Zero-Trust KYC Manifesto: Four Principles for Rebuilding Identity Verification

There is a popular vision of the digital future in which users verify themselves only once, digital credentials move freely between services, and KYC (Know Your Customer) fades into the background. It is not difficult to see why this is impossible in today’s hostile digital environment. Such an approach would create not only unnecessary transfers, but also a much broader exposure surface for identity data.

In reality, KYC is unavoidable, so it has to become faster, safer, more private, more transparent, and more resilient. Many providers are striving to achieve these qualities, yet the direction in which much of the KYC industry is developing is increasingly revealing its limitations. What has brought the industry to this point is a broken trust model based on the assumption that we can continue to trust cloud infrastructure, AI models, vendors, subcontractors, administrators, and many other actors involved in the KYC process.

With growing frequency, we see that even state-level systems fail to protect identity data – some of the most sensitive information a person can provide – after placing trust in external platforms,…