Ethical reservations must be addressed before implementing such technologies, warns Hsu
Rod Hsu, President and Co-Founder of digital currency platform, Coin Curve, said that widespread use of emerging technologies, such as facial recognition, can play a key role in preventing social media-based Bitcoin scams.
The suggestion by the Bitcoin enthusiast comes amid the security breaches that took place on Twitter where accounts of prominent personalities, including former US president Barack Obama and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, were hacked to post fake Bitcoin giveaways in return for users depositing their Bitcoin holdings to an address
In his interview with Cointelegraph, Hsu explained that Bitcoin being an electronic form of the currency makes it vulnerable to scammers. He said that the non-reversible nature of transactions and anonymity offered by Bitcoin coupled with a gap in understanding its functioning, “makes it appealing for scam artists”.
“In either traditional payment methods or Bitcoin, it’s up to the individual to understand the situation and determine its legitimacy. With more public awareness of these schemes and education on Bitcoin, we hope to decouple that negative association,” Hsu said.
Hsu also discussed facial recognition as a possible solution towards stamping out ‘scam’ associations with Bitcoin, as faces are much harder to duplicate than the current safety regulations. He added the system relies on biometrics rather than “simply a photo image”.
“We have seen a light version of facial recognition where not only a consumer provides their identification, but also they perform a Liveness check which takes multiple angles of a person’s profile,” he explained. This adds a layer of difficulty for someone trying to hack into another person’s account or use their payment information, Hsu said.
Facial recognition is also beneficial for re-authenticating users after their initial verification, “balancing the goal of better user experience while minimizing fraud,” Hsu added.
The co-founder warned that systems like facial recognition should ensure that ethics are not compromised for security reasons. Ethics surrounding facial recognition boils down to consent and security, Hsu stated.
“With consent, the user must be aware, provide consent, and be in control of how the data is being stored, shared, used, and accessed as well as the ability to remove it at any time. With security, this relates to how that data is stored and safety protocols implemented. These requirements may shift based on the age of the end-user as well,” he explained.
Hsu reiterated that services that aim to introduce technology like facial recognition must consider ethical reservations, as the implementation will affect many layers of the platform from “the user experience through to the architecture and security of the system.”
