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Social Media
Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all depend on the user being honest about who they are without actually cross-checking their true identity. Imagine a world where every individual on a social media platform had to be a verified person, all users could be held accountable (social accountability) for anything they post or share, especially negative, hateful, or dangerous content. Additionally, this could help defeat the spam and bot account issues that exist across all social channels.2
Banking & Peer-to-Peer Payment Systems
Globally, from January to May 2021, financial service companies recorded an increase of 149% attempts in digital fraud. More individuals continue to turn towards mobile banking, e-wallets, and peer-to-peer payment systems, like Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal, for their transactions. By authenticating your identity and creating a biometric passkey, you and only you would be in control of your financial accounts and access across all banking platforms.3
Peer-to-Peer Reselling Marketplaces
Bargain hunting and resale buying are very popular ways of shopping. The concern with platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp, and LetGo, is that the buyer and seller aren’t required to verify their true identity in order to participate. Requiring all users to verify their identity, especially for handoffs of purchases in person, could help ensure that both parties know exactly who they are interacting with.4
Rental Properties
Vacation rentals were made easy with the bloom of websites like Airbnb, VRBO, and Vacasa. While these platforms do have some basic verification practices in place like requiring a government-issued ID to run a light background check and crosscheck against public records, how does that ensure that the user is actually uploading their own ID? If these sites required all users to verify their identity with Q5id before ever being able to use the platform, each person would truly be verified and use their biometric ID as a passkey to confirm any rental or guest!5
Dating Apps & Websites
Online dating became even more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is a convenient way to meet new people and discover a connection, there is not true identity verification in place to ensure that each user is actually who they say they are. The lack of security on these platforms leads to catfishing, scams, and identity theft. In 2021, it was reported that American’s lost $547 million due to scams that originated from dating apps and websites. Requiring verified identities on dating platforms could ensure that those with true intentions of finding love know that they are safe and secure while they do so.6
Rideshare
In the United States approximately 25% of the population uses ridesharing at least once every month. While rideshare options like Uber and Lyft background check drivers they do not require any verification on who the rider is. The safety of both the driver and rider are just as significant so why aren’t better safety practices in place? Identity verification with Q5id only takes 3 minutes and authentication after that only takes seconds. Imagine a rideshare community where driver and rider were verified and therefore more safe and secure.