Deloitte, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, is integrating the KILT blockchain, a Polkadot parachain focusing on decentralized identities and verifiable credentials, Polkadot announced on May 4.

Deloitte will use KILT to support its know-your-customer (KYC) and know-your-business (KYB) processes, which are vital to protect institutions against fraud, corruption, money laundering, and other crimes.

According to KILT, the typical KYC/KYB process is laden with inefficiencies. It sometimes involves verifying paper-based documents and customer data is stored across multiple platforms, creating privacy risks. Moreover, after the verification, a certificate is issued, which can only be used once by the verifier while the customer never receives the certificate.

With reusable KYC and KYB credentials generated using KILT’s identity infrastructure, credentials are stored inside the users’ wallets on their own devices. This gives the user complete control over their data at all times. It is up to the user to decide how and which data points of their credentials they share, and with whom. To help users manage and share their credentials, Deloitte will offer a wallet as a browser extension.

(by Monika Ghosh)