Evin McMullen is the CEO and Co-founder of Billions Network.
Discover top fintech news and events!
Subscribe to FinTech Weekly's newsletter
Read by executives at JP Morgan, Coinbase, Blackrock, Klarna and more
Every time you sign up for a newsletter, open a bank account, or verify your age online, you're handing over pieces of yourself in the form of data that companies store, sell, and occasionally lose to hackers. You do this because you have to in order to transact in any meaningful way online. This asymmetry has defined the digital economy for decades: corporations extract enormous value from identity verification while individuals bear all the risk and receive none of the reward. That imbalance is about to end.
The shift is happening through digital wallets, though "wallet" undersells what they're becoming. These are cryptographically secured vaults that hold everything from driver's licenses and educational credentials to financial history and professional certifications. Unlike accounts controlled by platforms, a wallet is yours: portable, private, and under your control. More importantly, these self-sovereign identity systems enable individuals to monetize their own identity verification. This transforms personal data from a liability constantly at risk of breach into a direct source of income.
The Broken Status Quo
Today's identity infrastructure is unacceptably extractive. When you verify your age to access a streaming service, prove your accreditation to a financial platform, or complete KYC for a new account, you're typically surrendering far more information than necessary. Want to prove you're over 21? You hand over your full date of birth, address, and license number. Need to demonstrate financial solvency? Prepare to share years of transaction history.
This data doesn't just sit idle. Companies aggregate, analyze, and monetize it, generating billions in revenue from information that originated with you. Meanwhile, you absorb the downside risk. When Equifax suffered its massive breach, it wasn't the credit bureau that faced identity theft–it was 147 million individuals whose personal information was exposed. The intermediaries profit; the individuals pay.
As more of life moves online and regulations multiply, the verification burden grows, but inefficiencies compound at scale. Every new service requires fresh verification. Every platform maintains its own identity silo. The friction costs users time and exposes them repeatedly to breach risk, while the lack of portability forces companies to maintain expensive, redundant verification infrastructure.
The Technology That Changes Everything
Zero-knowledge proofs offer a way out of this extractive paradigm. These cryptographic techniques allow you to prove specific facts about yourself without revealing the underlying data. You can demonstrate you're over 21 without disclosing your birthdate, confirm your net worth exceeds a threshold without exposing your account balances, or verify your professional credentials without sharing your entire employment history.
Regulatory initiatives in Europe under eIDAS 2.0 and similar frameworks are driving the adoption of these interoperable digital identity systems. Major financial institutions have already piloted these approaches for KYC verification, demonstrating significant cost savings and improved security and user experience.
The technical architecture matters here. Verifiable credentials issued by trusted authorities–governments, universities, employers, financial institutions–are stored in the user's digital wallet rather than on centralized servers. When verification is required, users present cryptographic proofs that the credential is valid and meets specific criteria, without exposing the credential itself. The verifier gains certainty; the user retains privacy and control.
From Protection to Profit
Privacy protection, while valuable, represents only the first phase of this transformation. The more profound shift lies in data financialization, restructuring the economics of identity so that value flows to individuals rather than intermediaries.
Consider how identity verification works today. A fintech company pays an identity verification provider to confirm a new user's credentials. That provider accesses government databases, credit bureaus, and other data sources, none of which compensate the individual whose identity is being verified. The user provides the raw material; the intermediaries capture the economic value.
Self-sovereign identity inverts this model. When you control your credentials and their verification, you can attach economic terms to their use. Platforms that need verified users could compensate individuals directly for the value that verification provides. Token-based reward systems and loyalty programs tied to identity verification are already emerging, creating the infrastructure for a marketplace where proving your identity generates income rather than risk.
This isn't about selling your data. It's about being compensated for the value your verified identity provides to platforms that need trustworthy users. The verification itself becomes an asset you can deploy repeatedly across services, each deployment an opportunity for direct economic benefit.
The AI Dimension
The urgency of this transition has accelerated dramatically with the rise of generative AI. Deepfakes, synthetic identities, and AI-powered impersonation attacks are rendering traditional verification methods obsolete. The same systems that struggle to distinguish humans from bots are equally vulnerable to sophisticated AI-generated fraud.
Paradoxically, the response from many platforms has been to demand more invasive biometric data–face scans, voice samples, behavioral patterns. But this creates a dangerous feedback loop: the more biometric data collected, the more material available for AI systems to weaponize in future attacks. We cannot solve AI-driven fraud by creating larger honeypots of biometric information.
Zero-knowledge approaches offer a genuine solution. By proving claims about identity without exposing underlying data, they provide the assurance platforms need while denying attackers the raw material they require. A verified human credential proves personhood without creating exploitable biometric records. This matters not just for protecting individuals, but for creating the trust infrastructure necessary for legitimate AI agents to participate in digital commerce alongside humans.
The Path Forward
Every document uploaded for KYC, every facial recognition scan, every personal data form creates records that can be breached, sold, or subpoenaed. Digital wallets function like cryptographically secured passports–verifiable credential standards that enable interoperability across platforms and jurisdictions.
Identity is the single most valuable digital asset. We need systems that allow users to capture that value rather than cede it to intermediaries who view personal data as their property. Now that the technology is readily available, self-sovereign identity will serve as the foundation of trust necessary for the next generation of digital services, one that compensates users for verified credentials rather than exploiting them.
About the Author
Evin McMullen is the CEO and Co-founder of Billions Network, the first universal human and AI verification network.
Evin previously served as CEO and founder of verifiable data platform Disco.xyz, and as a Director at Berkshire Hathaway and ConsenSys. She co-founded DAO Jones and inkDAO, and serves as an advisor to Boys Club. She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University.
