Bitcoin Forum

After watching James D'Angelo video about the idea to link face recognition to Bitcoin, it made me think of the possibilities of this type of scenario.
Let's think about this for one moment :

1. Someone develop face recognition software that uniquely create a Bitcoin address linked to that face.
2. Let's for the sake of this argument, say this face can only be linked to that specific address.
3. You also create scanning software, that scans photo's or video's showing people's linked Bitcoin addresses.
4. Let's also say, there is no way to duplicate these features <Wearing a mask>

Ok, now the real world applications :

a. You login to your wallet with your face. <Hopefully hacker proof> So payment is with your face.
b. If someone see you on a photo or a video, they can scan you and tip you or make a donation.
c. This bitcoin address can be linked at birth. <Relatives can deposit money for you as a child>
d. Methods can be implemented to make it more annonymous. <Built in mixer service etc.>
e. You see a girl or boy you like, and you send them a Valentine deposit gift with a little message attached.

I wonder how close are we to a situation like this, where the technology would be strong enough to make this possible.

I do not have access to youtube where I am now, so please could someone post James's video in this thread, to give him credit for his idea.  
 

If such were developed, fundamental Christians would be lining up to embrace Bitcoin, ready to have to mugs shot emphasizing their marked foreheads so that they'll be the first to rid the devils vice - fiat currency.  ::)

Indeed, the beast will have arrived.  I would not like this future if it went down that route, as far fetched as it seems it is however a possibility.

I wouldn't trust anything that has to do with biometrics to store wealth or anything important. It's much better to have a regular strong password, just don't forget it. I think passes via digital fingertips, eye scans, hand scans whatever, are nothing but "cool futuristic looking gimmicks" type of thing.

What happens when your biometric data gets compromised? Plastic surgery? Face transplant?

retinal scan could be good in theory if associated with a particular movements of the eyes as a "password", it would be unbreakable, and unless you become blind or you lose your eyes in an incident it should be  pretty safe

A unique address per face won't work because changes in the face and measurement differences will result in a different address every time.


My phone and my Xbox already do that. A unique address per face is not necessary.

^^^This.
A good (high res) biometric recognition software will give you different results if one or two hair is in the way (e.g: you didn't shave well).
And when you want to verify a transaction, making sure you look EXACTLY the same as you did when created the private key / address will be a big concern.

I think when it comes to biometrics it is better to stick to fingerprints and iris.
They are less likely to give any problems.
Voice, Face, etc can be easily altered and therefor not very good for this job IMO.

Those carry the same risk. If someone steals a copy of your iris scan, what then, cornea implant?

Text passwords are, at present, the best form of authentication, if they become compromised then you can change them completely. And if you choose them well, then they can be random, unpatterned data. Biometrics are not random/unpatterned and also publicly available, this makes it possible to obtain that information. Random password text can easily be sufficiently entropic enough that it's not possible to guess, even if an attacker is simply fishing for valid passwords. Domain size for bitcoin private keys is a good example of this principle; 2²⁵⁶ is just too large a number of combinations to work through speculatively. The probability of finding a valid private key with zero BTC, let alone a usable sum, is so disappearingly small that no-one will ever seriously attempt it (with classical computers, at least).

I would consider this part in the biometrics developments but the main problem is people can use video of your  face to login if their a web platform, maybe a dna blood signature that take a real time blood sample in order to match your dna string to a wallet.

What happens when someone gets a copy of your genome? Genome transplant?

It would most likely needs to be a complete clone of your self to have the same dna strand, but then again it would have to be a 100% match i don't think Genome transplants are that accurate when duplicating dna strands or maybe they are.

You means this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZC98s4paYY

LOL i imagine this idea is like i opened my annonymous mask on the public :D

This implementation is have a lot of lack, "login with your face" it's easily can be manipulated.


This would be great.

True.
But you are refering to 3rd party intervention.
I was refering to common problems that will arise by simply using it yourself for everyday transactions :)

It would be great if it was possible to link both public and private keys to a face... And it would be pretty much hacker proof, as faces have many details needed for recognition.

Although this is a good idea, the future is definitely retina scans as I've been mentioning on several threads. Now that I would love to see get implemented ;)

You're right, genome transplants are pretty advanced these days, but they do need to improve in accuracy a little more. And it'd also have to be the kind of genome that contains all of your genetic information, not just a part of it, that's also correct  ::)

People have a tendency to over attempt new technology,meaning they would press their greasy,zit infested,flu having faces to hard against the screen.
The thought alone would make me come down with the flu seeing a screen covered in all kinds of nasty. Just imagine a 7/11 on a Friday night when the bars are getting out nasty.

I can see a scenario where this may work... Your face is your username and your iris your password and your fingerprint  your 2FA.

In theory, even though this may sound very far fetched and Star Trek... You can walk up to a shop clerk, tell him what you want to buy.. They then scan your face and it links you to your bitcoin address, and to

confirm your purchase, you have to press your finger on a biometric fingerprint scanner... or the same scanner just zoom into your iris and confirm the payment.

It would be difficult to bypass a physical one-on-one transaction like this.... Face = username / Iris = password / finger print = 2FA.

The face recognition software takes several features into consideration when it verify your identity... if it finds a 90% match, it fills in the "username" ...This can work.  ::)
  

What happens when your facial profile and your fingerprints become compromised, more transplants? Gene therapy for new fingerprint patterning? Maybe we could all walk around the whole time wearing masks and gloves?

One thing to take note is that human complexion changes especially with increasing age, so I don’t see how feasible would that be to link address to face recognition. More over, there’s chances that could even lead to security getting compromised if let’s say somebody could duplicate and create the exact facial expression almost similar as what you see in wax museum. I would accept that being done for other non-important applications but definitely not for addresses holding your life savings.

You change as you age, but nothing stops you from re-scanning your features and doing some sort of 2FA to confirm this change. This sort of application would not be used

to store your life savings, because all security have some flaws. It's only for the day-to-day trading, like we move around with a physical wallet now.

You still have the majority of your life savings in cold storage, not connected or linked to this identity.

Let's be honest.. most people walk around with a wallet, with 1 or 2 or 3 credit cards and also their ATM card linked to their life savings, as you put it. The probability

for someone to get hold of that and to get your password is much higher or the same as someone going through the trouble to fake your face/finger print/retina etc...

It's not 100% secure {nothing is} but it opens up a opportunity for you not to walk around with a wallet full of cash and loaded with credit cards.

Imagine this scenario... you get knocked out, and you lose your memory. Someone takes you to the hospital... You get there and they admit you, without you or them

knowing who you are. You would still be able to pay for the treatment, without you knowing who you are. {For those people saying.. people would knock you out, and then scan

you for your money... Well, what stops them from doing that now? ....Would a merchant do business with a customer that is unconscious? }

Good question.

Big data has enough information already to let hackers steal our identity. Why provide the more information that we cannot ever change?

The difference being that the authentication information isn't even stored on the cards at all, and still they are fairly easy to defraud. If you use a face scan, the literal authentication information is permanently on display, your fingerprint information is all over every single door you open and every surface you use. Fingerprint spoofing tech has existed for decades, and is now cheap and reliable. This idea is only going to get worse with time, and it's already a bad idea now.

In regards to the authentication information being on display, you should probably read this as well (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/german-minister-fingerprint-cloned-photos,28268.html) - A technic which allows the extraction of ones fingerprint with only a cutout piece of a photograph... Face recognition wouldn't be anymore difficult to fool, if one had a clear photograph which could be used to extract facial structures...

You can only link face recognition to bitcoin (or any other digital key) if using a central server.

The problem is that biometric is not strictly deterministic, which is required for a digital key.
There is a ton of research in this area, e.g. if you can add a tollerance to where you hit on the epliptic curve.

But for now, would you need a central server to map your biometric against a database and find the match with higest proberbility, then will the server return the digital key.

Unfortunally with current technoligy can you not link a biometric with a digital key.
If you could, then would it open a whole new possiblility of applications.
The most interesting application is to improve the demochracy, you could improve the voting system significantly by using your biosignature as a digital key and then sign your vote online.

 Good luck changing the patterns on your iris. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biometric-security-poses-huge-privacy-risks/)

Hehe i don't think many people would want a unique BTC address linked to their face.

/thread (finally)

To conclude with @Carlton Banks quotes; both iris, and fingerprints could be extracted with an ordinary photograph, and facial recognition wouldn't be suitable because of its indeterministic nature; this makes it improbable and almost impossible to obtain the same values, unless a central server was introduced, thus, making your private keys as safe as an online wallet.

Furthermore, introducing "tollerance," would decrease the effectiveness of a relationship (between private key and facially recognised key), this would increase the possibility of obtaining identical values with difference faces, therefore, increasing the likelihood of mismatches, and sophisticated attacks from different sources such as photographs...

this can't still overcome the movements of the eyes that i was suggesting in the first page, that's the real password, and only you will know it, it would also be very difficult if not impossible to mimic

This thread is making me sick
 ;D

No face recognition linked to BTC use. That's it. Full stop!

My passport has face recognition. My border don't recognise my face no more and it's only five years old (the passport, not the face).

In theory iris/DNA/fingerprint recognition sounds secure but hacking is going to always be running alongside progress or taking a step up.

This idea gets even worse the more you think about it:

OK, so lets assume it isn't really easy to systematically capture biometrics with digitial imaging equipment from miles away. Instead, imagine the $5 wrench attack against 2FA facial recognition + iris scans. Change the name to "5 seconds" attack, $5 wrench not even required. Probably don't even need to make physical contact, just close enough to grab some quick images. Tautologically dumb idea is a tautologically dumb idea.

What about face recognition gives you the address and fingerprint+pin the private key?
Im sure there are not that many hand photos out there

Why bother making effort taking images? With today's society (widespread of online content sharing and cloud computing), it's most likely going to be on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. Need I go on?

Anything that's public shouldn't be used to encapsulate private data. This specifically applies to Bitcoin private keys.

with so many possible scenarios of security options, with a security company you get a phone call that ask you for a pin after you already introduce your home password or pin in the local pad, pin on the phone and an agent comes on and ask you 2 questions with a voice recognition software, Is everything ok mr Anderson? can i please have the last for digits of your social security number.

lol add to that a faceregonition so you could get this answer you may send bitcoin now sir! 

face expressions are risky, you can accidentally repeat it in pubblic why you are smiling or something else, i'm not in favor for it for any kind of security

it would be better to use your eyes but when you go public you wear a contact lenses that will change the color, so even if someone take photo he can't do shit

Not a good idea, there is a risk to leak your privacy.