Global payments giant Visa has launched a system that uses biometric digital identification to verify each transaction, which could put users at risk of privacy and security issues.
The company created this technology together with Proof, a platform specialized in digital security, with the aim of offering “verified identities” that protect high-value payments, digital commerce transactions and banking operations.
In this way, they seek to ensure that each financial movement is linked to a cryptographically secured biometric identity, which allows the user to be verified without depending solely on passwords or traditional data.
In a release press release, Visa representatives clarify that This initiative is being developed in a context of increasing fraudpowered by advances in artificial intelligence that facilitate the falsification of documents.
The novelty becomes more relevant after the company’s announcement about the integration of four stablecoins that operate in different cryptoasset networks. As reported by CriptoNoticias, this expansion will allow these digital assets to be accepted and converted to more than 25 fiat currencies, consolidating their use beyond the traditional financial infrastructure.
Nevertheless, This integration also poses potential complications for users. Unlike directly trading Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies on public networks, using stablecoins through Visa would be recorded in the company’s cloud.
Risks are exhibited in centralization
It is worth mentioning that transactions on Ethereum are executed on a public and decentralized network, where verification does not depend on a single entity, but on thousands of nodes distributed throughout the world. This structure eliminates intermediaries and reduces the possibility of massive leaks, since people do not need to share personal data to validate an operation.
If we consider that each operation would be linked to a biometric digital identity, this increases exposure to possible security breaches or inadequate data handling. Consequently, the attractiveness for potential attackers increases.since a computer intrusion could expose records that facilitate identity theft.
Thus, cryptocurrency clients would become completely dependent on the security measures and privacy policies of a centralized platform, always exposed to human error.
Although the firm ensures that the Proof network offers solid protections against fraud and that the digital identity can be safely reused in different payments, these types of solutions could transform the user into another piece of data within a centralized platform. This is something that does not happen when trading directly on public cryptocurrency networks.
As the global payments giant moves toward biometric payments and stablecoin integration, consumers must weigh the benefits against the security and privacy risks these innovations bring.