PROTECTORIA GENIAL IDENTITY, INC, the fully owned subsidiary of Protectoria Venture, a Norwegian technology company offering decentralised digital identity services, has entered into a partnership and operating agreement with SMS GLOBAL to assist in the operation of these services for local government units in the Philippines. SMS GLOBAL, with Norwegian owner, has currently extensive operation of cloud-based communication and IT services to the Maritime industry. The cooperation between two Norwegian companies allows them to offer and operate the best available European decentralised digital identity technology to the Philippines.

Protectoria Genial Identity Inc. has agreed with Quezon City LGU, to provide a decentralised digital identity service for senior citizens through a mobile wallet that is efficient, portable, user-friendly and secure. The service is based on the best available decentralised technology (self-sovereign identity) aligned with the European Union’s vision for their own citizens, and could easily be expanded to a general citizen ID.

The delivered  Senior Citizen ID service ensures that each senior citizen can claim benefits provided by the laws, including discounts in purchasing services and items through a mobile wallet. The claim and the transaction that is registered in second will replace all manual processes today.

SMS Global will through this agreement provide to PGI necessary operating services like managing cloud operations, maintain and develop application services, provide frontline customer support allowing PGI to be operational very quickly and to expand the service to other LGUs.  SMS Global offers end-to-end maritime and enterprise communication solutions for leisure, fishing, merchant and passenger vessels, oil rigs and basecamps/remote lodges and is currently operating advanced cloud-based communications service with customer care services and application developments.

PGI, is through its parent company, Protectoria AS’ high-end security software solution and decentralised digital identity services, is one of the few providers in the Philippine market with the financial and technical capability to deliver secure transaction solutions that complies with all current and relevant European Union (EU) Security Standards, which are necessary to develop reliable, strong, and secure digital transaction platform and protect users from fraud and manipulation of information and transactions;

Currently, Quezon City is home to more than 300,000 elderly and senior citizens. Every LGU has an obligation to provide benefits to senior citizens as provided by Philippine law (ACT 9994).  The LGU are handling these discounts today by providing plastic cards with significant costs and fraud.

The service provided by PGI will ensure that senior citizens benefit 24/7 from a digital service allowing an identification, authentication and signing in seconds, vs. the estimated 3-5 min. currently in manual and semi manual handling. The secure digital infrastructure behind ensures true identification, mitigated fraud and legal signing of the transaction in the same process. There are significant advantages of this end-to-end digital service for the citizens, the merchants and the LGU.

Trond Lemberg, CEO of Protectoria Venture says in a comment: “I´m very excited by this fruitful partnership with SMS Global. It allows us to secure the benefit of SMS GLOBAL’s skills and experience in operating cloud-based services and customer centres, and to be operative with large scale operations in a very short period of time as SMS Global has similar operations today. In addition, we have a common understanding of the potential of decentralised digital identity services in the Philippines, as our secure, efficient and user-friendly digital identity services can potentially supplement the national ID register and potentially provide a user-friendly, secure interoperable mobile use of digital identities used in the Philippines. Through this agreement, we create the basis of a strategic partnership that will lead us to new business opportunities. We also appreciate that SMS GLOBAL is managed with a Norwegian approach reducing the risks of cooperation”.

Jan André Heggem, the CEO of SMS Global, states that: “The business model with cloud-based digital identity services of Protectoria Venture suits us well, and we are happy to be able to join forces with Protectoria Venture to offer such services to the LGUs in the Philippines. This partnership will allow us to grow the scope of our information technology services into new markets. Our firms were able to explore the common interests through the Philippine Norwegian Business Council (PNBC) and I see this agreement as a testimony of the importance of PNBC.”

SMS GLOBAL provides technology and communication services with end-to-end solutions covering both communications and business operations in the maritime and enterprise satellite communications markets. In providing these services, SMS Global is operating cloud operations and teams of IT engineers with a broad skill set ensuring application developments.

Protectoria Genial Identity Inc. (PGI) is a duly registered corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Philippines with an initial authorised capital of PhP300M or about USD6M. As an Information and Software Technology company, PGI aims to provide cloud-based decentralised digital identity infrastructure services allowing digitalization of services to various sectors of society potentially replacing manual identity cards in the society..

About Protectoria AS,

Protectoria AS is a Norwegian company with offices in Oslo and Berlin which develops and operates secure cloud based services for issuing and verifying decentralised digital identities, the My IDentities Services. Together with its local partners Protectoria Venture creates sustainable business models empowering local governmental services, cooperatives, small businesses and their citizen-customers to become sovereigns in the age of digitalization.Digital identities are the backbone of digital transactions. Significant market growth is expected for decentralised digital infrastructure services based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and blockchain technologies. Protectoria Venture aims to benefit from a first mover advantage to take a leading position in the fast growing target markets internationally, all from emerging markets in ASEAN to the realisation of the Pan-European digital ID based on decentralised digital identity infrastructures.

More information: 

Trond Lemberg, President: trond.lemberg@protectoria.com

Mobile phone: + 47 414 87 310

Erik Storelv, Board Member: erik.storelv@protectoria.com

Mobile phone: +47 46 52 22 00

Jan André Heggem, CEO: andreheggem@smsglobal.net

Mobile phone: +63 917 808 3528

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Trond Lemberg, founder of Protectoria AS, Norway, created Protectoria Global Inc. in 2018 with the aim to define new business opportunities especially in the ASEAN markets based on the secure infrastructure of Protectoria Venture. 

Trond has now taken over as the President of Protectoria Global Inc., while the former leader of Protectoria Global Inc., Atty Pierre Martin D. Reyes has taken the position of Corporate Secretary and acts as part of the legal counsel. The change was effective from the 23rd of June 2022.

Trond has 30 years of experience in public key infrastructure, banking technology and information security technology and it is his ambition to develop innovations that enable public services to become more effective and more user-friendly for citizens and businesses.

About Protectoria Global Inc. 

Protectoria Global Incorporated, (PGI) is a Philippine company with offices in Manila, 100% owned by Protectoria AS (PV) which aims to benefit from a first mover advantage to to take a leading position in the fast growing market for decentralized digital identities. 

PGI aims at a market leading position for these services in the Philippines. PGI has secured the exclusivity to resell Protectoria Venture’s My IDentity Services for the Philippines, which is the underlying infrastructure of the services to be integrated. PGI has a vision to “empower people to become sovereign citizens”. 

Protectoria Global Inc. is developing a Health ID, which is an ecosystem that can verify the authenticity of a vaccine, identify the recipient of the vaccination and the person that has provided the vaccination, documenting all vaccinations in an online record by respecting the privacy of the Citizen. 

Another use case is the Digital Senior Citizen ID in the Philippines enabling Senior Citizens to use their Senior Citizen card online in e-commerce transactions and apply online for subsidies provided by the government. Acceptance points can automate the calculation of the 20% discount, and other government mandated benefits, and optimize their business processes. And it allows local government units to analyse the transactions recorded into the digital booklets. Furthermore, this Digital ID can be used by all citizens to get access to online services offered by their city.

About Protectoria AS 

Protectoria AS is a Norwegian company with offices in Oslo and Berlin which develops and operates secure cloud based services for issuing and verifying decentralized digital identities, the My IDentities Services. Together with its local partners Protectoria Venture creates sustainable business models empowering local governmental services, cooperatives, small businesses and their citizen-customers to become sovereigns in the age of digitalization.

More information: 

Trond Lemberg, President: trond.lemberg@protectoria.com

Mobile phone: + 47 414 87 310

Erik Storelv, Board Member: erik.storelv@protectoria.com

Mobile phone: +47 46 52 22 00

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Protectoria Venture’s subsidiary Protectoria Global Incorporated (PGI) and Quezon City, represented by the Office of Senior Citizens’ Affairs (OSCA), signed today on May 25th, 2021, a 15-year contract to develop, build and operate a secure and user-friendly digital decentralised identity infrastructure service with Self Sovereign Identity technology (SSI). The purpose of the agreement is to manage identities and handle discounts, as required by the law act No. 9994 granting benefits and privileges to Senior Citizens. 

The service will allow OSCA to issue and manage digital identities based on Self Sovereign Identity technology (SSI), providing users the control over their own data. Operations are planned to start as soon as possible, but no later than in 2023, and will gradually involve all 300 000 Senior Citizens of Quezon City, a City with 3,6m inhabitants, as well as potentially 74 000 merchants.

One of the first real life SSI infrastructure

The contract will be based on Protectoria Venture’s unique SSI based cloud services for delivery of identity, authentication and signing services called “My Identity System”. It is a truly decentralized architecture based on SSI principles where users are in control of the data through their own application (digital wallet), respecting local regulation on digital privacy. The “My Identity System implements state-of-the-art technology to preserve the user’s privacy, as well as to protect the processed data and secure transactions. The services will include Protectoria Venture’s patent pending technology to secure digital transactions with a single mobile device user experience. 

This will be the one of the first implementations of Self-Sovereign-Identity-based digital ID services in the ASEAN region. It will be delivered as an end-to-end digital infrastructure with a user-friendly cloud-based ‘custodian’ service, with great benefits for all stakeholders, such as interoperability, security and reliability.

Infrastructure service to create a “wheel of trust” 

The Digital Identity Infrastructure Service includes our concept of the “ Wheel of Trust” where collaborative efforts executed on a blockchain prevent a single entity from claiming to be the sole authority to be trusted. Instead there is trust in data being reliable, resulting from mathematical computation over all collaborative efforts recorded on the blockchain and therefore forever immutable and persistent. 

The parties are confident that this digital infrastructure service will provide increased efficiency in handling discounts provided to Senior Citizens with less fraud and lower costs, with passwordless single smartphone user experience.

Potential to expand scope of agreement

The agreement provides several options to expand the scope of the contract to include any application to be managed by ID-holder’s own wallets supported by the cloud service in the future. This paves the way for high-level secure communication necessary for mission critical health services to all Citizens. A general Health ID for citizens will typically include digital vaccine certificates, digitally signed prescriptions and online health consultations.

The parties are preparing for the launch of these services expected during 2023.  

Motivation of the parties

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable all parts of society are if dependent solely on physical processes and has, thus, highlighted the importance of deploying digital alternatives to communicate, to continue doing business, and to deliver essential public services more efficiently. 

Quezon City, through the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs (“OSCA”), provides a range of services and financial support to senior citizens of Quezon City, one of the most vulnerable groups in the COVID-19 situation. OSCA aims to allow these services to be delivered through a secure and user-friendly digital platform based on virtual, contact-free transactions in which the user has control of their data. The use of the platform is intended to minimize the need for physical contact. 

Protectoria’s SSI-based infrastructure service will not only create significant efficiencies in handling the authorities’ and the merchants’ interactions with senior citizens, but also reduce the contagion risk related to physical interactions. 

This secure and user-friendly digital ID service will also facilitate financial inclusion and reduce inequality. Furthemore, the fact that citizens will remain in control of their own data will create mutual trust, which again will expand the potential use of acceptable digital services. 

PGI will handle all interactions and be the contractual partner for Quezon City, and operate the digital infrastructure based on a firm contract with commercial conditions set. The contract will generate steady revenues and cash flow to the company, once enrollment of merchants and senior citizens is accomplished. The company will receive subscription, issuing and transaction-based revenues, which will secure a steady margin based on commercial terms specified in existing contracts. Investment in the complete infrastructure will be accomplished by Protectoria Venture. 

 About Protectoria Global Inc. 

Protectoria Global Incorporated, (PGI) is a Philippine company with offices in Manila, 100% owned by Protectoria AS (PV), a Norwegian Digital Identity Infrastructure Service company with a head office in Oslo and offices in Berlin. 

PGI aims at a market leading position for Digital Identity Infrastructure Services in the Philippines. PGI has secured exclusivity to resell PV’s digital Identity Infrastructure Services for the Philippines, which is the underlying infrastructure of the services to be integrated.

About Protectoria AS 

is a Norwegian company with offices in Oslo, Berlin and Manila that develops and operates a secure cloud infrastructure managing digital identities as a service, called “MY IDentity Services”. The infrastructure is based on a decentralised architecture using SSI (Self Sovereign Identity) and blockchain technology and integrates proprietary technology for securing transactions. 

Protectoria Venture has a vision to “empower people to become sovereign citizens”. 

The firm seeks partnerships and joint-ventures with industry-leading players, state-owned enterprises and investors with high-end transaction security projects governed under philanthropic objectives. 

Digital identities are the backbone of digital transactions. Significant market growth is expected for decentralized digital infrastructure services based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and blockchain technologies. Protectoria Venture aims to benefit from a first mover advantage to to take a leading position in the fast growing target markets internationally, all from emerging markets in ASEAN to the realization of the Pan-European digital ID based on decentralized digital identity infrastructures.

More information: 

Trond Lemberg; CEO; trond.lemberg@protectoria.com  
Mobile phone: + 47 414 87 310

Erik Storelv, CFO; erik.storelv@protectoria.com
Mobile phone: +47 46 52 22 00

The post PV subsidiary signs long-term contract to operate SSI digital infrastructure with Quezon City appeared first on Protectoria AS.

The purpose of the MOU is to establish a framework of close cooperation and collaboration among the Parties leading to developing and operating a user-friendly, fast, scalable, secure and compliant digital identity service to streamline processes availing of senior citizens benefits. The service will provide the Office for the Senior Citizens’ Affairs (OSCA) with insight on how digital offering can improve the processes of securing discounts to Senior Citizens. One of the aspects is centralization of the rollout of QC OSCA-provided services to improve the reliability of the services.  

The MoU specifies the duties and obligations of respective parties. The obligations of PGI include development and operating digital solutions based on Protectoria Venture’s SSI and cloud-based secured platform for identity, authentication and signature (My IDentity System). PGI will also cover technical support and operational assistance to QC OSCA during the enrollment process of senior citizens. 

The MoU is an important step towards a comprehensive agreement to provide services to QC OSCA, which will allow OSCA to issue and manage digital identities based on open international standards, granting users full control over their own data. Operations are planned to start in 2023 and will involve all Senior Citizens of Quezon City. Quezon City has  3,6m inhabitants, including 300 000 senior citizens and 74 000 merchants.

The parties are confident that the developed digital infrastructure will provide a significant  efficiency gain in a system based on mutual trust. One of the expected benefits is efficient handling of discounts provided to Senior Citizens, reducing fraud and lowering costs, with a passwordless single smartphone user experience.

It is the parties’ intention to conclude a final agreement upon the start of operations, which will depend on financing initial investments for building and finalising the complete infrastructure. 

About Protectoria Global Inc. 

Protectoria Global Incorporated, (PGI) is a Philippine company with offices in Manila, 100% owned by Protectoria AS (PV), a Norwegian Identity Infrastructure Service company with offices in Oslo and Berlin. 

Digital identity is the backbone of digital transactions. Significant market growth is expected for decentralized digital infrastructure services based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and blockchain technologies. The company aims to benefit from a first mover advantage to take a leading position in the fast growing market for decentralized digital identity infrastructure. 

PGI aims at a market leading position for these services in the Philippines. PGI has secured the exclusivity to resell PV’s digital Identity Infrastructure Services for the Philippines, which is the underlying infrastructure of the services to be integrated. PGI has a vision to “empower people to become sovereign citizens”. 

About Protectoria AS 

is a Norwegian company with offices in Oslo, Berlin and Manila which develops and operates a secure cloud infrastructure managing digital identities as a service, called Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) and blockchain technology and integrates proprietary technology for securing transactions. 

Protectoria Venture has a vision to “empower people to become sovereign citizens”. 

The company seeks partnerships and joint-ventures with industry-leading players, state-owned enterprises and investors with high-end transaction security projects governed under philanthropic objectives. 

Digital identities are the backbone of digital transactions. Significant market growth is expected for decentralized digital infrastructure services based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and blockchain technologies. Protectoria Venture aims to benefit from a first mover advantage to to take a leading position in the fast growing target markets internationally, all from emerging markets in ASEAN to the realization of the Pan-European digital ID based on decentralized digital identity infrastructures. 

More information: 

Trond Lemberg; CEO; trond.lemberg@protectoria.com  
Mobile phone: + 47 414 87 310

Erik Storelv, CFO; erik.storelv@protectoria.com
Mobile phone: +47 46 52 22 00

The post PGI signs a (MoU) with Quezon City, Philippines, to deliver a cloud-based and secure digital ID service with SSI technology for providing benefits to Senior Citizen set by the law appeared first on Protectoria AS.