Blockchain is the missing piece in Apple’s “New Product” puzzle

TL;DR

• Apple is rumored to be secretly working on an AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT. Will blockchain be the next integration? Here it fits: Zero Knowledge Proofs.

• Apple integrated ZkProofs would allow users to:

• Upload identity information/documents to a secure Apple server → Apple verifies it and removes it from its servers → every time a website requests that information, Apple vouch for you using a ZkProof

• (Telling the site that you submitted verified info/docs – without getting that site dirty). It would take privacy and security to the next level on iPhone!

Full story

ICYMI: Last Friday, we made our best guess of what technologies will define the third generation of the web.

It went something like this:

• Blockchain (as infrastructure)

• AI (driving software and platforms)

• Augmented/Virtual Reality (as computer medium)

So when we heard whispers that Apple is secretly working on an AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT, we had three thoughts:

1. Thank the lord in heaven, Siri is FINALLY getting usable!

2. We have the Vision Pro on the way, next up is AI Siri…that means blockchain is the last piece of the Web3 puzzle for Apple.

3. Apple embraces blockchain? That’s cute. It will never happen.

But then something clicked…

One form of blockchain technology plays right into Apple’s commitment to privacy, specifically:

Zero Knowledge Proofs (or “ZkProofs,” if you’re nasty).

Here they would fit:

You know how some websites legally require you to provide a bunch of information to use their services?

(Think: banks, trading platforms, crypto exchanges – things like that)

This ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) process often requires you to provide your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, address, 1-2 IDs and may also include more sensitive information such as social security numbers.

In other words: everything someone needs to steal your identity.

The problem is that the more you spread this information → the more databases it contains → the more likely your information will be leaked/hacked one day.

Apple integrating ZkProofs could work something like this:

You upload your info/docs to a secure Apple server → Apple verifies it and removes it from its servers → every time a website asks for that info, Apple “vouches” for you using a ZkProof → tells the site that you submitted verified info/docs (without that site doing anything).

Is this concept as sexy as the Vision Pro? No.

Flashy, like the proposed AI-supercharged Siri? Absolutely not.

But it would take privacy and security to the next level on iPhone!

(And add another stone to Apple’s “walled garden”).