Facial recognition can help prevent future Bitcoin (BTC) scams like those that hit Twitter and YouTube, said Rod Hsu, president and co-founder of virtual currency platform Coincurve. 

During an interview with Cointelegraph, Hsu said Bitcoin is an electronic form of currency that is non-reversible and somewhat anonymous, “coupled with this gap in understanding makes it appealing for scam artists.” But because of the negative publicity the cryptocurrency got with the scams, it may have discouraged many from adopting it. 

“Due to the nature of this, people may see scams and Bitcoin being synonymous. In either traditional payment methods or Bitcoin, it’s up to the individual to understand the situation and determine its legitimacy. With more public awareness of these schemes and education on Bitcoin, we hope to decouple that negative association.”

Facial recognition also balances the goal of a better user experience

Hsu believes facial recognition is one possible solution to stamp out Bitcoin fraud since it is much harder to duplicate. He adds that such a system relies on biometrics, which is “much more advanced than simply a photo image”:

“We have seen a light version of facial recognition where not only does a consumer provide their identification, but also they perform a Liveness check which takes multiple angles of a person’s profile. This adds a layer of difficulty if someone is attempting to use another person’s payment instrument.”

Hsu added that facial recognition is a good tool to use when re-authenticating a person once they have been initially verified, “balancing the goal of better user experience while minimizing fraud.”

Privacy still needs to be guaranteed on facial recognition systems

However, Coincurve’s co-founder warns that systems like facial recognition should keep ethics top of mind for verification purposes:

“I think the ethics surrounding facial recognition boils down to consent and security. With consent, the user must be aware, provide consent, and be in control, of how the data is being stored, shared, used, and accessed as well as the ability to remove it at any time. With security, this relates to how that data is stored and safety protocols implemented. These requirements may shift based on the age of the end-user as well.”

Services need to consider these considerations when leveraging new technology, such as facial recognition since the implementation will affect many layers of the service from “the user experience through to the architecture and security of the system,” Hsu added.

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