ING Bank has announced the release of its Zero-Knowledge Set Membership (ZKSM) solution. The solution marks the further development of the bank’s Zero-Knowledge Range Proof (ZKRP), that empowers clients by improving privacy in a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) environment.

ZKRP enables numeric data to be validated with a specific number range – for example, a mortgage applicant could prove that their salary sits within a certain range without revealing the exact figure. The breakthrough technology of ZKSM allows for alphanumeric data to be validated within a specified set. This opens up a whole new range of applications which can protect data privacy on the blockchain.

Furthering the ZKRP capability, ZKSM can prove dimensions such as geographic positioning making it faster and more cost-efficient. As an example, in a Know Your Customer (KYC) check, a user can be validated to be part of a group – an EU citizen – without disclosing the exact country that he/she lives in. If the data set formed includes all countries in the European Union and if the private information given is the country of residence of a user, the user can prove that he/she is an EU citizen. 

DLT presents a huge opportunity to increase efficiency and simplicity both for financial services and clients who have dealings with financial institutions. One of the major challenges in implementing new DLT is protecting private information on a public ledger, where changes must be verified by each participant in the network.

Annerie Vreugdenhil, Head of Wholesale Banking Innovation at ING, said: “ING’s overall goal with DLT and specifically blockchain is to create solutions that empower our clients to transform their business models. One of the key elements in this process for clients is how to deal with data and privacy. ZKSM is the next step in this journey.”

“At ING, we are fortunate to have some of the best minds in the industry working on our programme, and we are excited that our ground-breaking solution is now ready to be implemented and tested,” she added.

ZKSM is being launched as an open source. This enables external developers to access and further adapt the solution, encouraging the industry to pool its wider expertise to evolve the technology to meet industry demand.