Portable identity is changing the way we prove who we are—making it faster, safer, and way more user-friendly. When people store their digital credentials directly on their phones, we get faster systems, stronger privacy, and a smoother experience for both users and businesses. In this blog, we’ll break down how portable identity works—and why it’s becoming a game-changer for organizations looking to cut costs, boost efficiency, and build trust.
By Tim Spring
Traditional identity verification and access management systems represent a huge cost and headache for organizations. Indicio Strategic Advisor Tom Plofchan put it best in a recent Indicio Meetup, “Identity verification systems today are disparate. They’re not interoperable across hardware systems. On the software side, they’re not privacy by design, meaning that they aren’t built to be able to erase personally identifiable information and protect PII and, as a result, civil liberties. They inherently require the use of a centralized either repository or a centralized authority in order to provide, ultimately, the verification. This has a number of risks for the companies that have to take and store that data. Data breaches, hacks, etc.”
Today’s identity verification systems are a complex and costly solution to an ultimately simple problem: You need to know who your employees are, who your customers are, and who is accessing your systems.
Portable identity turns the control of the data over to the user. Organizations can lower operational costs from manual onboarding and authorization systems for employees and customers with efficient automation of identity checks, either in person or online, using the information issued as a tamper-proof Verifiable Credential. This method can turn what was a large cost for organizations into a business driver by allowing customers and partner organizations to interact quickly, simply, and securely with your systems without the need for complex integrations.
The business benefits
Businesses can cut costs across the board. This is even true for organizations that rely on a SaaS identity provider that still want to reduce liability, storage costs, and maintenance costs. Indicio Advisor Will Groah explains, “While some enterprises like the SaaS model because they know exactly what their costs are going to be, and that is certainly very important, what portable identity does is allow a digital transformation from that SaaS model that most players are using towards a transaction model. Inherent in that is the ability for institutions who are adopting this technology to be on a path to reduce their costs over time.”
Don’t integrate–interoperate
Businesses can also save time and effort by reducing the need to set up complex integrations between partners, teams, and databases. When customer information can be easily shared to anyone with the verification software, any part of your organization can verify a portable identity and instantly authenticate without checking in with a centralized server. More importantly, partner organizations can use the same credentials to verify your customers and offer them discounts or incentives without needing to reach out to confirm with your systems.
Portable identity evens the playing field for small and medium sized businesses too. Often these organizations don’t have the time, money, or bandwidth to set up a large identity system but still want to drive good customer experiences. As Plofchan commented, “You could be a small company, and effectively, you’re priced out of leveraging digital identity as it currently exists, for all the reasons we said, not interoperable, too many choke points, too much integration work, too much regulatory concern.”
Verifiable Credentials allow any company, regardless of size, to leverage powerful identity systems, and simplify the entire process by issuing trustable digital identities, and providing access with a quick automated verification.
The user benefits too
The biggest win for users? You control your digital identity and can use it anywhere it’s accepted, not just with whoever gave it to you. Say your bank gives you a credential, you can take it to a partner insurance company to verify your information, making things faster and maybe even unlocking perks. It’s kind of like “Login with Google,” but you stay in control– and it works in real life, not just online.
There is no faster, or more convenient user experience than a portable identity. These credentials completely replace the need for passwords, multi factor authentication, security questions, or any other time consuming annoying verification process. You can scan a QR code, prove your identity instantly, and be on your way.
Portable identities also offer much more enhanced security than today’s centralized systems ever could. Any large system today can have hundreds of thousands of people’s identities and acts as a honeypot for bad actors. One breach and everyone’s data is compromised. With portable identities your data is secure on your mobile phone.
Lastly, users of portable identities can be certain of who they are interacting with online. There is currently no way to remove all uncertainty from digital interactions, and scammers are increasingly adept at impersonation attacks or simply creating false information. Indicio VP of Communications and Governance Trevor Butterworth nailed it when he said, “The question is, have we reached a tipping point where we need a new transformational technology to deal with the noise and uncertainty that runs rampant in our digital interactions? Let’s face it, our entire communication system is largely digital, and that noise is fundamentally not knowing who you’re talking to, and you don’t really know whether the information has been altered during the course of its exchange.”
How to get started
The technology is here and ready for adoption. Indicio has spent years building decentralized identity solutions that are easy to implement and fit any use case. Our team would be happy to discuss any projects with you, or you can learn more about our complete solution Indicio Proven.
Or as Plofchan puts it, “if you’re a digital identity manager or a product manager… and you want a pat on the back from your boss. You want to be seen as a visionary leader. You want to help your company open up to markets that they’re not currently open to and get ahead of the trend. This is the conversation to be having now, decentralized verifiable trust networks. And we’d love to help you do it.”
If you would like to learn more about Portable Identities you can watch the full Fireside chat on the subject here:
