ZenGo Lets Users Trial Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency, with Biometric Security

“…ZenGo’s support for the Libra testnet paves the way for the integration of real funds once Libra goes live.”

ZenGo has become the first consumer cryptocurrency wallet to support Libra, Facebook’s new offering in the growing digital currency market.

To be clear, Libra hasn’t yet officially launched; what Facebook has made available at present is the Libra testnet, in which funds aren’t actually connected to any real value. But ZenGo’s support for the Libra testnet paves the way for the integration of real funds once Libra goes live. And given that Facebook’s own Calibra wallet will be a custodial wallet, ZenGo is now in position to offer Libra users more control over the cryptocurrency.

Those who decide to take advantage will be able to do so in the knowledge that their Libra funds are highly secure. Access to ZenGo is regulated by biometric authentication technology from FaceTec, whose ZoOm solution uses facial recognition technology to let users confirm their identity with a selfie.

ZoOm attained Level-2 certification in iBeta’s Presentation Attack Detection evaluation, meaning that it features liveness detection technology that can differentiate between a real user’s face and a video recording of the user’s face, or an elaborate mask, or pretty much any other attempt at hacking the authentication system.

This is a big part of the reason that ZenGo proved successful in its challenge issued to hackers in June, in which the company said it would offer one Bitcoin to anyone who could crack into its crypto-wallet – and even provided a hi-resolution image of ZenGo’s CEO’s face to help would-be hackers along. No one was able to spoof the system, offering a tangible demonstration of its ZoOm security.

Users of ZenGo’s digital wallet can play around with the Libra testnet now by activating the cryptocurrency in the Account tab of the app.