ShoCard, a blockchain-based identity management (IM) ecosystem, announces its upcoming initial coin offering (ICO) for its cryptocurrency ShoCoin (SHO). The cryptocurrency will provide a financial mechanism for users and service providers to securely engage in transactions that use an individual’s identity and other personal attributes with less friction. This will help expand the digital identity market to create a more secure, privacy-enabled ecosystem, which is already embraced by SITA, Bank AlJazira, Creditinfo, BubbleTone and others. Fully integrated into the ShoCard IM Platform, these tokens enable IM transactions by compensating users and service providers. ShoCoins are currently available for presale via a SAFT contract, and will be issued using the ShoCard Inc. entity, with the public crowdsale to qualified investors slated to begin on April 16, 2018.
Identity is the core gateway into nearly all digital and real-world services. From financial institutions and travelling, to something as basic as ordering an alcoholic beverage, validating identity is a part of everyday life. However, each time a person’s identity is shared with a third party, individuals forfeit privacy, take on the inherent risk of a third-party security breach and pay the price of the extra time, money and hassle it takes to be authenticated.
Founded in 2015 by Armin Ebrahimi, a former Yahoo! executive who built out Yahoo!’s advertising platform, ShoCard uses the immutable blockchain, a peer-to-peer public ledger that bypasses arbiters and intermediaries, and allows peers to establish trust and verify identity that is cryptographically secure. With ShoCard, an individual’s identity stays with them on their mobile device, locked under a private key. This makes sharing and authenticating an identity more efficient, private and secure, freeing individuals from the burden of maintaining separate user IDs and passwords for each service used. ShoCard allows its users to decide which parts of their identity they want to share and with whom it is shared, eliminating the necessity of centralized databases full of personally identifiable information (PII) that can be hacked and used against individuals and enterprises.
“Mobile devices, which have proliferated our culture to be an extension of ourselves, combined with blockchain technology, allow us to carry a verifiable method of identification with us at all times,” said Armin Ebrahimi, founder and CEO of ShoCard. “We’re at a pivotal moment in the evolution of identity technology, especially in terms of access and control. Individuals want to have as much control over their identity as possible – dictating what is shared and with whom, without having to trust third parties to keep their data secure. Service providers and enterprises need to be ahead of this demand to offer the highest quality security and service.”
ShoCard’s lead investors have been Morado Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. The Digital Currency Group (DCG), which invests exclusively in the blockchain space, was an early investor in ShoCard, and believes blockchain has significantly more purposes beyond virtual currency.
“Many of the globe’s largest brands are already adopting ShoCard. The ShoCard solution is really on the rise. We think this idea of Bring Your Own ID is just the beginning,” said Jerry Yang, Founding Partner at AME Cloud and Co-Founder of Yahoo! “ShoCard is taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity being offered by blockchain, allowing a decentralized, yet very safe and private, ability to have ID authenticated.”
ShoCard is not an idea or prototype, but a product already in use. ShoCard has secured contracts with two major global credit card networks, several banks and a multi-national credit reporting company, as well as a number of enterprise clients with its ShoBadge product. Additionally, the company is working with a major international airline and a government immigration agency to build a blockchain-based Traveler ID using the ShoCard IM Platform. Furthermore, ShoCard has partnered with a major federated identity provider to expand the reach of this revolutionary technology to enterprises. The company is also working with a major RFID reader to expand its enterprise solution to the healthcare, government and manufacturing industries. Mobile identity verified by the blockchain can be applied to other markets as well, including education, document notarization, law enforcement and beyond.
To learn more about ShoCard, please visit https://shocard.com. Qualified investors, as defined under Regulation D under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, can learn more about how to invest in ShoCoins during its public presale, which is taking place from now until the crowdsale begins on April 16, at https://shocard.com/tokensale.
