A frictionless two-factor authentication software for secure transactions

Project Information

EyeCode

Grant agreement ID: 816804

DOI

10.3030/816804

Project closed

EC signature date 9 May 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 30 September 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SKEYECODE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EyeCode (A frictionless two-factor authentication software for secure transactions)

Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2018-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The EyeCode project was initially designed to provide a software only two-factor authentication solution to the banking and financial markets.
Based on breakthrough cryptography technology it provides a much better user experience than the competition (delivered via smartphone), eliminates the need for additional hardware devices (one time password token generators) and perfectly addresses the escalating threat of cyber-attacks on transaction validation by offering a much higher level of security than most of the more expensive solutions used today.
With the Skeyecode solution any online transaction based service could become much more secure by having a stronger authentication of all the participants thus helping to fight the fast increase of online fraud.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

While the technical study was executed on plan and delivered the expected outcomes, the business study revealed a critical issue in terms of commercial viability and business model validation.
Even though there is a great interest of the banks for the Skeyecode solution (two customised prototypes were built and demonstrated to two major banks), the buying cycle they announced, is incompatible with the lifecycle of a startup.
The Skeyecode team decided to refocus on a new initial market with smaller, faster and more technology savvy players, while building on the 2FA existing solution.
Because of the rising traction in terms of investment and number of patents filed, created by the blockchain distributed ledger technology, and the critical need for secure storage of the keys as well as authentication and signature of the transactions, this market looked like the perfect opportunity. Skeyecode was able to sign a partnership with Gemalto to design a new smartcard which provides the features of a cold wallet, when combined with the existing smartphone 2FA solution. Several months later a prototype was ready for demonstration and new patents were filed. Skeyecode approached several players (exchanges, fintechs emitting tokens, but also luxury brands) and could validate the market opportunity. Today a few contracts in the sales pipeline are nearing the closure state

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By making the smart card EMV compatible, Skeyecode could be the first company to launch a card providing both, generic payment features and cold wallet. This would allow to address all the innovative players looking for differentiators like neo banks and fintechs and could help to bring together the crypto currency and fiat payments and pave the way to Digital Distributed Technology DLT strong security.

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