

Civic also announced proof-of-health verification for companies with more than 500 employees called Health Key, which is accessible through Civic Wallet. The company’s partner, Circle Medical, will supply testing for interested San Francisco Bay Area companies. Additional regional testing partners will be coming online to support customers in other locations. 

Using this technology, users are in control of who they give medical records to and how they share it. Civic allows users to generate cryptographic proofs that allow them to prove bits of information without revealing everything about the underlying identity with that information.

“As healthcare providers, we are always looking out for the safety of our patients, including protecting their information and privacy,” said George Favvas, co-founder and CEO of Circle Medical. “Civic is not only compliant from a regulatory standpoint, but they are also deeply committed to doing what’s right for their users.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Kevin Lu is a press and content strategist at Identity Review, where he writes about the intersection between media, tech ethics and social innovation. His work focuses on the data economy and its potential for creating social change in our world.

Contact Kevin Lu at kevin@identityreview.com.

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