Providing a legal identity for all of the world’s population by 2030 is one of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals – and may be more relevant than ever with talks of new coronavirus immunity ID documents underway. In order to have an idea of the status of the world’s current identity problem, about 75% of the people on the planet are currently without a bank account because of their inability to prove their identity via a valid passport, birth certificate, utility bill, or some other means, to complete KYC (Know Your Client) procedures.
A blockchain-based approach might be a starter for an unchangeable record of individual legal identity. This would neutralise dependency on a central issuing authority or government intervention, due to the decentralized nature of the ledger (a ledge meaning whereby the blockchain records and maintains all data exchanges).
Basically speaking, a blockchain can be defined as a growing and interconnected sequence or chain of records, called blocks. Each of those blocks contains a cryptographic hash or ‘identity’ of the previous block, transaction data and its timestamp. As a blockchain is usually managed by a P2P network, the majority of the nodes in that network must be in consensus to approve any change in any block. Those nodes are computers, and each has a copy of the blockchain. A transaction is written into the ledger only if it was approved by a greater number of nodes after inspection of the hash.
With many uses in financial inclusion, smart contracts and the tracking of goods and transactions, blockchain technology is a powerful tool for fighting fraud, as the records cannot be altered retroactively.
With this in mind, we list below 10 of the most promising European startups that are supporting and stretching the use of blockchain through their main services and products.
We compiled this list of top 10 European blockchain startups by analysing growth rate, funding rounds closed, global launches, team size, among others.
