ShoCard Raises $1.5 Million For Its Digital Identity Card On The Blockchain

What if you could get rid of your driver’s license? We’re not there yet, but ShoCard just raised $1.5 million from Morado Ventures Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Enspire Capital and Digital Currency Group to do just that.

As a reminder, ShoCard certifies and stores ID documents into the Blockchain, so that you can securely retrieve them later and prove your identity whenever you need to. Its first use case is for bank and credit card identification processes.

Your ShoCard is basically a tiny file that only you can manipulate. When you create your ShoCard, you first scan your identity document and sign it. Then the mobile app will generate a private and public key to seal that record. It is encrypted, hashed and sent to the network of communicating nodes running bitcoin software for later use.

The company launched in the Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. “A lot of companies are looking at the blockchain for things other than bitcoin. We’ve created a digital identity card that is as easy to use as a driver’s license but it’s so secure that a bank can rely on it,” co-founder Jeff Weitzman told me at the time.

Today’s funding round means that the company will be able to grow its team a bit and try to sign more partnerships. There are many different use cases for ShoCard, but the startup chose the B2B route. It needs to sign deals with banks and other sensitive institutions.

For instance, when you make an online purchase, sometimes you are redirected to your bank’s website and you have to log in or enter some information. ShoCard removes this complexity as you only need to approve purchases with your phone once you are identified.

It’s an interesting take on the Blockchain, and while everybody is in a wait-and-see approach with bitcoin, the Blockchain will certainly still be around for many years. Understanding how you can take advantage of the Blockchain so that banks don’t have to is very smart as well, and I can’t wait to see banks start to use this solution.