Credit reporting firm Equifax, previously encountered one of the most major customer data breaches to date, reportedly forged an alliance with blockchain entity Oasis Labs to design a Know Your Customer (KYC) solution.

Specifically, Equifax and Oasis reportedly revealed that the latter would be investing resources in the creation of a decentralized identity management and KYC solution for the sector on Oasis’ platform, aiming to utilize application programming interfaces (APIs) from Equifax to help with checks and user identification.

Details of the announcement did not come with reference to the exact technology selected to be the foundation of this service. 

Both companies share a belief that a KYC solution customized to Web3 with “strong privacy protection” has not been introduced, and their proposed offering is geared towards dealing with this gap, via carrying out the issuance of anonymized KYC credentials to individuals’ wallets.

This credential will undergo continuous updated, per the announcement, and Oasis pledges its “privacy-preserving capabilities” will guarantee data is processed in confidence while maintaining a trail on the company’s blockchain.

Web3 companies offering services of the same kind surrounding decentralized identity are Dock and Quadrata with each offering a service developed centric around decentralized identity.

The alliance could bring some concerns to Web3 natives, taking into account the major data breach Equifax underwent in 2017. 

Approximately 163 million throughout the globe of private records were compromised, with 148 million being users based in America, making it the 13th largest data breach in United States history, according to cybersecurity company UpGuard.

The hackers aimed for a third-party web portal with a known vulnerability that was patched, but Equifax were not successful in updating to the most recent version. 

The hackers managed to tap into the firms’ servers for nearly two and a half months, all the while siphoning millions of records containing sensitive information.