Zero-knowledge scaling firm StarkWare has launched Non-public KYC on Starknet, enabling customers to finish know-your-customer necessities with out revealing their full private info.
The system, introduced Tuesday as a demo, makes use of STRK20 privateness options and zero-knowledge STARK proofs to let customers show particular attributes, equivalent to being older than 18 or holding legitimate credentials, with out revealing their full passport particulars or tackle.
“Whether or not you’ll want to show you are over 18, maintain a sound credential or meet an eligibility rule, verification ought to solely verify the exact truth,” StarkWare stated. Firms mustn’t accumulate the total id behind it, “as a result of each id database turns into a legal responsibility the second it exists.”
KYC compliance includes handing over private info and trusting firms to maintain it secure. The rollout comes because the US hit a document 3,322 knowledge compromises in 2025, a 79% enhance over 5 years, and the worldwide common value of an information breach is $4.4 million, accordingly it StationX.
StarkWare customers begin by scanning their passport on their telephones, utilizing the digicam and NFC chip to learn and make sure the doc is real and signed by its issuing authority.
They will then encrypt id knowledge to their Starknet pockets, register attributes in a public onchain registry, and submit zero-knowledge proofs for selective checks. Verifiers can verify eligibility by studying the general public registry with out ever seeing the precise id knowledge.
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“Non-public KYC exhibits that verification and privateness aren’t a trade-off,” StarkWare said. “An establishment can verify precisely what it wants with out assembling one other copy of somebody’s id it then has to defend.”
Contracts verify the proofs, not the passports. Supply: StarkWare
“Identification checks at present ask on your whole doc once they solely want one truth,” the Starknet crew stated.
The system is much like Sam Altman’s World ID (Worldcoin), which he makes use of zk-proofs to confirm humanity by way of iris scans on {hardware} orbs. Nonetheless, World ID confronted backlash over centralized biometric custody, whereas StarkWare’s self-custody mannequin goals to handle that challenge.
Information breaches value tens of millions
In response to Axis Intelligence, greater than 1 billion well being care data have been violated with a mean value of $7.42 million, as of 2026. Within the US, 772 massive well being care knowledge breaches had been confirmed in 2025, the very best annual whole ever recorded.
The biggest and most damaging knowledge breach within the crypto trade occurred at {hardware} pockets supplier Ledger, which suffered an enormous database hack in 2020, ensuing within the leak of greater than 270,000 buyer data and a wave of phishing assaults that proceed to today.
Journal: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express
