A New Approach to Client Onboarding Using Self-Sovereign Identity and Distributed Ledger

Abstract

Existing client onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes are typically slow, expensive and often accomplished in-person. Moreover, the current identity management models in practice deprive users from having complete control over their digital identity data. Users' identity attributes are stored on multiple centralized repositories, which often follow inadequate security policies. In this paper, we take advantage of Hyperledger Indy, a public and permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT), to develop a digital onboarding framework based on the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) principles. With this framework we take a step towards tackling a number of weaknesses in current KYC processes and identity management models, while addressing the requirements associated with SSI, Privacy by Design and European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).