A startup seeking to use the Ethereum blockchain and artificial intelligence to create an identity authentication system has been accepted into REach, an incubator backed by the investment arm of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Founded in 2015, Trust Stamp is now emerging from stealth mode, revealing $400,000 in funding for what it calls its FICO-like trust scoring system, with part of its funding coming from the REach incubator. The incubator is operated by Second Century Ventures, which is 100% owned by the NAR and conducts investments on behalf of the not-for-profit trade association.
Trust Stamp is one of seven companies that entered the REach incubator in April, alongside others that seek to serve different stakeholders in the real estate industry.
In interview, Trust Stamp founders Gareth Genner and Andrew Gowasack framed their product as one that could have a wide variety of applications in everything from real estate to online dating websites by allowing individuals to easily share aspects of their identity.
Genner told CoinDesk: "This is the basic concept of the Trust Stamp engine. We create an Ethereum contract which is unique to you, which becomes your identity. We hash the data to your private key, which unlocks the information of your data. Users can provide the legal verification of their identity, their photo, name and any other verified data." Mark Birschbach, managing director of REach, said that the incubator sees potential for blockchain technologies to ease frictions in the real estate industry. Still, Birschbach said that REach perhaps maintains a more conservative investment philosophy in line with its membership and industry interests.
"We’re looking at technologies that can aid our members rather than replace them," Birschbach said in an interview. "We saw right away that this is a tool that could do well in the industry, but obviously there’s underlying […]
