As many of you know I am based in Zurich, quite close to some of the most interesting Blockchain Incubators, not only from Europe but globally. Over here, there is a sense of "everything is possible", which is a result of the mix of great talent coming out of top universities, mixed with a lot of Venture Capital for seed funding.

ICOs have changed how things are done, for the better. Now, even companies which were based on more traditional business models are jumping into the Blockchain frenzy.

In the last few weeks, partially due to my work as a Steemit blogger and SmartSteem mod., I have been introduced to some great entrepreneurs who are shaping the future, right here, right now.

Yesterday I introduced you to the future of Logistics, today I would like to present you the future of personal data protection and personal identification; “Val:ID”.

I have mentioned before that I have worked in the KYC, AML and compliance Banking Sector before, and this topic is quite appealing to me. Even more now, when regulators are no longer accepting a faceless crypto market and even less one where billions flow into ICOs. One team that stood out to me as they took compliance and the KYC to the next level is the Zurich-based project VALID. The CEO of the project is serial Swiss blockchain entrepreneur Daniel Gasteiger and the advisory team includes Monique Morrow, ex-CTO of Cisco, Eva Kaili, Member of European Parliament and Malik el Bay, ex-CEO of Modum, which was one of the most successful ICOs of 2017.

So, what is Valid?

In short, VALID is a digital ID as well as a personal data marketplace. Earning money and controlling your personal data may sound like a far-fetched idea but new government regulations such as GDPR in Europe allow everyone to request their entire personal data from corporates in machine-readable form.

Think in ValID as a marketplace for personal data, well encrypted, secure, and available to share with others in exchange for a reward, under your full control.

With VALID, users will be able to authenticate online and safeguard their personal data thanks to state-of-the-art encryption. Furthermore, users will be able to proactively share anonymized data, thus enabling the creation of target audience filters on the VALID platform for digital advertisers. In return, users will receive timely, relevant marketing AND be rewarded in VALID tokens.”

One example; I would download the VALID App and allow VALID to request all my personal data from other blockchain personal data storages (Civic, SelfKey, TheKey, etc.) and from Facebook, Google, Amazon, my doctors, banks and so on. Then I can either just safely store this data locally or receive offers to sell my data for research purposes, participate in surveys or receive tailored product offers.

The company behind Valid is Procivis AG, established in 2016 in Zurich and is already providing e-government services and digital identity solutions to governments.

They have received a strategic investment by the NEO Council, indicating that they will explore the NEO blockchain as one of the supported blockchains on their marketplace.

With the above said, you should realize the opportunity in this - largely unexplored - field. Furthermore, just imagine this marketplace with hundreds of thousands of users, how convenient it would be for a brand to launch a targeted marketing campaign or for a pharma company to search for research participants/datasets.

For all those transactions, the token will be ValID, requiring large companies to acquire big quantities to reward the users, hence pushing prices up and rewarding early token adopters.

Links

Website: https://valid.global

Telegram: https://t.me/valid_global

Twitter: https://twitter.com/valid_global

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/valid_global/

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2759552.0;all

Valid has already raised 10,700,000 USD including an investment by the NEO Council. The ICO will end in 2 days so there is still a chance to participate. VALID does not offer referral or bounty programs as they have a policy of relying on organic growth. The team has laid great focus on building a strong community and is now offering early participants an opportunity to give a 15% discount to their friends/community who share the VALID vision.

My code will be “valid” for up to 5 people:

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