Wisekey ID Blockchain-based solutions to override the need for a central
digital identity authority by distributing information across a network
of participating nodes
Geneva, Switzerland -- July 16, 2019: WISeKey International Holding Ltd
(WIHN.SW) ("WISeKey"), a Swiss based cybersecurity, IoT and blockchain
company combining traditional Cryptographic Trust Models with blockchain
global distributed ledgers is creating a new Global Trust Platform for
Secure Electronic Transactions under the umbrella of the International
Organization for Secure Electric Transactions, OISTE.ORG.
According to the latest estimates, we generate around 2.5 quintillion
bytes of data every day. That's 2.5 followed by 17 zeros -- or rather
2.5 trillion million -- a number that's impossible to visualize
intuitively, but nonetheless has massive implications for our online
privacy, security and ability to keep our digital identities under our
own personal control.
Blockchain-based solutions aim to override the need for a central
authority by distributing information previously held in a centralized
repository across a network of participating nodes. While blockchain is
not owned by one individual or organization, anyone with an internet
connection (and access, in the case of private blockchains) can make use
of it, help maintain and verify it. When a transaction is made on a
blockchain, it is added to a group of transactions, known as 'blocks."
Each block of transactions is added to the database in a chronological,
immutable chain. Each block is stamped with a unique cryptographic code,
which ensures that records are not counterfeited or changed. The
blockchain approach lacks legal validity in most jurisdictions, which
only recognize the digital signatures as equally valid that manuscript
signatures when generated using traditional PKI technology.
A user-controlled digital identity typically starts with a number,
unique to an individual, that is associated with a public key for which
the user has the private key issued by the OISTE/WISeKey Crypto Graphic
RootKey. The WISeID Network is a most deployed standard for digital
identity operating since 1998 by a non for-profit organization -
OISTE.ORG -- designed to bring the neutrality, trust, consent, personal
control, and ease-of-use of Digital IDs to the Internet.
A Root of Trust (RoT) is a source that can always be trusted within a
cryptographic system. A principal example is a Trusted Certification
Authority (CA) which generates digital certificates that can be used for
legally binding signed electronic transactions. The traditional PKI does
not fit well with the heterogeneous blockchain distributed trust model
that leverages the existing trust domains and bridges them to create
end-to-end trust between them without relying on any common RoT.
The combination of RoT with blockchain generates a new Trust protocol in
order to allow the blockchain to scale trusted transactions with
embedded security, ensuring that each transaction submitted to the
blockchain is digitally signed using keys that are trusted by the RoT
and combining a vertical trust process verified by a reputable Third
Trusted Party with the inherent decentralized trust provided by the
blockchain.
This dual Trust Model solves one of the biggest challenges for the
Internet which is to bridge the currently fragmented trust domains
including existing, incompatible national RoT used by many governments.
By combining RoT with blockchain, our innovative Trust protocol enables
a wide range of use cases and business models that simply are not
possible with using just current blockchain-based solutions.
One concrete application on the use of this new Trust protocol is
WISeCoin. WISeCoin is a Trusted Distributed Ledger Technology of
Identity used to store the identity of objects and peoples and offers
connected objects the ability to identify, authenticate and verify each
other with a digital certificate. During each interaction, the
Blockchain of Identity verifies and validates each digital certificate
to secure the interaction. To compensate the use of the platform, a
micro service fee is charged through a utility token, called the
WISeCoin token.
Wisecoin operates in sync with WISeKey's WISeID that offers a secured
storage to protect personally identifiable information (PII). Protecting
individual's PII is important to avoid impersonation and identity
theft. The personal data that individuals save in WISeID always stays
under their control, is encrypted with strong keys derived from a
password that they choose and only they know and is never communicated
to third parties.
About OISTE.ORG
Founded in Switzerland in 1998, OISTE.ORG was created with the
objectives of promoting the use and adoption of international standards
to secure electronic transactions, expand the use of digital
certification and ensure the interoperability of certification
authorities' e-transaction systems. The OISTE Foundation is a not for
profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, regulated by article
80 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code. OISTE is an organization in special
consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United
Nations (ECOSOC) and belongs to the Not-for-Profit constituency (NPOC)
of the ICANN. http://www.oiste.org/.
Mission: transfer the control and management of technologies dealing
with Internet Trust and digital identities to neutral authorities
working for the public interest. Vision: an Internet where users engage
in online transactions and communications under systems of digital
identity management that offer robust protection against fraud and theft,
while protecting the fundamental right to privacy.
About WISeKey
WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity
company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for
people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as
the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the
pervasive computing shaping today's Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT
has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT
sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors,
anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones,
crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge
of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that,
when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial
applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it
happens.
Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey's Swiss based
cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") provides secure authentication and
identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the
Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey
RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online
transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more
information, visit www.wisekey.com.
Press and investor contacts:
WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com
WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact: Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com
Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain
forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd
and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual
results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey
International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is
providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to
update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a
solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not
constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or
article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus
within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its
securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained
herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to
the future performance of WISeKey.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 16, 2019 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT)
