The meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies after over decade of their invention, has made blockchain one of the hottest digital trends of recent times. Going beyond virtual coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the technology has also set the stage for digitisation of assets, since it makes counterfeiting almost impossible.

The safety offered by cryptography is what makes blockchains a preferred tool for creation of digital tokens which are seen as bankable investment options among netizens in the Middle East. To capitalise on this popularity of the technology, a startup in Kuwait has launched services to safeguard virtual identities of customers through the medium.

Designed to do away with the hassle of filling up online forms for banks, educational institutions, insurance firms and other entities separately, AKces wants to make smartphones a tool for instant verification of credentials. Apart from making life easier for individuals, the firm is also promising support for digital businesses by helping them collect and process customer data accurately.

The firm registers the KYC information or the digital ID of a person on blockchains, so that their personal information stays safe, and can be shared with different organisations only with their permission. Thanks to distributed ledger tech, AKcess is able to replicate the virtual credentials of a person, and share it with multiple institutions like banks and insurers.

But this doesn't mean that the system copies the entire information, instead it simply creates a hash or fingerprint of the digital document, which can be provided for verification. To add another layer of safety for user privacy, AKcess doesn't maintain any central database, and instead customers can store the blockchain-based ID on their smartphones.

With the rise of fintech and online banking in the Middle East, AKcess has gained ground among financial service providers in Kuwait.

Although the Kuwaiti authorities are wary of cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based assets due to their volatility, the same technology being used to secure consumer data can be game-changing in the digital era.