ATB Ventures Pushes Blockchain, Digital Wallet Tech for Canada’s Digital ID Proof of Concept

The innovation arm of a major Albertan bank has joined the pool of organizations working to develop Canada’s digital ID program.

ATB Ventures, part of the province of Alberta’s ATB Financial, has announced that it is now collaborating with the Government of Canada to help develop a proof of concept for the National Digital Trust Service. To that end, it’s pitching the use of its Proof digital wallet as well as Oliu, a blockchain-based identity management solution.

In a statement, the company explained that these solutions would allow regulators and businesses to “issue, use and verify digital credentials in a secure, sandbox environment.”

Elaborating further, ATB Ventures Head of Technology Nav Dhunay said that Oliu and Proof “leverage leading digital identity frameworks, inclusive of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF)”. The PCTF was officially introduced in 2020 by the Digital ID & Authentication Council of Canada, and was designed to establish a set of standards for digital ID programs in the country.

Dhunay added that Oliu and Proof solutions are also compatible with National Trust and Identity Fundamentals, as well as the Indy Aries Credentials and W3C Verifiable Credential open standards. Twenty organizations across a range of industries have used Oliu for their own unique use cases; together with the Proof digital wallet, it will now power this new pilot in collaboration with the Canadian government.

“ATB Ventures is excited to be partnering with the Government to advance Canada’s digital identity efforts,” commented ATB Ventures SVP Sue McGill. “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.”

[CORRECTION 02/18/22: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that ATB Ventures was one of 20 organizations participating in this project. In fact it is the only participating organization, and its technology is at the center of the whole pilot.]