One of the indirect offshoots of Brexit is a government program that's designed to keep the U.K. relevant by lending a hand to new companies. The program, FCA Innovate, may have a global effect by nurturing companies that aim to retire static authentication modes such as usernames and passwords. "We're all seeing these breaches coming out on a daily basis it seems," said Alastair Johnson, co-founder of Nuggets…
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Alastair Johnson wanted to find a way to give people back control over their personal information and identity. His company Nuggets, a UK-based blockchain startup he cofounded with a co-worker from his tenure at Skype, is the result. The desire to launch a blockchain-based startup was personal. A few years ago, Johnson’s credit card was compromised in a security breach of consumer data…
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Data security is in crisis. What was an emerging problem only a few years ago has become the greatest fear of online shoppers, and a major headache for businesses. In 2016, the cost of card and identity fraud was in the US alone was $16 billion. This is partly due to the fact that such fraud creates additional losses beyond the initial stolen money. For every dollar US merchants lost in card fraud in 2016, they lost an additional $2.40 from chargebacks, fees and replacing merchandise…
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An escalating crisis - Earlier this year, hackers stole the details of 143 million Americans from credit monitoring firm Equifax. Those details included home addresses and Social Security numbers – gold dust for identity thieves. Of course, the biggest breach of all time (so far) puts even Equifax in the shade. In 2016, Yahoo finally admitted that all three billion of its customer records were breached when it was hacked in 2013…
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Nuggets gives power back to the people, enabling 'self-sovereign decentralized identity' on a mass scale. And it frees companies from the burden of storing and protecting millions of customer records. Nuggets is building a consumer blockchain platform giving users a single biometric tool for login, payment and identity verification, without sharing or storing private data…
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This week we have another exciting and informative interview for you as Mark braves the November cold snap and talks to Alastair Johnson and Seema Khinda Johnson, the dream team behind Nuggets. We talk identity theft, their upcoming token sale and casually exchanging emails with Vitalik Buterin. We also talk about diversity in blockchain tech, fintech startup and challenger banks and how meetups like Women In Blockchain are starting to address the balance…
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Nuggets' pre-sale of digital tokens for its new cryptocurrency platform has commenced. The platform is based on blockchain auditing, and uses biometric authentication to verify users’ identities without the need to reveal any other personal information. But in individual transactions users can choose to share more personal information in exchange for Nuggets Tokens - the platform’s currency - encouraging users to monetize their data…
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Brand authenticity, trust, convenience, experiential, on-demand, mobile, online and personalised digital interactions are all values held dearly by today's customers. Millennial 20/20 Summits showcase disruptive retailers, innovative brand campaigns, unique startups and solutions that are bringing the future of retail, marketing and commerce to life…
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If the recent Equifax breach has proven anything, it’s that centralized entities cannot be trusted with handling personal data. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, in 2017 alone, there were over 1,000 data breaches across five different major categories which included over 163 million records being exposed. One of the largest areas of information breaches came from the business sector, with over 91% of that total share of exposure…
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In 2017, the ninth edition of BBVA Open Talent offered more fintech startups around the world the chance to compete and win. The competitions focused in seven key areas: Identity, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech for Companies, Global Trends, Women in Fintech, Financial Inclusion and a regional competition for finalists from Spain, Latin America and Turkey…
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Digital ID firm Nuggets plans to to hold a token sale to raise capital for ongoing product development and the planned 2018 commercial launch of the biometrics-powered Nuggets platform. Nuggets combines blockchain encryption with biometric verification to give users a secure 'personal cloud' of data in zero-knowledge storage. Transactions are encrypted using an immutable ledger with inherent trust principles to validate trust in both consumers and businesses…
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A couple of ICOs recently have been touting a hybrid approach to their respective ecosystems, seeking to find common ground with more traditional tech and cryptocurrencies. Perhaps surpassing them all is UK-based blockchain-based startup Nuggets founded by former tech execs from Microsoft and Skype. The Nuggets ICO is scheduled for Nov. 14 in which the consumer blockchain payments platform will begin selling its Ethereum-based tokens to the public…
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Nuggets, a consumer Blockchain platform aiming to transform the world of online payment, privacy and security by enabling consumers to take back control of their data, has announced its plan to hold a token sale to raise capital for ongoing product development and the planned 2018 commercial launch of the Nuggets platform…
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What is blockchain? And how are startups using it to change the way we interact with each other?
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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed which companies will begin testing their applications in the second cohort of its regulatory sandbox. The initiative, which started in 2014, seeks to encourage competition in the UK financial service sector by allowing businesses to test services, products, business models, and delivery mechanisms…
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One of the UK’s top finance regulators is expanding its regulatory ‘sandbox’ to include more blockchain startups. Last November, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed that it was including nine such startups in its program, which aims to offer a test environment for new financial products. In the second iteration of the sandbox initiative, the FCA is adding a total of 24 startups, nine of which are blockchain-related. Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition, said in a statement. The nine blockchain companies are BlockEx, Disberse, Nivaura, Nuggets, OKLink, Oraclize, Paylinko, Sabstone and ZipZap…
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