Eftpos Australia has paired up with Australia Post to help develop its digital identity platform.
Australia Post joins a group of 20 businesses trialling the new platform, known as connectID.
A key feature of the connectID service is its interoperability with other digital solutions including AusPost’s smartphone identity service that is marketed as Digital iD.
Eftpos chief executive Stephen Benton said connectID used the national payments scheme like a broker between identity providers such as AusPost and merchants that need to verify who they are dealing with when making payments online.
“It’s great to have other iconic Australian brands like Australia Post onboard to trial this identity solution, which fills an important gap in the market at a time when Australians are going online to transact more often following the COVID-19 pandemic,” Benton said.
“We are collaboratively working with businesses, online merchants, banks and other identity providers with a view to building identity into our national payments infrastructure for all Australian and Australian businesses before the end of the year.”
The connectID platform can be used to verify a consumer’s identity by confirming proof of age, address details or bank account information.
“This could be used to identify individuals for eCommerce transactions, or to ensure government payments are made to the right person during crisis situations like a bushfire,” Benton said.
AusPost head of digital ID Margo Stephen said the collaboration had enabled Eftpos to prove out the connectID service by leveraging the postal carrier’s existing technology.
“ConnectID will offer more places for those with an Australia Post Digital iD on their smartphone to prove who they are when interacting with both business and government.”
Eftpos Australia is also expected to announce this week a strategic partnership with a Google-backed distributed ledger company, Hedera Hashgraph, to deliver a micropayments alternative for web users wanting to access subscription websites.
Benton said Eftpos would test the capability of a digital Australian dollar stable coin using the Hedera Consensus Service with the aim of allowing customers to load a wallet with a few dollars and then pay for web-based content.
The Hedera Consensus Service is governed by a council of global companies that comprises Google, IBM, Deutsche Telekom and WorldPay.