ING Bank Launches Open Source Privacy Improvement Add-On for Blockchains

Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation ING confirmed the release of its open source blockchain tool Zero-Knowledge Set Membership in a press release Monday, Oct. 21.

ZKSM, which functions as a privacy "Improvement" to distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, aims to provide validation of certain alphanumeric data without compromising that data's overall security.

According to ING, the tool allows a blockchain to confirm a piece of data belongs to a specified set, while not revealing its full characteristics.

As the press release elaborates, an E.U. citizen could prove he or she is from the EU without having to pinpoint their exact country of residence.

"One of the major challenges in implementing new DLT is protecting private information on a public ledger, where changes must be verified by each participant in the network," the bank continues in the release.

Explaining the impetus behind the latest release meanwhile, ING head of wholesale banking innovation Annerie Vreugdenhil said the lender wished to help clients "Transform their business models."

"One of the key elements in this process for clients is how to deal with data and privacy. ZKSM is the next step in this journey," she commented.

The bank had launched similar data privacy enhancements before, in November 2017 beginning with Zero-Knowledge Range Proof.