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What Are E-Signatures?

August 17, 2020




An e-signature, or an electronic signature, is a method of giving and showing consent with, approval of, or participation in an electronic document or form where physical signatures would not be possible. Essentially it replaces the requirement of a handwritten signature in legal situations. They can take the form of a traditional handwritten signature, a unique string of characters, a fingerprint or similar unique characteristic, or cryptographic signature.

There are a huge number of advantages to using digital or electronic solutions across a wide variety of industries. Products, services and developments can be provided more quickly, cheaply, efficiently, simply, and to greater audiences when online options can be utilised. To realise these opportunities however, an accepted method to complete agreements and transactions needs to be in place or commerce and transactions would have no means to take place with any trust or confidence. 

 

Any number of documents can be signed for with an electronic signature. Purchase or sale contracts for products and services, onboarding documents, authorization forms, labor contracts, supplier contracts, confidentiality agreements, non-disclosure agreements, petitions, letters of intent, partnership agreements, the list goes on. Without an electronic signature denoting the participants legal consent, none of these things would be practical to carry out online. 

 

Blockpass is working to facilitate regulatory compliance and security as we move into an increasingly electronic world and digital economy, particularly in the situation that many countries are finding themselves in as the world goes through the COVID-19 pandemic. Blockpass achieves this through its KYC Connect® solution, Blockpass Mobile App and unique PASS token. In the mobile app, users are able to generate certificates which prove their identity and prove they have been through the KYC process, and which they are then free to share with merchants and service providers, signifying their consent to engage with their products and services. 

 

Alongside this, Blockpass enables communication channels between all parties to facilitate additional communication where it is required. Nothing in Blockpass’ services is possible without the users consent and approval; effectively when a user accepts their data being used to access services or goods they are agreeing to the cryptographic signatures of their identity verification certificates being used as e-signatures, giving their approval for the necessary data to be sent to complete a transaction. In doing this we provide a user-centric solution that also cuts down on the tedium and cost of traditional KYC.  

 

Further work between Blockpass and Edinburgh Napier University, through the Blockpass Identity Lab, is geared towards furthering the development of cutting edge cryptography which will provide even more secure and private solutions to be implemented in the future, expanding the options and opportunities available to Blockpass users. 

 

The Blockpass platform is fully automated and hosted in the cloud, with no integration or setup fee. Businesses can sign up to the KYC Connect® console in a matter of minutes, test out the service, and start conducting identity documents verification, KYC and AML checks. Sign up for FREE at console.blockpass.org.