BLOCKSMITH&Co. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Tetsuya Sanada, ; hereinafter "BLOCKSMITH") and Liquid, Inc（Head office:Chuo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Hiroki Hasegawa, ; hereinafter “Liquid”）are pleased to announce that they have signed a basic agreement on September 11 for the joint development of Web3 Wallet utilizing facial recognition technology.
Aim of Business Alliance
Traditional Web3 wallets have the following issues.
・Risk of loss or compromise of passwords
Authentication for everyday use is performed by passwords set independently by the user, so the risk of loss or leakage of passwords cannot be separated.
・Risk of loss of seed phrases
Most self-custody Web3 wallets use a seed phrase, a random sequence of 12 to 24 English words, to restore the wallet when a device is replaced, but if the seed phrase is forgotten, unable to access to the wallet's assets. In addition, seed phrases must be self-managed, and in the event of loss, a third party cannot be asked to assist in their recovery.
Because of these issues, Web3 was not easy to use, and this was a major impediment to its widespread adoption. To solve this problem, BLOCKSMITH, which develops Web3-related businesses, has decided to combine its proprietary Web3 wallet with Liquid's facial recognition technology, which is strong in biometric authentication and has performed a cumulative total of more than 30 million identity verifications. Facial recognition, provided by Liquid's "LIQUID Auth", which verifies that the service user is the person registered at the time of account opening, will be used for authentication at the time of use and restoration. The joint development by BLOCKSMITH and Liquid of the "Face Recognition Web3 Wallet," which offers both security and convenience, will promote the creation and expansion of the market and the realization of a Web3 society that everyone can use with peace of mind.
The "Face Recognition Web3 Wallet" jointly developed by the two companies will first be introduced to BLOCKSMITH's "QAQA," A Vertical Short Video Quiz Application, and then expanded to various services on BLQS Verse, a proprietary Oasys Layer 2 blockchain (Verse) developed by BLOCKSMITH.
About QAQA
‘QAQA’ is a user-contributed short vertical video quiz application that allows users to accumulate "Chips" by taking quizzes and answering questions correctly in a row, and exchange the accumulated "Chips" for "BLQS," a crypto asset.
In the alpha version to be released this time, only some functions such as quiz questions and answers can be experienced. Various event functions, NFTs, crypto asset "BLQS", and a proprietary wallet will be added sequentially.
URL： https://qaqa.io/
About LIQUID Auth
This service verifies that the user of a service is the same person registered at the start of use in a wide range of situations such as online banking, e-commerce, ATMs, online testing, and automated access control. In addition to terminal authentication and FIDO authentication, which are means of authentication of possession using a smartphone terminal, the system is characterized by providing a series of authentication methods that can be used with the right person at the right time, such as Auth Face, which uses face data with verified identity in conjunction with the LIQUID eKYC identity verification service. Since it is extremely difficult to tamper with pre-verified facial data after the fact, it is possible to prevent identity theft even if other authentication information, such as passwords or smartphone devices, are stolen.
URL： https://liquidinc.asia/liquid-auth/
≪About BLOCKSMITH&Co.≫
Company Name: BLOCKSMITH&Co.
President and CEO: Tetsuya Sanada
Establishment: April 1, 2022
Capital: 14,999,950 JPY
Head office: Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6122
Business: Development and distribution of products such as blockchain technology and crypto assets utilising NFTs
URL：https://www.blocksmithand.co.jp/en/
【SNS】
Linkedin：https://www.linkedin.com/company/blocksmithandco-en/
Twitter：https://twitter.com/BLOCKSMITH_EN
≪About Liquid≫
Company Name: Liquid, Inc.
President and CEO: Hiroki Hasegawa
Establishment: December, 2018
Head office: 2nd floor Otemachi Bldg.,1-6-1 Otemachi Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo
100-0004
Business: Biometrics, image and big data analysis related to biometrics (LIQUID eKYC, LIQUID Shield, LIQUID Auth, etc.)
URL：https://liquidinc.asia/global/
Services provided:
Identity verification service "LIQUID eKYC https://liquidinc.asia/global/kyc-application/
Identity authentication service "LIQUID Auth https://liquidinc.asia/global/authentication/