Stuart Lawley who most know from .xxx, (which he sold to MMX for $41million) has a new business and it’s called AVSecure.com. The business is using the blockchain to provide age verification.
AVSecure enables the consumer to manage access on their local devices rather than through an unrelated remote network.
The consumer’s browser becomes the central point in the process, not the servers or networks of content providers or identity providers.
Release:
Stuart Lawley buys Agepass.com for $25,000 and Ageblock.com for $10,000 via the Uniregistry platform for his new blockchain based Age verification company AVSecure.com.
Since selling ICM Registry to MMX in May , Lawley has been focused on launching the new Age Verification service to help companies and users comply with the requirements of the UK 2017 Digital Economy Act which is due to come into force in spring next year.
The law basically requires adult website operators to put a robust Age Verification system in place to ensure visitors are over 18 rather than the usual cursory check box system that many do at present. Failure to comply may lead to various sanctions from the regulator the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) including asking ISPs to block the sites and the payments processors to stop working with the companies behind the sites. “With consumers understandable concern about privacy and data hacks and publishing of identities as we saw with Ashley Madison a few years back and the repeated breaches at major adult sites, the ability to have an effectively anonymized credential system for consumers made this an absolutely perfect use for a blockchain solution” Lawley says.
“We acquired a blockchain start up in the UK with some super smart tech savvy people who have built a distributed private chain that will handle thousands of transactions per second from millions or users who can rest easy knowing that once they have their credential on our chain, no-one , even us will know who they are..
For those even more privacy conscious individuals AVSecure are working with their subsidiary the AgeVerificationCard.com that will allow users to verify their age in person at over 60,000 retail stores just as they do when buying cigarettes or alcohol and receive a unique 16 digit code that can be entered into the AVSecure system to prove their 18+ credentials without providing any personal identifying information.”
For users are more comfortable in providing electronically means of proof then they can select various options such a credit card/address/passport/driver license to obtain their credentials. Any such data is never seen or retained by Avsecure just trusted 3rd party suppliers who give a simple “pass/fail” answer and a credential is issued or denied. AVSecure have decided to call the blockchain credential the “AgePass” as that’s what it does….
And hence the purchase of agepass.com and in addition will launch another service for parents worried that not all adult sites may comply with the law or concerned about other services like Tumblr and Twitter that host a lot of adult content but are NOT covered by the law, called AgeBlock to make this a device-specific easy step for the concerned parent to restrict their children’s access to adult sites and by choice certain social media sites. .
steven says
i recall stuart describing this to me when we were in mykonos… great to see it coming to fruition .
congrats on a brilliant idea and a perfectly executed and branded initiative stuart!
JZ says
He had hoped that xxx would be forced on all adult sites..that didn’t happen so he sold it? Now its this. You’ll get there Stuart..
Francois says
Brilliant.
RaTHeaD says
i thought it was gonna be stupid but that actually seems like an ingenious way to do it.
Josh says
Interesting stuff, curious how open retail online and physical are to buying into the system and what competition already exists.
Jonathan says
Liking this smart move,