Sphere Identity Platform

Digital identity privacy has become a critical modern issue for individuals who want control over their personal data and organizations that collect and maintain it. Privacy laws and initiatives are expanding worldwide, including the EU’s GDPR, APEC’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules to support trusted data flows between economies, and emerging US state laws driven by major breaches and scandals. Vermont requires data brokers to register, disclose what they collect, provide opt-out options, notify on breaches, and enable legal recourse, while California’s Consumer Privacy Act takes effect in 2020. At the same time, organizations must often meet KYC and AML obligations, creating tension between verifying users and minimizing data collection.

Sphere Identity proposes a blockchain-based self-sovereign identity approach where individuals hold verifiable credentials and control attribute sharing. Organizations benefit by relying on validation performed by trusted entities (such as banks or governments) and by reducing the need to store and manage sensitive credentials. The platform emphasizes usability, privacy controls and granularity, economic incentives for both consumers and businesses, and governance to build trust.

Sphere Identity delivers a consumer mobile app (iOS/Android) and a business web application integrated via SDK/API. Consumers upload identity documents, manage consent, and receive simplified consent language plus cross-border transfer risk notifications. When consent is granted, data is shared with the business and consumers receive Ethereum smart-contract rewards; a wallet and seed-phrase recovery are included. Passwords are avoided in favor of MFA (keys + fingerprint or PIN). The SaaS platform provides document verification, scoring, subscription management, consent lifecycle management, and encrypted document storage, using Ethereum and distributed storage for resilience and integrity. Business access is controlled through shared-key encryption derived from both parties’ key pairs, and businesses can choose among Zero Data (zero-knowledge proof), Data Only, or Data + Downloads offerings. Strengths include one-click onboarding, GDPR alignment, and Security/Privacy by Design; challenges include SMS-based MFA for admins, limited device roaming, seed-phrase recovery risk, beta maturity, and a geographically constrained initial market.

• The California Consumer Privacy Act was enacted and takes effect in 2020.
• Vermont passed a law requiring data brokers to register, disclose collection practices, provide opt-out options, notify breaches, and enable legal recourse for misuse.
• APEC initiated Cross-Border Privacy Rules requiring participating organizations to align policies with the APEC Privacy Framework.
• Some organizations are required to comply with KYC and AML, which require knowing something about the user.
• Sphere Identity is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, with an office in Singapore and Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Sphere Identity targets the E-Commerce industry in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
• The consumer app supports Android and iOS and uses cryptographic libraries for key generation and encryption.
• The platform uses Ethereum smart contracts for rewards and distributed storage for the platform.
• The platform is offered as Software-as-a-Service and includes document verification, a scoring model, subscription management, and rewards distribution.
• The consumer app supports five languages: English, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, and Russian.

• “Privacy of an individual’s digital identity data is becoming one of the critical issues of our modern times.”
• “A self-sovereign identity allows an individual to have a verifiable credential in a safe way that maintains their privacy.”
• “Individuals can create and maintain that identity giving them full control over data they provide when used.”
• “Failure to comply can lead to fines and damage to the organization’s reputation.”
• “Passwords are not used with the Sphere Identity mobile applications.”
• “A cross-border data transfer risk notification is presented to all users, which they must give consent during the registration process.”
• “Since blockchains are decentralized, there is not one point of failure ensuring data recovery.”
• “The Sphere Identity platform also ensures privacy end-to-end by using Security by Design (SbD) principles in every component of the platform.”
• “Sphere Identity simplifies the onboarding process by providing a one-click customer sign-up process that does not require the user to type anything.”
• “Sphere Identity’s three data offerings give the organization flexibility to change how much of the customer's data they wish to maintain.”