Ten prominent Spanish institutions, including leading banks, law firms and universities, have unveiled Dalion, a self-managed digital identity project where users store data secured by blockchain technology on their personal devices. This announcement will bring Spain to the forefront of both the digital identity and encryption trends and could have large implications for how the EU handles its user data in the future. The model finished testing in the proof of concept phase and is planning for a May 2021 rollout.

How Dalion Works

A press release from Santander, one of the banks participating in the Dalion project, describes how the new digital identity model will work: “Self-managed identity enables people to have their personal data in a single digital identity, backed by the companies involved and stored on their own mobile device.” Users will be empowered to use their data in lieu of filling out forms or using single-sign on verification. Santander notes consumers will be able to use Dalion as part of the verification process for rental cars, insurance or bank loans.

When companies ask a customer to verify their income, for example, they usually request verification via a third party, like Plaid, in order to ensure that the information has not been modified. One of Dalion’s core innovations is that it eliminates the need for a third-party verification platform by running on the Ethereum-Quorum open-code blockchain infrastructures, which ensure “that information is reliable and has not been altered,” according to the Santander press release. Given that Plaid’s API-driven financial verification has enabled generational apps like Robinhood and Venmo, Dalion’s verification technology that empowers consumers directly could catapult all industries that rely on verification forward.

Partners and the Future of Dalion

Dalion is currently focusing on two use cases with massive potential: identity verification and single-sign on. Both are billion dollar markets (employment verification is $8 billion and SSO is $1.4 billion). Dalion’s partners will accelerate its adoption: it is partnered with massive Spanish banks, such as Banco Santander and CaixaBank, as well as the Alastria consortium, composed of 100 leaders in the legal digital identity field. However, beyond verification and sign-on, Dalion is pursuing larger goals. Dalion itself derives from the Alastria ID project, a digital identity model that incorporates data from over 600 institutions and companies, and aims to create a permission-based blockchain infrastructure that is compatible with Spanish and European law. As Dalion expands, its digital identity model could start to permeate everyday life, including serving as official IDs or enabling and receiving secure payments.

The full list of Dalion partners include: Banco Santander, Bankia, BME, CaixaBank, Inetum, Liberbank, Línea Directa Aseguradora, Mapfre, Naturgy and Repsol, and also the Alastria consortium. You can learn more about Dalion here. 

ABOUT THE WRITER

Quinn Barry is a Tech Innovation Fellow from Stanford University covering the next generation of financial identity protection.