Salt Lake City, Jan. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sovrin Foundation, the international nonprofit that administers the Sovrin Network , today announced it has welcomed Chain Partners , CynjaTech, NEC , and Tech Systems Limited as its newest Founding Stewards. These organizations are dedicated to enabling self-sovereign identity for all and join a diverse ecosystem of more than 60 organizations around the world that help support the operation of the Sovrin Network—a decentralized network allowing identity holders to personally manage their own digital identifications. “The number and variety of industries joining the Sovrin Network as Stewards, and their spread across the globe are increasing evidence of a global revolution in digital identity,” said Heather Dahl, Executive Director & CEO of the Sovrin Foundation. “We at the Foundation, believe in a world where self-sovereign identity is available to all, allowing people to own and control their identity in the same way they do offline. We are grateful for our Stewards that help make this mission possible as they continue to strengthen the security and reliability of the Sovrin Network.” Chain Partners is a global blockchain company builder in South Korea and the first Steward in the Korean peninsula. The organization’s primary business areas include cryptocurrency exchange, blockchain advisory, cryptocurrency payments, financial services, blockchain media, education, and research and development. Its expertise in blockchain-related technologies makes Chain Partners a valuable asset to the Sovrin community. "For the first time in history, every man, woman, and child (or organization) can have their very own self-sovereign digital identity,” said Richard Kim, Vice President of Chain Partners. “Chain Partners is honored to be selected as a Sovrin Steward, and our team aims to leverage our previous experiences in blockchain to bring sustainable, value-creating outcomes in the Sovrin ecosystem.” CynjaTech is a US-based EdTech company focused on teaching children and other exploited populations how to navigate their digital lives in privacy preserving ways. The company is currently working on a proof of concept that would use the Sovrin Network to offer privacy, security, data control, and a digital identity to children as they learn to navigate the Internet. “We are excited to be selected as a Sovrin Steward,” said Scott Harris, Vice President of Business Development for CynjaTech. “For years, our technology has been protecting children and their families. We believe that Sovrin will give the next generation a digital life where they have control and ownership of their most basic human right—their identity. That’s why CynjaTech is proud to support the Sovrin Network." NEC Corporation is an international IT solutions enterprise that focuses on solving the social issues that the world faces using information and communication technology and aims to achieve safety, security, efficiency, and equality to enrich people's lives. Being the first Sovrin Steward in Japan, NEC hopes to be a leading contributor to the popularization of self-sovereign identity in that country. "Self-sovereign digital identity will be essential for digital inclusion and human-centric data sharing,” said Daichi Iwata, Head of Digital Identity Team at NEC Corporation. Tech Systems Limited provides comprehensive IT based solutions, procurement services, and specialized engineering services for the public and private sectors. As the first Steward in Nigeria, Tech Systems Limited envisions the Sovrin Network as a tool with the capability to provide self-sovereign identity to the country’s more than 180 million citizens. “Tech Systems has been adding value to its Nigerian public and private sector clients for over 31 years,” said Ken Spann, Technical Advisor at Tech Systems Limited. “We are excited and humbled to install the first and only Sovrin node in Nigeria and West Africa. Nigeria, like many countries, is looking to harmonize its many identity databases, and we believe Sovrin may allow, for the first time, every citizen to have and control their own identities. We see Sovrin as providing a key element missing from the Internet—a global public utility for identity—that will one day be used to verify identities as DNS is used to track machines on the Internet. The days of individuals having scores of identities, which they do not own or control, are coming to an end. This will have a tremendous impact on driving economic growth across Africa.” Chain Partners, CynjaTech, NEC, Tech Systems Limited, and all other Stewards have agreed to abide by the principles and requirements established in the Sovrin Governance Framework , the legal foundation of the Sovrin Network.
### ABOUT THE SOVRIN FOUNDATION
The Sovrin Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to administer the Governance Framework governing the Sovrin Network, a decentralized global public network enabling self-sovereign identity on the internet. The Sovrin Network is an open source project operated by independent Stewards and uses the power of a distributed ledger to give every person, organization, and thing the ability to own and control their own permanent digital identity.
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Helen Garneau Sovrin Foundation +1 801 701-1848 helen@sovrin.org
