Blockchain Meets Biometrics as BitGo Partners With HYPR

Palo Alto-based Bitcoin security platform BitGo recently announced a partnership with HYPR, a New York-based biometrics security firm, to bring biometric authentication to the blockchain space.  

The BitGo-HYPR partnership will see integration of the HYPR-Secure biometric login with BitGo’s multi-signature platform, to provide users with a decentralized identity as well as an added layer of security for cryptocurrency, digital assets, private keys and identities through biometric authentication.

“It’s astounding how often our enterprise clients request a solution for blockchain security upon integration of our technology. BitGo and HYPR share a common view of the importance of decentralized security protocols. I cannot imagine a better team to partner with,” said George Avetisov, CEO of HYPR Corp.

Talking to Planet Biometrics, George Avetisov, CEO and co-founder, HYPR, said that the integration of decentralized biometric authentication with blockchain will address the issue of security and usability associated with digital assets, and increase its adoption.

“Two of the key issues that have hindered adoption of digital assets are security and usability. Decentralized biometric authentication addresses both issues as it manages to drastically increase security while also improving usability.” Avetisov told Planet Biometrics.

This partnership will also provide an integrated solution to financial institutions looking to adopt blockchain/biometric security technology.  The partnership will also see the adoption of Fast Identity Online (FIDO) security standards, bolstering a digital currency giant’s push toward the FIDO protocol.

Talking about how financial institutions and enterprises can prevent data breaches, Avetisov said that HYPR’s decentralized biometric authentication system does not store a user’s biometric credential on a central server. Instead, the storage and encryption of biometric credentials is distributed across all devices, hence it is hacker-proof and secure.

“By decentralizing the biometric data across millions of devices, encrypting it and tokenizing their use at the time of account access, there are multiple benefits,” Avetisov told Planet Biometrics. “The end user is protected, the enterprise deploying the application has lower risk and the UX is superior to passwords. Users are also protected against device loss through revocability, as the enterprise simply disables the public keys used to respond to the authentication in the event of a lost device.”

According to figures provided by the company, BitGo processes around 10,000 transactions on any given day and secures more than $1 billion per month in digital assets.

“All of our customers are asking how to use biometric security to protect their digital assets,” said Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo. “The HYPR team has been laser-focused on this and provides a great solution for us.”

Besides partnering with BitGo, HYPR launched a HYPR-Secure partner program that invites vendors to augment the security of their technologies through its platform. Enterprises looking to learn more about the program can contact david@hypr.com.