Square and TBD Take Home Award at California DMV Hackathon
Block, represented by team members from Square and TBD, was awarded “Best Privacy & Security Design” at the California DMV’s October 2024 Hackathon for building a working prototype for an instant age verification system.
Mobile drivers’ licenses (mDLs) have seen significant growth and have begun rolling out in 14 states. In California, mDLs are now available on the CA Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Wallet app for iOS and Android as well as on Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. This broad availability across mobile devices presents an opportunity for greater convenience, privacy, and security for consumers and businesses.
The California DMV created the hackathon to showcase the potential applications of mDLs — it promoted business and government integrations of secure, privacy-preserving mobile drivers’ licenses. Fifteen finalists presented fully functioning prototypes of products that demonstrated mobile drivers’ license use cases. Judging criteria was based on viability, privacy/security, user experience, social & environmental impact, and scalability.
The prototype built by Square and TBD seamlessly integrates with Square’s Point of Sale (POS) system and the Square Retail POS App, providing an enhanced layer of security and compliance for businesses that need to verify a buyer’s age during transactions. Block implemented TruAge technology to build this prototype. TruAge looks only at the data points that verify legal age, rather than capturing other personal information. Here’s how it works:
For small businesses, easily confirming personal information such as age from a trusted source protects the small business but also provides heightened privacy and security for consumers. There are a variety of compelling small-business use cases mDLs have the potential to unlock, from fraud prevention and secure employee onboarding to verifying the identity of suppliers, customers, or partners.
Participating in this hackathon is just one step in Block’s commitment towards ensuring safe and secure mDLs, while also ensuring both small businesses and consumers have the innovation at their fingertips to support economic empowerment, Block’s overall purpose. At the federal level, Block is also part of the NIST consortium alongside the California DMV as well as the state transportation departments of Kentucky, Maryland, and New York and several other private sector financial and tech companies. This group is working to drive adoption of mobile drivers’ licenses across the 50 states in a safe and secure way.
Block, represented by team members from Square and TBD, was awarded “Best Privacy & Security Design” at the California DMV’s October 2024 Hackathon for building a working prototype for an instant age verification system.
Mobile drivers’ licenses (mDLs) have seen significant growth and have begun rolling out in 14 states. In California, mDLs are now available on the CA Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Wallet app for iOS and Android as well as on Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. This broad availability across mobile devices presents an opportunity for greater convenience, privacy, and security for consumers and businesses.
The California DMV created the hackathon to showcase the potential applications of mDLs — it promoted business and government integrations of secure, privacy-preserving mobile drivers’ licenses. Fifteen finalists presented fully functioning prototypes of products that demonstrated mobile drivers’ license use cases. Judging criteria was based on viability, privacy/security, user experience, social & environmental impact, and scalability.
The prototype built by Square and TBD seamlessly integrates with Square’s Point of Sale (POS) system and the Square Retail POS App, providing an enhanced layer of security and compliance for businesses that need to verify a buyer’s age during transactions. Block implemented TruAge technology to build this prototype. TruAge looks only at the data points that verify legal age, rather than capturing other personal information. Here’s how it works:
For small businesses, easily confirming personal information such as age from a trusted source protects the small business but also provides heightened privacy and security for consumers. There are a variety of compelling small-business use cases mDLs have the potential to unlock, from fraud prevention and secure employee onboarding to verifying the identity of suppliers, customers, or partners.
Participating in this hackathon is just one step in Block’s commitment towards ensuring safe and secure mDLs, while also ensuring both small businesses and consumers have the innovation at their fingertips to support economic empowerment, Block’s overall purpose. At the federal level, Block is also part of the NIST consortium alongside the California DMV as well as the state transportation departments of Kentucky, Maryland, and New York and several other private sector financial and tech companies. This group is working to drive adoption of mobile drivers’ licenses across the 50 states in a safe and secure way.