This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of sitting in on the KNOW Identity Forum San Francisco, a series of one-day intimate discussions hosted by One World Identity. Throughout the evening, digital Identity specialists shared their thoughts on the past, present, and future of identity in business.

State of Identity Podcast LIVE

The event kicked off with a live taping of the State of Identity Podcast. Cameron D’Ambrosi, Principal at OWI and Ryan Cox, VP of Global Partner Solutions at DocuSign spoke about the origins of DocuSign, and how important it is for a new business to establish trust with customers and partners.

Cox noted that, before DocuSign, most companies used physical documents for signing on new employees or creating contracts with partners, and that a paper trail laid a foundation of trust between the contractor and contractee. So, during the company’s initial years, potential clients did not have the same level of trust with electronic signatures.

Cox and D’Ambrosio discussed the road DocuSign took to becoming a trusted name, and how their success has changed the way people think about digital identity. He mentioned that ultimately, the current market is less demanding of a paper trail when it comes to signatures on secure documents for two reasons:

A culture shift toward being more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
The credibility of DocuSign and trust they have instilled with their partners continues to grow.

Cox predicts that, looking forward, government and financial institutions will start creating hteir own personal IDs for their customers, but both institutions will need to work to gain consumer trust.

Fireside Chat: Discussing the Future of Digital Identity Platforms—What You Need to Know Before Your Competitors

“One of the amazing things a digital identity should do—and a passport can’t—is communicate with other digital identities.” - David Burch

David Birch, Director of Innovation at Consult Hyperion, lead a discussion on physical identity in a digitally-driven world with Ross Hobbie from Google and Carlo Capello from Early Warning.

The panelists discussed the intersection of physical and digital identities, noting the importance of digital identities over physical (such as passports, drivers licenses, etc.), since digital IDs are able to communicate with each other, creating a holistic profile of each person.

As we move into a digital-first world, all the speakers unanimously agreed that the next step in digital identity is financial institutions and their approach to IDs. But, we need to keep in mind that not everyone has a smartphone, so the challenge for banks will be to create seamless digital identities for customers who use SMS, as well as smart phones.

As the panelists discussed the ways banks are beginning to focus on innovations in digital identity, they agreed the big question is: do we trust banks to carefully handle our personal information?

If you’re interested in hearing more discussions on Digital Identity, grab your tickets for KNOW’s annual conference in Las Vegas, running April 5-8. Be sure to check out the cred client speaking on the agenda, including Thomas Walle, CEO and Founder of Unacast, and Brian Silver, President of Identity at LiveIntent.