HAC2 PAIDIT

PAIDIT: Private Anonymous Identity for Digital Transfers

To  serve the 80 million forcibly-displaced people around the globe, direct cash  assistance is gaining acceptance. The trouble is that the identity  requirements normally attached to digital payments conflict with ICRC’s  mandate to serve all people in need neutrally and inclusively. ICRC’s  beneficiaries often do not have, or do not want, the ATM cards or mobile  wallets normally used to spend or withdraw cash digitally, because issuers  would subject them to privacy-invasive identity verification and potential  screening against sanctions and counterterrorism watchlists. ICRC’s  neutrality and protection standards do not allow programs to obligate  beneficiaries to this unwanted exposure to the requirements of local  authorities. On top of that, existing solutions increase the risk of data  leaks or surveillance induced by the many third parties having access to the  data generated in the transactions. The proposed research focuses on the  identity, account, and wallet management challenges in the design of a humanitarian  cryptocurrency or token intended to address the above problems. The research  effort will in particular design and prototype a digital wallet intended to  inspire and guide a potential future extension of ICRC’s RedSafe platform to  support digital payments. The project’s technical research effort will focus  on the challenges of creating digital wallets that are highly usable and  privacy-preserving, yet accountable and abuseresistant, while verifying users  primarily in terms of personhood rather than identity. For privacy, the  wallet will require minimum, and at most self-reported and unverified,  identity information for account creation, and will avoid the collection of  unencrypted data, or even exposing metadata about these accounts, in any centralized  database. For accountability, the system will offer aid workers several  privacy-preserving “personhood verification” methods, as alternatives to  identity-based KYC, enabling agencies to reach a threshold of confidence in a  beneficiary’s legitimacy and perform risk-based due diligence (RBDD).

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_{Credits Main Image: ICRC./ Boris Heger / 10.03.2005/ Chaladidi, Kobi district.}