Blockchain is The Missing Piece in Apple’s ‘New Product’ Puzzle

TL;DR

• There’re whispers that Apple is secretly working on an AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT, will blockchain be the next integration? Here’s where it fits: Zero Knowledge Proofs.

• Apple integrated ZkProofs would allow users to do the following:

• Upload identity info/docs to a secure Apple server → Apple verifies it and deletes it from its severs → every time a website asks for that info, Apple ‘vouches’ for you using a ZkProof

• (Telling the site that you’ve submitted verified info/docs – without that site getting its dirty mitts on it all). It would take privacy and security to the next level on iPhone!

Full Story

ICYMI: last Friday, we laid out our best guess at which technologies will define the third generation of the web.

It went a little something like this:

• Blockchain (as infrastructure)

• AI (powering software and platforms)

• Augmented/Virtual Reality (as a computing medium)

So when we heard whispers that Apple is secretly working on an AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT, we had three thoughts:

1. Thank the lord in heaven, Siri is FINALLY going to become usable!

2. We’ve got the Vision Pro on the way, next is AI Siri…that means blockchain is the final piece of the Web3 puzzle for Apple.

3. Apple embracing blockchain? That’s cute. It’ll never happen.

But then something clicked…

A certain form of blockchain tech plays right in to Apple’s push for privacy, specifically:

Zero Knowledge Proofs (or ‘ZkProofs,’ if you’re nasty).

Here’s where they would fit:

You know how some websites will legally require you to give over a bunch of information in order to use their services?

(Think: banks, trading platforms, crypto exchanges – that sort of thing)

This ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) process often requires you to submit your name, email, phone number, date of birth, address, 1-2 forms of ID, and can also include more sensitive information like social security numbers.

Aka: everything someone needs to steal your identity.

The problem is, the more you give this info out → the more databases it lives on → the higher the chances your info will some day be leaked/hacked.

Apple integrating ZkProofs might work something like this:

You upload your info/docs to a secure Apple server → Apple verifies it and deletes it from its severs → every time a website asks for that info, Apple ‘vouches’ for you using a ZkProof → telling the site that you’ve submitted verified info/docs (without that site getting its dirty mitts on it all).

Is this concept sexy like the Vision Pro? No.

Flashy, like the proposed AI-supercharged Siri? Absolutely not.

But it would take privacy and security to the next level on iPhone!

(And add another brick in Apple’s ‘walled garden’).