At Digital Jersey’s annual review, it was encouraging to hear from world renowned Identity and Blockchain expert and author Dave Birch that Jersey has a unique opportunity to capitalise on leveraging blockchain technologies.
It would be the missed opportunity of a generation if Jersey does not fully get to grips with some of the options available and take advantage of them to become a leader instead of a follower.
Jersey has the prospect to provide a platform for Digital Identity, Know Your Client (KYC) and Client Due Diligence (CDD) that not only makes it easier for individuals to do business with Jersey-based financial services companies, but also provides a benefit to those users in a local and global context.
It is entirely possible for the approach proposed in this paper to result in there being NO cost to the tax payer.
It would clearly be advantageous if the government and/or regulator were paid for any activities that incur effort or cost, and have re-usable value, than the tax payer footing the bill for activities concerning predominantly off-island residents.
This may sound unrealistic but it is entirely possible and would clearly be desirable from a tax-payer’s perspective, especially given the need for Jersey to balance its books and an eGov spend of over £9M which included a Digital ID project for Jersey citizens (unlikely to be accepted by the regulator and financial services organisations for numerous reasons; architecture of the platform, all customer data being stored centrally and off island, lack of core ID features such as selective disclosure using zero knowledge proofs).
Jersey has a real opportunity to be a leader in this space, and positively affect the financial services industry, rather than a follower.
It is incumbent on all of us (government, regulator, industry, citizens) to evaluate options that are for the greater good of our island; if the proposed solution is adopted, there would be additional benefits including further diversification or our economy; export of the Intellectual Property (IP) from an identity and technology perspective, ability to fill some of the dramatically increasing demand for specialist skills.
The whitepaper that explores options available (co-authored with ID2020 Founder and Chairman John Edge) is available for download.
Comments welcome, or better yet, improvements will be accepted on Github.
Download the whitepaper here: The Case for an Identity Verification Token Sale in Jersey
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