Telefónica releases blockchain-based document authentication service

Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunication company announced the release of a blockchain-based authentication initiative. The innovation ensures companies to be able to authenticate documents, projects, transactions, and digital contents in an efficient way with legal backing.

The authentication service was created on Telefónica Tech’s TrustOS platform, which utilizes blockchain technology to simplify the connection of a company’s processes.

Prior to this innovation, paper documents had disadvantages like the risk of getting spoilt or stolen, as well as the possibility of document forgery. The usage of paper document verification also has setbacks as the document issuer can only carry out verification manually. Telefónica plans to solve these with the blockchain-based authentication service that combines the document’s digital fingerprint and timestamp with the user’s digital signature.

“…The new Telefónica Tech service allows companies to generate with the same probative value digital evidence of authorship, possession and integrity of the dynamic history of versions and interactions of any digital format (files, images, emails, etc.), compared to a digital signature classic that only offers these guarantees for a specific version of a PDF document,” the report stated.

More info about the new service

The new service also opens the door for several use cases across different sectors such as: insurance, by enabling a visual record of claims, documentation record, and documentary evidence; agriculture, by enabling the registration of quality certificates, biosanitary analysis, and field notebooks; industrial property, by ensuring brand protection, business secrecy, safeguarding of engineering projects and construction plans, software deposit, and infringements on protected content.

The service also targets areas including: training, being utilized for certificates of attendance at courses, fairs and congresses, professional accreditations, and academic degrees; media, i.e. for the registration of original content, as well as the authorship of images and multimedia content; administrative and legal, specifically for the registration of confidential information, notifications, and minutes, digital certification, and notarization, as well as contracts and documents; and products, by ensuring proof of origin or ownership, certificates and compliance with the conditions of guarantee, evidence of conservation and transmissions, and for authenticity & limited series.

Telefónica’s legal department already started using the solution to keep track of emails in case of controversies, although the content isn’t visible on the blockchain.

Luis Prendes, Telefónica’s Global Director for Legal Affairs & Digital Legal Transformation, said: “The incorporation of innovative technologies such as blockchain in contract management and legal documentation, in general, is a key step for the secure digital transformation of companies.”

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