INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
has raised a $5 million seed funding round led by VC firms LocalGlobe and Oxford Capital, alongside Seedcamp, the London Co-Investment Fund
(LCIF), Telefonica and a number of angel investors.Participation has also come from existing investor IAG (International Airlines Group),
which is now its first commercial client
The company also changed its name from VChain Technology to Zamna .When VChain-now-Zamna first appeared, I must admit I was confused
Using blockchain to verify passenger data seemed like a hammer to crack a nut
But it turns out to have some surprisingly useful applications.The idea is to use it to verify and connect the passenger data sets which are
currently siloed between airlines, governments and security agencies
By doing this, says Zamna, you can reduce the need for manual or other checks by up to 90%
securely between parties, using a blockchain in the middle to maintain data security and passenger privacy, the airport security process
could become virtually seamless and allow passengers to sail through airports without needing physical documentation or repeated ID checks
Sounds good to me.Zamna says its proprietary Advance Passenger Information (API) validation platform for biographic and biometric data is
already being deployed by some airlines and immigration authorities
biometric data, without having to share any of that data with third parties, because it attaches an anonymous token to the already verified
Airlines, airports and governments can then access that secure, immutable and distributed network of validated tokens without having
check you are who you say you are.So, what was wrong with the previous security measures in airports for airlines and border control that
of departure and destination both know that you are flying between their countries and have established that it is both legitimate and
You may even assume that the respective security authorities have exchanged some intelligence about you as a passenger, to establish that
They must, therefore, repeat manual one-off data checks each time you travel
Even if you have provided your identity data and checked-in in advance, and if you travel from the same airport on the same airline many
times over, you will find that you are still subject to the same one-off passenger processing (which you have probably already experienced
fines imposed for incorrect data provided to them by the airlines
Secondly, airlines also have to manage the repatriation of passengers and luggage if they are refused entry by a government due to incorrect
And thirdly, ETA (electronic transit authorizations, such as eVisas) are on the rise, and governments and airlines will need to satisfy
This is the case with ESTAs for all United States -bound travelers
Many other countries have similar requirements
travelers, this will also be the case for all passengers traveling into Europe under the incoming ETIAS regulations.The upshot is that
(airlines, governments, security agencies) with a way to validate and revalidate passenger identity and data (both biographic and
next 20 years, new technology-driven solutions are the only way airlines, airports and governments will be able to cope
Airways and the other IAG carriers
