Security is of great importance to the world of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, and strategic partnerships will bring more legitimacy to this industry. Gemalto, a company, working on security solutions who recently partnered with Symbiont, has introduced their biometric security platform. The primary goal is to deploy this new feature in consumer-grade electronics shortly, which would impact Bitcoin adoption.
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Gemalto Focuses on Biometric Security
Consumer electronics need to be protected properly, and username and password combinations are a thing of the past. Particularly where payment solutions in the financial sector are concerned, improved security features can play a big role in safeguarding consumer details.
Biometric features can become the new norm in the field of security, and Gemalto will demonstrate their new technology by using a smartwatch with a fingerprint sensor. In fact, this demo will be a joint collaboration between Gemalto, Fingerprint Cards, Precise Biometrics, and STMicroelectronics. Coming up with a biometric solution is not an easy feat, as the collective expertise of all of these companies can create a potent feature.
This biometric security solution works by combining a fingerprint sensor with fingerprint software and a secure NFC solution based on low power microcontrollers. By the look of things, this new security feature will not be compatible with most of the existing consumer electronics in existence right now.
That being said, this biometrics solution will remove the complexity of using various username and password combinations for different platforms. One universal verification procedure to access any service or platform the end user will ever use sounds great on paper, but it remains to be seen if such a solution is feasible in reality.
Linking an individual fingerprint to the end user’s biometrics will be the key challenge to overcome for this collaborative effort. But perhaps the biggest challenge will be how the details will be stored, as no technical details were revealed. This is where distributed ledger technology could come into the picture.
Using The Blockchain For Data Protection
Assuming this joint biometric collaboration by Gemalto and partners works efficiently, there is a new security factor to take into consideration. If consumers will be able to use fingerprint scanning and biometrics for all of their services and platforms, storing all of this data becomes even more important than it was ever before.
Storing this vital consumer information on a decentralized ledger such as the blockchain seems to be the obvious choice. Gemalto has already partnered with blockchain startup Symbiont.io in recent months, so the company knows what this technology is capable of. Centralized data storage solutions are out of the question where biometrics are concerned, as going down that path will only invite hackers to breach the databases.
Another question that arises is whether or not biometric security can affect Bitcoin usage all over the world. Nearly every wallet solution available today uses a pin code or passphrase to provide additional security, which is not all that secure to begin with. Biometrics could play an interesting role in this regard as the tehcnology matures.
What are your thoughts on using biometric security? Will it affect Bitcoin usage in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Gemalto
Images courtesy of Gemalto, Shutterstock