U.S. SEC Commissioner: Blockchain transparent ledger combined with zero-knowledge proof can reshape financial supervision

PANews reported on September 24 that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce spoke at the SIFMA Digital Assets Conference and said that regulatory agencies should re-examine traditional financial monitoring methods and shift from “collecting more data” to using new technologies for more accurate verification. Peirce said technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs can verify whether users meet requirements such as age, citizenship, accredited investor status or sanctions lists without disclosing underlying personal information such as name, income or address.

Hester Peirce recommended that the federal government and regulated agencies adopt attribute-based verification where technically feasible and allow registered entities to rely more on third-party identity verification to reduce the duplication of collection and storage of sensitive information. Peirce also said that the public blockchain has permanent, open and auditable transaction records, and combined with blockchain forensic tools, it is expected to reduce unnecessary data collection while improving the ability to track illegal activities.