Member-only story
The Story of Decentralized Identity
Three years ago I was moving from my Jersey City apartment to a new apartment in midtown Manhattan. The real estate agent seeing me through the process explained all the necessary documentation I will need to present to the landlord to prove I’m eligible and worthy of renting a place in the middle of the island.
This was not an ordinary rental application — I had to provide proof of employment, rental background check, bank statements with steady income, savings and investment statements to make sure I had the proper buffer should anything go wrong, even my marriage certificate for reasons I can’t remember now.
And then I got the place! I moved in and all was good. Until the bank called me few days later to inform me that someone wanted to cash in a pretty big check drawn on my account. I asked the bank rep how can they cash it when I don’t even have that much cash in my checking account. They told me “I” had just transferred it from my savings account on the phone with another bank rep.
Luckily, the theft didn’t happen, but it was a masterfully crafted plan:
1. Call the bank in my name; 2. change my phone number to be able to confirm large withdrawal; 3. transfer all my savings to my checking account; 4. make a fake check with my account number and go cash it in.
They were able to do this because they had all my information to prove they are me: access to my balances, my recent deposits, my SSN. Thankfully, the phone number update didn’t happen immediately with the bank, so when they called to verify the large withdrawal they called my real number, instead the updated one. We were able to prevent the fraud, but didn’t catch the person who did it.
Most of the time we don’t realize how much our private data is exposed and shared. Often we don’t even question how much information about us we should share to get something. Do you really need all those sensitive details about me to go through even a simple process as a rental application for a tiny apartment? Why do you need to see my bank history to verify I have sufficient income, or see my name and address on my ID to verify I’m over 21? Why do we still rely on physical documents to prove something about us in this age of technological advancement?
