Related · tier-1 reading. For what a portable artifact actually is, see Portable Artifact.
Every KYC provider is a breach target. You collect passport scans, SSNs, and bank statements because regulators require identity verification. But you don't need the documents — you need proof they're who they say they are. ZK-KYC gives your platform the verification result and a cryptographic proof. Zero PII. Zero documents. Zero liability.
ZK-KYC is zero-knowledge identity verification — the platform receives cryptographic proof that a user meets identity requirements (age, jurisdiction, sanctions status, biometric liveness) instead of the documents themselves. It exists because every document a KYC provider stores is a breach liability; you need the verification result, not the passport.
ZK-KYC is a supporting expression of the H33 ZK Platform, which proves without revealing. It applies that one capability to identity; it does not redefine it.
The ZK Platform proves a statement without revealing it — it does not compute on encrypted data. The FHE biometric and sanctions steps on this page run on the FHE Platform, which computes over ciphertext; ZK proves the attribute facts. The portable, offline-verifiable evidence of each proof is produced by H33-74 — ZK generates the proof, H33-74 anchors it as portable evidence.
Each tier builds on the last. Basic proves identity attributes. Enhanced adds biometric liveness. Full adds sanctions screening. The platform never sees a document at any tier.
Standard KYC collects a passport scan, extracts the date of birth, and stores both. Now you have a PII database that every attacker on earth wants to breach. You needed to know the user is 18+. You did not need the passport.
The document is processed client-side. A cryptographic hash anchors the document without revealing it. STARK zero-knowledge proofs attest: age ≥ 18, jurisdiction = permitted country. Dilithium post-quantum signature binds the proof. Platform never sees the document.
A Dilithium-signed attestation: user is 18+, user is in a permitted jurisdiction, document hash is anchored. Zero PII. Zero document bytes. Cryptographic proof only.
Document-only KYC does not prove the person holding the document is the person on the document. Liveness checks require a selfie matched against the photo. Every provider that does this stores biometric templates in the clear — a BIPA, GDPR, and CCPA liability.
Everything in Basic, plus: the selfie and document photo are converted to 128-dim feature vectors, FHE-encrypted client-side, and matched via inner product on ciphertext. The server computes a similarity score without ever seeing either face. ZK address proof included.
Everything from Basic plus: biometric liveness attestation (face matches document), ZK address proof, all Dilithium-signed. Platform never sees the face. Server never sees the face. BIPA-proof by architecture.
Regulators require sanctions screening against OFAC SDN, EU consolidated, UN, and PEP lists. This means sending the user's full legal name to a screening vendor in plaintext. One vendor breach exposes your entire customer ledger.
Everything in Enhanced, plus: the user's name and identifiers are FHE-encrypted before leaving their device. Screening runs on ciphertext against encrypted sanctions lists. The screening server never sees the plaintext name. Compliance report with chain-hashed audit trail.
Everything from Enhanced plus: sanctions screening attestation (clear or flagged), compliance report with chain-hashed audit trail, all Dilithium-signed. Platform never sees the name. Full regulatory compliance, zero PII exposure.
Each tier is composed of discrete cryptographic capabilities. These are the building blocks.
To prove a user is 18+, platforms collect the full date of birth. To prove they are a US resident, platforms collect the full address. Every attribute check becomes a PII collection event, expanding the breach surface.
Prove age ≥ 18. Prove country = US. Prove income ≥ threshold. Prove NOT on sanctions list. All without revealing the underlying value. STARK proofs are generated client-side and verified server-side. The attribute value never leaves the user's device.
The verifier learns exactly one bit of information per proof: the statement is true or the statement is false. The underlying value — the actual age, the actual country, the actual income — is not revealed by the proof, under the standard zero-knowledge and hardness assumptions the construction relies on.
OFAC SDN, EU consolidated, UN sanctions, and PEP lists must be screened for every customer. Every screening vendor sees the customer's full legal name in plaintext. Vendor breaches expose the entire customer base.
OFAC SDN, EU, UN, PEP lists screened on FHE-encrypted identifiers. The screening engine runs fuzzy matching on ciphertext. The server never sees the plaintext name. Result: match or no match, signed with Dilithium. Full compliance, zero PII exposure.
Full regulatory compliance with OFAC, EU AML, and UN sanctions obligations. The screening vendor never sees a single customer name. Eliminates the largest third-party risk vector in the KYC pipeline.
Biometric liveness requires matching a live selfie against a document photo. Every provider that does this possesses unencrypted biometric templates. Illinois BIPA: $650M+ in settlements. GDPR Article 9: biometric data is special category. CCPA: biometric information is sensitive personal information.
FHE-encrypted selfie template matched against FHE-encrypted document photo. 128-dimensional inner product computed entirely on ciphertext. The server never sees either face. Similarity score decrypted only by the authorized party. 32 users per FHE batch.
You cannot leak what you never had in the clear. No biometric template is ever decrypted on the server. BIPA-proof, GDPR-proof, CCPA-proof — not by policy, but by mathematics.
Proof, not documents. Every verification result maps to a specific H33 cryptographic component and public standard.
| What the Platform Gets | H33 Component | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Age verification (18+, 21+) | STARK ZK range proof | SHA3-256 |
| Jurisdiction verification | STARK ZK set membership | SHA3-256 |
| Document anchoring | SHA3-256 document hash | FIPS 202 |
| Biometric liveness | FHE-BFV inner product (128-dim) | Lattice-based |
| Sanctions clearance | FHE fuzzy match (OFAC/EU/UN/PEP) | Lattice-based |
| Proof integrity | Dilithium ML-DSA signature | FIPS 204 |
| Computation correctness | STARK attestation | SHA3-256 |
| Audit trail | Chain-hashed compliance report | Tamper-evident |
ZK-KYC maps directly to the regulatory frameworks that require identity verification while imposing data minimization obligations.
All H33 products are included in our standard pricing tiers.
View Pricing →Regulation requires you to verify identity, age, jurisdiction, or sanctions status, but you do not want to hold the raw passport scans and biometric templates that make you a breach target. You want the verification result and a signed proof, not the documents.
You are legally required to retain raw identity documents for a specific purpose, or you are looking for a replacement for your KYC/AML program itself. ZK-KYC changes what data you store, not whether the legal obligation exists — it does not remove the need for regulator sign-off.
A zero-knowledge identity verification system with three tiers: ZK age and jurisdiction proofs, FHE biometric liveness, and encrypted OFAC/EU/UN/PEP sanctions screening. Platforms receive cryptographic proof of identity, not documents. It is a supporting expression of the H33 ZK Platform, which proves without revealing.
No. Zero-knowledge proves an attribute is true without revealing the underlying value; it does not compute over ciphertext. The biometric-match and sanctions-screening steps use fully homomorphic encryption — the FHE Platform — while ZK proves the attribute facts and H33-74 anchors the proof as portable, offline-verifiable evidence. The three primitives compose but stay distinct.
No. The tier flows, sample attestations, and figures shown on this page are illustrative descriptions of how the system works, not a live verification of any real person or a confirmed sanctions verdict. Actual screening results and compliance attestations are produced only when you run a real verification through the API against the live sanctions lists.
No. It changes what data you hold — proof instead of raw documents — while your legal identification, screening, and record-keeping obligations remain. It is designed to satisfy data-minimization requirements alongside those obligations, not to remove them or substitute for regulator sign-off.
Every document you collect is a liability. Every biometric template you store is a class-action waiting to happen. ZK-KYC gives you the verification result and a cryptographic proof. The documents stay with the user. The liability stays at zero.