Big four auditing firm Deloitte integrated the privacy developed by cryptography startup QEDIT into its qualification information blockchain platform Eduscrypt, a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 29 reveals.
Per the release, the announcement was made at the ZKProof Community Event in Amsterdam today.
Another application of ZK-Proofs
The event was dedicated to Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZK-Proofs), an advanced kind of cryptography — which QEDIT’s solution uses — that allows to verify data without actually revealing it. The platform that has been updated to enhance its privacy is Deloitte’s Eduscrypt, and its purpose is to enable organizations to track, share, and validate the qualifications of staff.
Eduscrypt reportedly allows verification that qualifications are authentic, reduces data errors and creates a shared and permissioned repository of qualification information shared between organizations. Chief Technology Officer of Deloitte’s EMEA Blockchain Lab said:
“Academics and enterprises both stand to benefit hugely from leveraging blockchain technology — for most organisations validating, managing and recording the education qualifications of staff and prospective hires can be a very onerous and costly process, with regulatory fines for non-compliance. Integrating QEDIT’s Zero-Knowledge Proof privacy solution ensures that organisations can trust in the authenticity of qualifications, while preserving the full privacy of the underlying data, and upholding regulatory compliance.”
Private transactions on blockchains
The company explains that it uses ZK-Proofs to allow enterprise blockchain users to record and authenticate transfers without revealing the confidential information involved. Network participants can verify the integrity of the transactions, but they cannot see who sent how much and to whom.
That being said, the company also provides regulators the tools needed to ensure compliance. QEDIT CEO and co-founder Jonathan Rouach commented by praising the cryptographic innovation that the firm’s system employs:
“The integration of QEDIT’s privacy solution into Deloitte’s Eduscrypt platform is yet another tangible use-case, demonstrating the far-reaching potential of zero-knowledge proof cryptography to transform processes across a myriad of industries.”
As Cointelegraph reported in September, Byzantium, the first half of the Metropolis hard fork development enabled the use of ZK-Proofs on the Ethereum public blockchain.