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As data breaches rise and digital privacy is eroded, centralized identity systems are coming under fire. A new model is gaining ground—one that gives users full control over their personal information.
Among those leading this shift is Vishesh Mistry, Senior AI Scientist at Tech5. The company is moving beyond its biometrics origins to build a fully decentralized digital ID system, with AI playing a key role in securing it.
Vote of no confidence: "We're working towards fully decentralized digital ID. This puts huge emphasis on the data, on privacy, and on security," Mistry explains. Today’s digital ID systems are largely centralized, creating a single point of failure. "When that happens, there is a big roar and the public loses confidence in the government," says Mistry.
What's mine is mine: To prevent breaches, Tech5 is shifting to a decentralized model where users store data on their own devices. "The user will own the data. Not the government, not the verifying party, and not any third-party services," Mistry explains.
That shift makes large-scale hacks far less likely. "Hackers would need to hack every single phone or device to get access to data, which is protected using layers of encryption," he says. The goal is simple: "Privacy and security have always been a pain point in the biometrics industry and we want to eliminate that altogether."
Non-AI methods are more easily hacked and reverse engineered. AI adds a layer of protection. AI has really paved the way for faster, more robust, more accurate solutions, especially in the biometrics and digital ID domain.
Brains meet brawn: Beyond decentralization, AI adds muscle. "Non-AI methods are more easily hacked and reverse engineered. AI adds a layer of protection," Mistry says. But it’s not just about defense. "AI has really paved the way for faster, more robust, more accurate solutions, especially in the biometrics and digital ID domain."
Bye-bye, bias: Despite AI’s strengths, bias remains a stubborn issue. "Every biometric system in the world suffers from bias. There is no perfect algorithm," Mistry admits, citing problems like unbalanced training data. That’s why the focus now, he says, is razor-sharp: "We want the bias to be extremely low. We don't want the algorithm to falsely accuse or to falsely reject any individual."
Wallet of the future: With quantum computing on the horizon, security standards are getting a serious upgrade. "AI in cryptography has to be done right. The final solution has to be quantum-safe," Mistry says. Tech5’s answer is a hybrid approach, pairing AI with traditional algorithms for long-term protection.
Tech5’s endgame is a fully decentralized digital ID—one that lives entirely on a user's device. "Everything can be done from this decentralized wallet: your payment information, your biographic data, your ID cards. Nothing leaves your phone," Mistry says.
