The increasing digitalization of the globe has brought great benefits to people around the world, but through it all, identity theft still runs rampant. In fact, an identity fraud study found that 14.4 million consumers were victims of identity fraud in 2018, while another revealed that 33% of U.S. respondents have experienced identity theft. This has led to significant losses for businesses as well as major inconveniences for consumers.

Ethereum-based travel distribution platform Winding Tree announced the launch of its digital identity verification tool, ORGiD Bot, in an effort to further its goal of helping different industries harness blockchain technology. The tool is designed to streamline digital identity verification between blockchain businesses, help fight identity theft and impersonation, and allow users to verify their identities regardless of their location.

How It Works

ORGiD Bot is a user-friendly bot that helps users communicate with the ORGiD system, an open-source registry that provides real-time identification and verification of companies and their representatives. The bot allows organizations to add authorized representatives to their ORGiD and identify themselves as legitimate to their peers, ultimately resulting in a relatively easier and more effective method of evading phishing attempts and preventing scams.

On the business side, Winding Tree leverages Líf, an ERC20 Ethereum token, as a staking mechanism during the company’s business verification process. Companies hoping to participate in a directory in the ORGiD system can use Líf to do so. This system allows for business to prove their legitimacy by sending their Líf to a smart contract—an action that is simple for legitimate businesses, but would be too costly for spammers who would need to submit hundreds of Líf stakes.

For consumers, using ORGiD Bot is simple with its integration with Telegram. Users first must open ORGiD Bot in Telegram and then send the bot the handle of the user they want to verify. ORGiD Bot will then reply in real-time with a report containing information needed to verify the identity behind the username, such as their social media accounts, organization name, website and more. Users can then individually confirm the authenticity of any links with a simple click.

If a username is not connected with ORGiD, users will receive a warning message that there is no record and to beware of fake organizations and copied identities. Alternatively, if a scammer attempts to create an ORGiD for a fake organization, the ORGiD Bot’s will reflect this by noting what social media accounts and websites were not verified and whether or not Líf was staked by the company.

Overall, the ORGiD system is designed to be hack-proof and complies with the latest anti-money laundering rules while still being 100% decentralized.

“When cryptocurrency rebounded after an extended downturn, a resurgence of scammers and impersonators came with it,” said Pedro Anderson, COO and Co-Founder of Winding Tree. “Someone even copied my identity on Telegram and contacted a member of my team asking them for a transfer. To tackle the problem, we listed our reps on our ORGiD and created ORGiD Bot as an on-the-go way to verify users who contact us. It worked so well that we can’t wait to share our creation with the rest of the crypto world.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Serena He is a Tech Innovation Fellow from the University of Southern California who is interested in AI and the intersection of design and technology. She enjoys covering news across the digital identity and tech space.

Contact Serena He at serena@identityreview.com.

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