ATB Ventures to help Canadian government with its digital ID efforts

ATB Ventures, the research and innovation arm of Alberta-based financial institution ATB Financial, is collaborating with the Government of Canada to provide the technology platform to support its National Digital Trust Service proof of concept.

ATB Venture’s blockchain-identity management solution, Oliu and digital credential wallet, Proof, allow businesses and regulators to develop use cases and issue, use, and verify digital credentials in a sandbox environment.

“Interoperability and standards are necessary for maintaining trust and transparency in a modern day digital economy,” said Nav Dhunay, head of technology at ATB Ventures. “Oliu and Proof leverage leading digital identity frameworks, inclusive of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF), the recently announced National Trust and Identity Fundamentals, and emerging open standards such as Indy Aries Credentials and the W3C Verifiable Credential model.”

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is leading proof of concept creation for a National Digital Trust Service with businesses, not-for-profits, and regulators, with the goal of making it quicker, easier, and more cost-effective to issue and verify digital credentials. 

The service proof of concept is supporting select businesses, not-for-profits, and regulators in executing proof of concepts for their respective digital credential use cases, simultaneously advancing awareness and adoption of digital credentials across government and the economy. The National Digital Trust Service is intended to be horizontal in nature and is expected to make it more efficient for all interested participants to issue and consume digital credentials by avoiding the need to implement and maintain individual technology solutions. Funded by the Centre for Regulatory Innovation, the service aims to support the establishment of a digital trust infrastructure for Canada, explains the Government of Canada. 

With over 20 organizations participating, the technology platform from ATB Ventures provides companies with access to Oliu’s self-sovereign digital credential platform to build and test a broad range of applications.

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“ATB Ventures is excited to be partnering with the Government to advance Canada’s digital identity efforts,” said Sue McGill, senior vice-president of ATB Ventures. “With identification sitting at the heart of every interaction—online and off—having a secure, self-sovereign identity system that provides a positive user experience and privacy by design is critical to not only the competitiveness of Canada, but also to driving inclusive, economic growth.”