ShareRing Stands to Change How We Use Online Applications: Decentralized Identities and Web 3.0

Identity theft, as well as cybercrime in general, has increased significantly over the last few years. In this regard, recent data released by the Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) shows that between 2020 and 2021, the number of data compromises in the United States alone rose by a whopping 68%. Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network reported a total of 5.7 million complaints last year. Of this number, nearly 25 percent were related to identity theft, while 50% were related to data fraud.

If that wasn’t enough, as per a recent IBM-funded study, the cost of a single data breach has spiked from approx $3.9M to a whopping $4.2M since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the number of cybercrime complaints received by the FBI surged by 7% between 2020 and 2021 (hitting a relative high of 847,376 complaints). Last but not the least, over the next three years, conservative estimates released by Cybersecurity Ventures, the world’s leading cybercrime research organization, see the rate of identity theft and data breaches increasing exponentially, rising from their 2015 valuation of $3T to a whipping $10.5T by 2025.

Decentralized identities are the future

As the data above indicates, privacy data infringements have been growing at a seemingly unstoppable pace recently. As a result of this trend, the need for blockchain-based self-sovereign identities has surged quite rapidly, especially since these products allow individuals to gain complete control over how they choose to share, own and control their personal information.

To elaborate, by harnessing the power of blockchain-based identities, individuals can be in total control over who gets to see/access their private data. This is in direct opposition to how traditional ID systems work, wherein once a person has shared their data with a particular platform, the company can potentially share this info with their associates in lieu of monetary gains.

Furthermore, users of blockchain-based IDs are not required to trust third parties with their information, nor do they have to store their info with an untrusted physical or electronic source, which is typically how TtradF-fi entities — like banks, social media platforms, etc. — maintain their clients’ data. To expand on the topic, it should be pointed out that verified digital identities when coupled with traditional data-sharing networks, allow for the circumvention of many regulatory and reputational risks that are traditionally associated with data breaches.

The market is evolving quickly… A closer look

With growing instances of people’s private info being misused by Big Tech firms coming to the forefront over the last few years, several privacy-oriented folks are waking up to the fact that their data can and is being misused almost daily. Just last year, the data of 533 million people spread out across 106 countries were reported to have been leaked from Facebook’s servers. Similar occurrences have also been witnessed in relation to other prominent social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, etc.

As a result, the demand for data privacy solutions in the market has increased dramatically in recent years. ShareRing is one such offering. It serves as a decentralized platform seeking to change how an individual’s data is shared across various online applications. The offering allows users to come up with their personal decentralized identities (DID), giving them complete control over their data.

Not only that, the project is rooted in the ethos of transparency and thus affords users the chance to use various Web3 applications without having to stress about censorship-related issues or other problems related to third-party surveillance, as is typically the case with most centralized digital platforms.

From an operational standpoint, it should be noted that ShareRing comes with two key modules, namely ShareRing ID and ShareRing Vault. Each feature involves users verifiably uploading their personal identification documents onto a blockchain. Once this is done, they can manage their data all by themselves, with none of the uploaded assets ever coming into contact with a centralized database. This allows them to maintain complete authority over their IDs, documents, etc without having to rely on anyone else.

Another option worth checking out in this regard is KILT, an open-source blockchain protocol that helps allow its users to navigate the fast-expanding Web3 ecosystem without having to reveal any of their sensitive data to another person unless needed. Similarly, Nuggets is another platform worthy of consideration by individuals seeking to maximize their privacy. It is a decentralized, self-sovereign identity and payment platform, allowing users to facilitate monetary transactions seamlessly without having to share their private data with vendors, e-commerce platforms, etc.

Looking ahead

As the world continues to move towards a more decentralized mode of operation seemingly with each passing day, it stands to reason that the need for high-quality privacy/security offerings will only continue to grow in the near future. In this regard, projects like ShareRing stand to completely revamp how the exchange of sensitive information occurs on a global scale. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how this space continues to evolve from here on out.

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