The HBAR Foundation, an organization that supports the development of projects building on the Hedera ecosystem by providing grants and other resources, today announces the launch of a Privacy Market Development Fund, designed to support teams creating privacy-preserving technologies in the Web3 sector.
Privacy Market Development Fund to Fuel Privacy-Preserving Solutions on Hedera
The Privacy Market Development Fund will be used as fuel to drive further privacy-preserving solutions on Hedera through the allocation of an initial sum by The HBAR Foundation.
This is a partner managed fund, managed by Acoer, an expert in building large scale privacy-preserving technologies and blockchain-enabled solutions built on Hedera.
Why Privacy Solutions are Needed
The need for web-based technologies that are private by design has been consistently stipulated by regulators and law-makers across the world over the last decade–as outlined in data protection laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), India’s Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB), China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), among others. These regulators levy heavy fines for any violations of these data privacy laws, as seen in many, recent, well publicized cases around the world.
These laws call for data-protection techniques to deliver foundational consumer rights to internet users, along with demonstrable accountability requirements that organizations must align with.
Distributed-ledger technology (DLT) provides a strong foundation for privacy-preserving technology with its unique ability to deliver transparency and privacy hand-in-hand. For organizations to meet the regulators’ demands for privacy techniques and accountability requirements, DLT will prove crucial and is why the HBAR Foundation has launched the Privacy Market Development Fund.
In line with the guidance outlined in the GDPR and the CCPA, privacy-preserving technologies based on blockchain technology have the potential to deliver novel, innovative solutions that enhance the protection of individuals’ rights. These include built-in data trails, which could be used to prove the authenticity of financial transactions and other broad-ranging use-cases like healthcare records, consumer rights agreements, and more.
For example, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on Hedera could be used to privately and uniquely anchor consumer rights to a given individual and then correspondingly prove the authenticity of all future transactions and interactions. Similar techniques could be used to create healthcare passports that privately link to a person’s identity and then carry the proof of all medical interactions from that moment on.
Privacy by Design
To comply with privacy and data protection laws, systems should be engineered with Privacy by Design (PbD) based on the seven “foundational principles”:
1. Proactive not reactive
2. Privacy as the default setting
3. Privacy embedded into design
4. Full functionality
5. End-to-end security — full lifecycle protection
6. Visibility and transparency
7. Respect for user privacy
Collaboration with Acoer
Acoer, the manager of the Privacy Market Development Fund, has already established privacy-centric use-cases on Hedera with the launch of RightsHash in 2021, which uses NFTs to monitor and protect individuals’ data rights, including support of patients’ medical consent in clinical trials and other healthcare scenarios. RightsHash’s open, serverless APIs enable the tracking of an individual’s digital rights and protections as discrete, unique assets.
“We’re delighted to collaborate with The HBAR Foundation on the development of this very important fund,” said Jim Nasr, Acoer CEO. “Hedera has the potential to be the long-term foundation of many privacy-preserving initiatives across a wide variety of industries and use cases.”
Shayne Higdon, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at the HBAR Foundation, commented: “The need for privacy-preserving technology on the internet has become readily apparent in the past decade, and development in the next decade will prove crucial to providing these technologies. The launch of the Privacy Market Development Fund is aimed at helping accelerate this development and providing both developers and regulators with a common technological framework from which to work.”
More Information
For more information on principles for building sound, privacy-preserving solutions on Hedera, please review renowned Privacy & Ethics Expert, Debra Farber’s, whitepaper on Architecting for Privacy and Data Protection on Hedera.
For more information on protecting user privacy with Hedera NFTs and RightsHash, please view the related joint Hedera/Acoer webinar here: https://youtu.be/kwVh2r57Dkk
About the HBAR Foundation
Founded in 2021, the HBAR Foundation fuels the development of the Hedera ecosystem by providing grants and other resources to developers, startups and organizations that seek to launch decentralized applications in DeFi, NFTs, CBDCs, ESGs, gaming and other sectors. In addition to providing funding through a streamlined grant process, the HBAR Foundation acts as an integrated force multiplier through expert support across technical, marketing, business development and other operational functions that are required to scale.
To apply for a grant from the foundation, please visit https://www.hbarfoundation.org/apply or follow the HBAR Foundation on twitter @HBAR_foundation.
About Acoer
Acoer is an award-winning technology firm, and a leading developer of practical, usable, real-time blockchain-enabled software. We believe software should be safe and honest, we are passionate in putting our users first. We accomplish these objectives through the development of secure, privacy preserving and traceable technologies which can be easily adopted using open protocols and usable interfaces.
Acoer is a globally distributed, employee-owned firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For more information, visit www.acoer.com, or follow us on Twitter at @acoerco.
