The Gini Foundation has invested tremendous time and resources into building the nonprofit Gini Platform. As a result, we are very serious about preventing various malefactors from hurting the integrity of the Gini Network and ecosystem. Additionally, we can't risk creating unnecessary dependencies on for-profit corporations and politically motivated governments because they may not always have our stakeholders' best interests at heart. Thus, to preserve the integrity of the Gini ecosystem, we have created the GiniVerify Anonymous Decentralized Attestation Service (aka, "GiniVerify Service" or "Gini Self-Sovereign ID Service").
The GiniVerify Service Eliminates the Risk of Privacy Breaches. Based on many of the same cryptographically secure components that we have built for the decentralized Gini BlockGrid, the GiniVerify Service helps stakeholders in the Gini ecosystem and other entities outside the ecosystem to anonymously prove certain pieces of information about themselves without disclosing their actual identity to any third-parties. This prevents anybody (including the Gini Foundation) from seeing or storing your personally identifiable information. Thus, even if there was a hack or government subpoena of the Gini Foundation's servers, there would be no risk whatsoever of any unauthorized disclosure.
How Does the GiniVerify Service Work? When Gini stakeholders install their Gini Account Center Software (see the Gini homepage for a video demo), the software creates an anonymous, cryptographically secure Gini currency account and a corresponding private encryption key, which is very easy to use with the Gini software. Like Bitcoin, the Gini private key enables Gini stakeholders to anonymously send/receive Gini currency, but unlike Bitcoin, the Gini private key also enables you to encrypt all your private information within the anonymous and decentralized GiniVerify Service. This enables you to authorize specific third-parties to verify certain things that you want them to know about you without allowing them to see any of your private information. This is a big deal for several reasons.
The Way ID Verification Typically Works is Terrible for Your Privacy. For example, when you go to a restaurant to have cocktails, they legitimately need to verify that you are old enough to drink alcohol, but they do not need to see all the private information on your ID card (e.g., your home address, ID#, actual birth date, etc.). What if there was a way to prove that you are old enough to drink without showing anybody your ID card? There is and this is what the GiniVerify Service does.
Credit Bureaus Are Catastrophically Bad for Humanity. It's far worse than many people realize. In fact, the cumulative number of personal records stolen so far is at least 10 billion (see the partial list at the end of this article) and the cumulative cost to the global economy is approaching $8 trillion.
The GiniVerify Service is the Solution. We originally built the GiniVerify Service to enable Gini stakeholders to anonymously prove that they are real humans on the Gini Network to prevent abuse of the Gini Value Streams System. Then we realized that the GiniVerify Service can be used by many people outside the Gini ecosystem, too. In fact, any entity that wants to protect their privacy, control their own online identity, while still being able to prove certain pieces of information about themselves to other third-parties may find the GiniVerify Service useful.
Partial List of Data Breaches & Nearly 10 Billion Stolen Records
If you have interacted with any of the organizations below during the past 10 years, there is a ~99.9999% probability that your personal information has been stolen by hackers. This is why the anonymous GiniVerify Service is so important for the Gini ecosystem and beyond.
EntityYearRecordsYahoo20133,000,000,000First American Corporation2019885,000,000Facebook2019540,000,000Marriott International2018500,000,000Yahoo2014500,000,000Friend Finder Networks2016412,214,295Truecaller2019299,055,819Nasdaq & 7-Eleven2012160,000,000Adobe Systems2013152,000,000Under Armour2018150,000,000eBay2014145,000,000Equifax2017143,000,000Canva2019140,000,000Heartland2009130,000,000Target Corporation2013110,000,000Capital One2019106,000,000Justdial2019100,000,000Quora2018100,000,000Rambler.ru201298,167,935TK / TJ Maxx200794,000,000MyHeritage201892,283,889AOL200492,000,000Anthem Inc.201580,000,000Sony PlayStation Network201177,000,000JP Morgan Chase201476,000,000U.S. Military veterans records200976,000,000Dropbox201268,648,009Tumblr201365,469,298United States Postal Service201860,000,000Uber201757,000,000Home Depot201456,000,000Philippines Commission on Elections201655,000,000Evernote201350,000,000Facebook201850,000,000Living Social201350,000,000Weebly201643,430,316CardSystems Solutions Inc. (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover)200540,000,000Steam201135,000,000Ashley Madison201532,000,000RockYou!200932,000,000Taringa!201728,722,877HauteLook201828,517,244Tianya Club201128,000,000U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs200626,500,000Ticketfly (subsidiary of Eventbrite)201826,151,608UK Revenue & Customs200725,000,000Sony Online Entertainment201124,600,000Zappos201224,000,000Yahoo Japan201322,000,000US Office of Personnel Management201521,500,000AOL200620,000,000Korea Credit Bureau201420,000,000Taobao201620,000,000Auction.co.kr200818,000,000T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom200617,000,000Experian - T-Mobile US201515,000,000Blizzard Entertainment201214,000,000Nexon Korea Corp201113,200,000The Bank of New York Mellon200812,500,000Apple, Inc./BlueToad201212,367,232Quest Diagnostics201911,900,000GS Caltex200811,100,000Premera201511,000,000Prestige Software, based in Spain202010,000,000Chinese gaming websites (three: Duowan, 7K7K, 178.com)201110,000,000Excellus BlueCross BlueShield201510,000,000Cathay Pacific Airways20189,400,000Greek government20129,000,000KT Corporation20128,700,000Dai Nippon Printing20078,637,405Fidelity National Information Services20078,500,000NHS20118,300,000Virginia Department of Health20098,257,378Data Processors International (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover)20088,000,000Gamigo20128,000,000LinkedIn, eHarmony, Last.fm20128,000,000Blank Media Games20187,633,234Global Payments20127,000,000StockX20196,800,000Office of the Texas Attorney General20126,500,000South Carolina Government20126,400,000TD Ameritrade20076,300,000Xat.com20156,054,459China Software Developer Network20116,000,000Facebook20136,000,000Ministry of Education (Chile)20086,000,000CheckFree Corporation20095,000,000Gmail20145,000,000VTech20155,000,000Tricare20114,901,432SnapChat20134,700,000Scottrade20154,600,000Community Health Systems20144,500,000UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica20154,500,000Sutter Medical Center20114,243,434Hannaford Brothers Supermarket Chain20074,200,000Advocate Medical Group20134,000,000KDDI20064,000,000Norwegian Tax Administration20083,950,000Citigroup20053,900,000Medical Informatics Engineering20153,900,000State of Texas20113,500,000Educational Credit Management Corporation20103,300,000UK Driving Standards Agency20073,000,000Iranian banks (three: Saderat, Eghtesad Novin, and Saman)20123,000,000Michaels20143,000,000Desjardins20192,900,000Countrywide Financial Corp20062,600,000JP Morgan Chase20102,600,000Countrywide Financial Corp20112,500,000Syrian government (Syria Files)20122,434,899AOL20142,400,000Betfair20102,300,000Patreon20152,300,00021st Century Oncology20162,200,000University of Utah Hospital & Clinics20082,200,000University of Miami20082,100,000Earl Enterprises2018-20192,000,000Ubuntu20132,000,000Vodafone20132,000,000Bell Canada20171,900,000Health Net — IBM20111,900,000New York State Electric & Gas20121,800,000New York City Health & Hospitals Corp.20101,700,000UK Ministry of Defence20081,700,000Jefferson County, West Virginia20081,600,000Monster.com20071,600,000Facebook20191,500,000Gawker20101,500,000KM.RU20161,500,000Nival Networks20161,500,000RBS Worldpay20081,500,000SingHealth20181,500,000Verizon Communications20161,500,000DSW Inc.20051,400,000Walmart20151,300,000Sega20111,290,755Washington Post20111,270,000AvMed, Inc.20091,220,000Bank of America20051,200,000CareFirst BlueCross Blue Shield - Maryland20151,100,000Neiman Marcus20141,100,000Nemours Foundation20111,055,489BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee20091,023,209Compass Bank20071,000,000Drupal20131,000,000Dun & Bradstreet20131,000,000Kroll Background America20131,000,000LexisNexis20141,000,000Sony Pictures20111,000,000Stratfor2011935,000Orbitz2018880,000MacRumors.com2014860,000Health Sciences Authority(Singapore)2019808,000California Department of Child Support Services2012800,000Gap Inc.2007800,000South Shore Hospital, Massachusetts2010800,000US Medicaid2012780,000Ohio State University2010760,000Internal Revenue Service2015720,000Domino's Pizza (France)2014600,000Network Solutions2009573,000Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program2009531,400Puerto Rico Department of Health2010515,000Eisenhower Medical Center2011514,330Google Plus2018500,000Health Net2009500,000Scribd2013500,000Slack2015500,000Yahoo! Voices2012450,000Formspring2012420,000Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland2010400,000Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System2011400,000Triple-S Salud, Inc.2010398,000U.S. Army2010392,000British Airways2018380,000Citigroup2011360,083Affinity Health Plan, Inc.2009344,579Emory Healthcare2012315,000Ancestry.com2015300,000Southern California Medical-Legal Consultants2011300,000University of Maryland, College Park2014300,000Honda Canada2011283,000Apple2013275,000TD Bank2012260,000U.S. government (United States diplomatic cables leak)2010260,000Embassy Cables2010251,000Bailey's Inc.2015250,000Twitter2013250,000Nintendo2013240,000Seacoast Radiology, PA2010231,400Massachusetts Government2011210,000Ameritrade2005200,000Bethesda Game Studios2011200,000Hewlett Packard2006200,000Restaurant Depot2011200,000Emergency Healthcare Physicians, Ltd.2010180,111San Francisco Public Utilities Commission2011180,000Accendo Insurance Co.2011175,350TerraCom & YourTel2013170,000Militarysingles.com2012163,792City and Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust2007160,000University of California, Berkeley2009160,000Washington State court system2013160,000Ankle & Foot Center of Tampa Bay, Inc.2010156,000Citigroup2013150,000National Guard of the United States2009131,000Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Center2010130,495Automatic Data Processing2005125,000Kirkwood Community College2013125,000Popsugar2018123,857U.S. law enforcement (70 different agencies)2011123,461AT&T2010114,000AT&T2008113,000Central Hudson Gas & Electric2013110,000Colorado government2010105,470Memorial Healthcare System2011102,153Bell Canada2018100,000Crescent Health Inc., Walgreens2013100,000Florida Department of Juvenile Justice2013100,000Westpac201998,000Starbucks200897,000Apple Health Medicaid201691,000BMO and Simplii201890,000Texas Lottery200789,000UK Home Office200884,000University of California, Berkeley201680,000Mozilla201476,000AerServ (subsidiary of InMobi)201875,000Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services201875,000University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee201173,000Stanford University200872,000U.S. Department of Defense200972,000University of Central Florida201663,000Writerspace.com201162,000Central Coast Credit Union201660,000New York Taxis201452,000Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (UK)200850,500Uber201450,000U.S. Army201150,000Yale University201043,000Cox Communications201640,000Morgan Stanley Smith Barney201134,000US Department of Homeland Security201630,000Grozio Chirurgija201725,000Air Canada201820,000Democratic National Committee201619,252South Africa police201316,000Ministry of Health (Singapore)201914,200Inuvik hospital20166,700Total Records Hacked9,754,113,349
See the complete list here.