theloop and RaonSecure Jointly Develop the World's First Blockchain-Based Biometric Authentication (FIDO) System
FIDO (Fast Identity Online) is an international standard for biometric authentication using fingerprints, irises, facial recognition, and similar methods, and it is drawing attention as one of the most promising next-generation authentication technologies. Because FIDO servers follow a centralized system model, however, there have been few cases of combining them with blockchain's decentralized model. The particular challenge has been that the FIDO server must be implemented in a smart contract on a blockchain node.
With demand rising simultaneously for blockchain-based integrated IDs and for FIDO authentication, the two companies are conducting joint research and development aimed at establishing an innovative blockchain-based FIDO authentication system model.
Earlier projects generated authentication data and then stored it in distributed form across blockchain nodes, but because they left out the consensus process on smart contracts — the essential element of a blockchain — questions were raised about how they differed from a distributed database. In this project, by contrast, the FIDO server's generation and verification of authentication data are implemented as smart contracts, so FIDO authentication can be handled with shared trust among connected nodes using the blockchain alone, with no separate authentication server built outside it. The key difference is that this makes full use of the advantage of a distributed system: no single entity controls it.
The blockchain biometric authentication system the two companies are developing not only reduces the security risks that arise in centralized systems such as accredited or private certificates, but also delivers a different level of trust through consensus among blockchain nodes. Attention is now focused worldwide on whether this new model will become the foundation for a global standard.
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