Digital fraud is a big problem on social media. Every day, scammers create new accounts that imitate popular content creators and try to get fans and other unsuspecting victims to send them money. To solve the problem, some turned to the blockchain to try to create and implement a decentralized social identity verification system.
At the recent World Token Summit 2023, Cointelegraph spoke with Matthias Mende, co-founder of the Dubai Blockchain Center and a speaker at the event. During his speech, Mende talked about one of the center's projects that implements blockchain technology to create a decentralized social identity for its users.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, Mende shared that identity fraud has been an ongoing problem within the space. According to the executive, he has personally experienced many scammers taking the content he posted on social media and creating fraudulent accounts posing as him. He explained:
โI have like 200,000 followers on Instagram, and really, like every day, a new fake profile comes out. I always find messages from people asking: 'Hey Mende, is that you?' And they are even sending videos because they screen record them from the IG. [Instagram] history. Like, scammers go to the next level."
The executive said that while it is unfortunate, the reality is that there are many people who want to harm others. โWe need tools to avoid that,โ he said. Due to these issues, Mende started a project that will use blockchain to verify the legitimacy of social media accounts.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the government has implemented an app called "UAE Pass", which is linked to the people's national identification card called the Emirates ID. This allows people to use their smartphones to verify their identity to service providers through smartphone-based authentication.
Taking inspiration from this concept, Mende shared that the center created a project called Bonuz that will work in a similar way. Using blockchain, he is working on a platform that will provide blockchain-based authentication to people's social networks.
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According to Mende, he believes that blockchain has the ability to solve the problem of digital identity fraud:
โI think a lot will be resolved. Because? Because the user now doesn't just link his Instagram or his main account as his account on Web2 now. He actually links an identity where all of his real social networks are linked.โ
The executive also shared that when there is a decentralized social identity, there can be proof of identity on the blockchain, and people can be 100% sure that the accounts they interact with are in fact the person they say they are and not. a fraud.
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