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Blockchain-based digital signatures for greater privacy and security

With more and more businesses, governments, and individuals employing blockchain technology for commerce and operations, ZorroSign stands as key addition to your technology stack. 

Whether you’re decentralizing data with web3, securing cloud or software-as-a-service (SaaS) architectures, committing to digital transformation, or elevating sustainability, our multi-chain blockchain solution is the perfect addition to your IT offerings—learn how!

If You’re Decentralizing with Web3

The idea of escaping a centralized authority managing protocols, transactions, and access was built into the World Wide Web from its earliest days

  • Web 1.0 was the initial iteration of the World Wide Web in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  “Web 1.0 is the term used for the earliest version of the Internet as it emerged from its origins with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),” writes Kuntal Chakraborty for Techopedia. “Experts refer to it as the ‘read-only’ web—a web that was not interactive in any significant sense.”
  • From those early static web pages, a platform model of computing soon evolved that would become Web 2.0 or the ‘social web.’  Here, interaction with growing web applications and platforms drove e-commerce and the expansion of the Internet, allowing large providers to aggregate and control much of the shared data.  This is the Internet we know today.
  • The dream of Web 3.0, however, is to break the centralization of information and democratize the Internet more to the vision of its earliest founders.  “Web3, ” claims Chris Dixon from Andreesen Horowitz in a recent article in The Economist, “combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of web1 with the advanced, modern functionality of web2.”

“The rise of technologies such as distributed ledgers and storage on blockchain will allow for data decentralization and create a transparent and secure environment, overtaking Web 2.0’s centralization, surveillance and exploitative advertising,” writes Charles Silver in a recent Forbes article.  “Indeed, one of the most significant implications of decentralization and blockchain technology is in the area of data ownership and compensation… Web 3.0 will bring us a fairer internet by enabling the individual to be a sovereign.”

Blockchains are distributed ledger technology (DLT) leveraging cryptography—user authentication, data encryption and verification—to secure information records (blocks) distributed across peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. DLTs replicate, share, and synchronize digital data geographically spread across multiple sites (nodes), with no central data storage or administrator. They can run publicly (open) or privately (permissioned).

Perhaps most importantly, blockchains can support smart contracts—where terms, conditions, and permissions written into the digital code that require an exact sequence of events to take place to trigger the agreement of the terms mentioned in the blockchain contract. This hardwiring of contract details greatly increases speed (via automation), trust (where accuracy and backup are built into the transaction), and autonomy (as no third parties are required to mediate or control the exchange) of transactions.

As such, centralized solutions such as blockchains have immense potential to transform business contracts, real estate deals, digital rights, supply chain security and provenance, estate planning, and many other legal transactions.

And here is where ZorroSign shines! 

User Experience

We have built our digital platform from the ground up using blockchain technology.  Launched with Hyperledger Fabric, our multi-chain platform now supports the public Provenance Blockchain as well, giving our users an entirely new world of decentralized digital transactions.

Our web3 technology platform also provides identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) capabilities through a patented Z-Forensics token plus fraud prevention, user authentication, and document verification.  Web3 features such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) allow us to automate form completion for digital documents, and can improve regulatory compliance across global standards for legally enforceable digital signatures.

Paired with Provenance Blockchain—which reduces the need for third-party intermediation, drastically reducing costs and freeing up capital in financial transactions—ZorroSign’s platform promotes greater transparency and liquidity for organizations, and allows for new kinds of financial engineering and business opportunities.

If You’re Securing SaaS or Cloud Solutions

More than 90% of all cyber attacks begin with phishing but blockchain architecture, originally built for zero-trust environments, can deliver a compelling alternative to centralized databases and a strong protection against cyber attacks. How?

  • In phishing attacks that seek to steal data, blockchain presents a data architecture where no single endpoint node controls the data set. Even if an individual endpoint is hacked through phishing or other social engineering, the data set is distributed across many nodes. This decentralization of data and access means even successful phishing attacks that penetrate a blockchain endpoint only gain a small piece of system access.
  • In cyber attacks that seek to inject malware such as ransomware, the distributed nature of blockchain defeats those seeking to breach a system then holistically ransom the data files stored therein. Again, a single endpoint node might be breached, but the larger data set cannot be controlled by any one endpoint (or central authority) and so attackers cannot capture the full data set for encryption, ransom, and shutting down the network.
  • Recovery is quicker with blockchain, too. With blockchain, each endpoint node has a unique encryption key to access and write to the distributed ledger. If any one of those endpoints is successfully hacked (compromising their access key), the blockchain can simply remove distributed ledger access for that compromised key, issue the endpoint a new key, and allow that endpoint to quickly regain distributed ledger access (effectively as a new endpoint). This speedy recovery process effectively maroons any ransomware on the endpoint it attacked—ending its access and threat—while allowing the endpoint to re-engage the larger data set with a new key and without needing to pay any ransom to the attackers for restored access.

ZorroSign technology leverages the biometric capabilities of hardware endpoints to verify user identities—for example, PC and mobile device fingerprint scans, iris scans, and face recognition to ensure users are who they claim to be.

ZorroSign is proud to be the first to adopt password-less login amongst our digital signature competitors.

And ZorroSign multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides maximum security, as before a user can sign a document, our platform can validate multiple dimensions of authentication based upon your transaction security needs: What you know (i.e., your ZorroSign login password ), what you have (e.g., your laptop or mobile device), who you are (e.g., biometrics such as fingerprints or eye iris on the device securing who can access it), etc.

ZorroSign has further elevated our security through our patented fraud detection technology we call the Z-Forensics token, our unique digital solution that can:

  • Prove that the individual who is performing the action to sign the document is who they claim to be (verification); 
  • Apply a digital equivalent of a wet-ink signature to the document (legal intent); and, 
  • Prove the authenticity of the printed copy or digital version of an electronically signed document, its content, attachments, and the signatures on it (authenticity).

Unlike any other digital signature solution, ZorroSign seals all your documents with our Z-Forensics token—capturing the complete audit trail and accompanying attachments and signature workflow. The token is encrypted and contains all the details about the transaction: Time stamps, user authentication, documents and attachments.

And like your SaaS solutions, ZorroSign’s SaaS model can be deployed in various cloud configurations, making it seamless to integrate into your existing platform as a public, private, hybrid, or on-premise cloud:

  • Our standard deployment is on Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud computing network
  • In our private cloud configuration, all your data and the ZorroSign application run in a private and secure cloud network dedicated to your organization
  • In a hybrid cloud configuration, your data can be stored on either ZorroSign data centers or in the private cloud, while the ZorroSign platform and applications run on their standard public cloud configurations
  • On-premise deployments require your department to manage and maintain your own data centers, but gain the benefits of unlimited API calls and total control over identity access management (IAM), data privacy and security, and data integrity processes

If You’re Committed to Digital Transformation

For years, organizations have steadily moved more and more of their operations to digital data and delivery. Such advances save time and effort, automate key processes, and drive greater efficiency and effectiveness. With digital transformation, customers or constituents can receive services faster and gain self-service options, and employees get more time to work on the most important projects.

“Digital transformation is no longer an option, but an imperative,” notes the Harvard Business Review. “Recent research from Accenture has found that in the three years prior to 2018, firms who led their industry in enterprise technology adoption grew two times faster than laggards. Today, they are growing five times faster. The risk is no longer merely getting left behind, but being eliminated altogether.”

For organizations leveraging digital data, apps and SaaS, IoT, or any of the multitude of other digital solutions, adding ZorroSign can be an important consideration.

To transact business, commerce, government, or individual trade in such a digital ecosystem also requires legally enforceable digital signatures to prove agreement and intent. Our multi-chain blockchain platform delivers such digital signatures and ensures the digital chain-of-custody necessary to successfully defend digital signatures in a court of law.

And by digitizing paper-based workflows, ZorroSign’s digital signature and document management platform can decrease costs, reduce errors, and increase productivity across digital operations . . . a massive benefit for any organization committed to digital transformation!

If You’re Focused on Sustainable Business

Digital operations also eliminate paper so “going green” with paperless operations may readily align to your IT organization’s corporate social responsibility goals or vision. 

At ZorroSign, we help IT organizations deliver paperless operations. We all understand that switching from doing business using paper to digital records is not only a smart business decision, but it is also good for the environment. Each time you use ZorroSign to digitally transact agreements, contracts, and other documents—instead of printing, faxing, scanning, shipping documents overnight to collect signatures—you save trees and water, plus reduce carbon emissions.

Further, ZorroSign is dedicated to advancing sustainability while advancing new technologies, promoting a paperless life and leading sustainability programs that support environmental conservation. The company’s Save-a-Tree, Plant-a-Tree program, for example, plants a tree on behalf of customers every time they save 8,000 pages of copy paper. As one tree produces roughly 8,000 pages of copy paper, this amounts to a double incentive: Reducing the destruction of trees via reduced paper use, plus increasing the number of trees as a reward for reducing paper use.

For all these reasons and more, if you are using blockchain technologies—or planning to in 2023—consider ZorroSign as a strong complement to your technology stack!  You can start with a free 14-day trial to see what we can deliver or contact us to learn more!

Blockchain in Phoenix

Blockchain technology is an important part of how we do business here at ZorroSign, and we truly believe that the future for transacting business—and maintaining the highest level of privacy and security—is rooted in utilizing distributed ledgers. Thankfully, we are not alone!

Let’s take a look at some of the innovative ways that forward-thinking organizations are using blockchain technology in Phoenix, Arizona.

Dash

Dash is a Phoenix-based cryptocurrency that enables anyone, anywhere in the world to make quick, easy and cheap payments at any time without going through a central authority. Based on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, and secured by strong cryptography, Dash offers a safe and user-friendly payment method without barriers. Dash is portable, inexpensive, divisible and fast digital cash for both the internet and everyday life.

Dash is used around the world as a practical alternative to cash and credit cards. It is also a useful solution in the international remittances market. It is particularly popular in regions where technical access barriers exist to traditional payment systems, or where hyperinflation has made existing currency impractical to use.

Dash Ecosystem

The Dash Platform is a technology stack for building decentralized applications on the Dash network. The two main architectural components, Drive and DAPI, turn the Dash P2P network into a cloud that developers can integrate with their applications.

Propy

Propy is a residential real estate platform built upon the Ethereum blockchain that accelerates transaction time for home buying. Their products help brokers, agents and title companies migrate to closing on blockchain.

They built a blockchain-powered title and escrow company that supports traditional, crypto, and NFT closing. In addition, Propy records the title on both the blockchain and with the county registrar. The company’s new service has been launched for residential real estate transactions in Arizona, Colorado and Florida.

Real estate agents use Propy to invite buyers and sellers to the Propy platform where they can all use it from offer to close, removing legacy processes and systems that slow down the whole process. All parties involved in the process of home purchase and sale are able to view and follow in real time every step in their transaction and close in a secure blockchain environment. The blockchain closing environment minimizes the risks associated with wire and title fraud or loss of information.

Sky Republic

Founded in 2016, Sky Republic is a pioneer in enterprise blockchain and supply chain integration, recognized in six Gartner Hype Cycles. They provide blockchain automation for digital supply chains.

Benefits of using blockchain for supply chain

Sky Republic’s Atlas Sky Contract Platform (SCP) delivers real-time reconciliation, asset tracking, provenance tracing, process optimization, and more. To synchronize business with their partners and decentralize benefits, Sky Republic creates a trusted and distributed digital twin of a supply chain. Designed to get multi-enterprise applications up and running quickly, Sky Republic’s platform makes supply chain more productive, resilient, and nimble.

SPARK+

SPARK+ is an innovation company specialized in blockchain development with a wide range of expertise and clients across the globe. They believe futuristic platforms need futuristic technologies such as blockchain, AI and ML. SPARK+ helps their clients to leverage these modern technologies for your existing business or new idea.

Those who work for SPARK+ believe that blockchain suits well where it fits well. From Use case analysis to quality delivery SPARK+ makes sure your product enhances its value with the power of blockchain technology. SPARK+ offers several different blockchain services such as; Tokenization, decentralized finance, blockchain network development, app development and integrations, enterprise blockchain solution, and auditing, training and consultation.

And ZorroSign

ZorroSign, of course, is a multi-chain blockchain platform uniting digital signatures with workflow controls and automation, AI/ML form fill, identity-as-a-service (IDaaS), patented fraud prevention, and much more—all written to either the private, permissioned Hyperledger Fabric blockchain or public, permissionless Provenance Blockchain.

ZorroSign opened our global operations hub in Phoenix to be among forward-thinking individuals and organizations that believe in harnessing the power of blockchain for the future. These companies, and many emerging organizations in Arizona, are making the leap to web3 and bringing blockchain technologies to life for businesses, governments and individuals.

Put ZorroSign’s blockchain platform to the test by signing up for a free trial today at https://www.zorrosign.com/new/

(Originally published on LinkedIn by Shamsh Hadi, CEO and Co-Founder of ZorroSign)

Blockchain advocates have long been excited about distributed ledger technology’s potential for cybersecurity, financial services (especially cross-border payments), the Internet of Things (IoT), real estate, and supply chain management. But as we look ahead to 2023, some other interesting markets are worth watching for the latest trends in blockchain use. Here are four industries I believe will accelerate blockchain adoption to their great advantage . . .

Cloud Services

The worldwide public cloud services market, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) generated $408.6 billion in 2021 revenues, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). Big Tech players “Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft have together invested almost $120 billion in the past 12 months,” calculates as recent article in The Economist. “Most of it in data centres and the servers that power them.”

While the cloud services industry is still young, this tremendous growth (and high profit margins) drive innovation. Such innovation will include more blockchain technology in 2023.

For example, “cloud storage is another sector that blockchain can electrify and change. Traditionally, cloud storage companies allow users to purchase a certain amount of storage that is generally sold by the terabyte,” explains a recent Investment Bank article. “Blockchain technology provides users a means to store information on a peer-to-peer network. A cloud storage platform could be run by the nodes that help facilitate transactions. The nodes would be giving up storage on their computers to the consumer, but the node owners would be compensated by the consumers for storing their data.”

More broadly for cloud services, blockchain brings greater privacy and security capabilities. “When cloud computing is integrated with blockchain technology, the main problem, security and privacy, gets addressed,” writes Tanvir Zafar for Yahoo! Finance. “Data deletion from one computer does not erase data stored on other devices on a blockchain network. As a result, there is no danger of data loss or alteration. Data on a blockchain is irremovable. It allows for clear documentation of data usage, including where, when, and how it is being used and by whom. Blockchains are governed by codes, eliminating the need for third-party rules, making them a more secure alternative.”

Such elevated privacy, security, and automation can quickly advance cloud computing—not only delivering greater benefits to consumers, but potentially lowering costs and overhead for providers.

Beyond these improvements to today’s cloud services, blockchain can be added as a service offering itself. “In blockchain-based cloud computing, blockchain can be used for secure network management by hosting the blockchain network as Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) in a cloud environment,” suggests Kenny Kleinerman for Ridge. “BaaS supports IoT applications by offering different blockchain-enabled services, such as smart contract services, verification services on user transactions, and cloud blockchain storage.”

I foresee blockchain as a huge piece of cloud services—both infrastructure and offering—in the years ahead!

Government

At ZorroSign, we have already seen many government agencies, departments, and ministries adopting blockchain for operations. “Governments are likely to begin implementing distributed ledger technology (DLT) systems that will replace traditional paper-based systems,” writes Finnegan Pierson for Chetu. “The migration to digital data systems has been going on for quite some time, but DLT has greater advantages that provide greater trust, transparency and security via encryption and validation features.”

Government organizations can readily improve constituent communications and administration with the innovative adoption of blockchains.  For example, blockchain can improve:

  • Form processing and chain-of-custody tracking of government documents
  • Identification and elimination of errors in government documents, plus reduce tampering and detect forgery
  • Operational efficiency by eliminating paper-based records (and related equipment and supplies to print, copy, distribute, and store paper documents)
  • Cost controls by reducing the expense of manually processing applications, forms, and documentation of all kinds and instead implementing digital records stored on blockchain

In the UAE, for example, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Digital City Vision for Smart Dubai has been a guiding principle for ZorroSign and other blockchain innovators. For ZorroSign, we share his goal of a paperless life in the UAE by 2030, but Digital Dubai pursues many technologies, as the leaders have found “government effectiveness became increasingly imperative especially in Government to Consumer (G2C) and Government to Government (G2G) services.”

Specific to blockchain, “The Dubai Blockchain strategy will usher in economic opportunity for all sectors in the city, and cement Dubai’s reputation as a global technology leader,” notes the Digital Dubai initiative. “In line with Digital Dubai’s mandate to become a global leader in the smart economy, fueling entrepreneurship and global competitiveness.” Such vision for government is starting in Dubai, but readily seen as critical to future governance in other countries.

Perhaps most exciting, “blockchain technology can end voter fraud,” claims Shivam Arora in an article for Simplilearn. How? With blockchain “people can vote online easily without revealing their identities. Using blockchain, officials can count votes with absolute accuracy, knowing that each ID can be attributed to only one vote. Fraud cannot occur because it is next to impossible with blockchain technology. And, once a vote is added to a ledger, it cannot be changed or erased.” The opportunity to improve voting processes and ensure democratic results will surely keep blockchain in the government focus for years to come.

Law

As blockchain transforms government, so it will transform the law and legal services.

There are many ways blockchain technology is already transforming legal services, writes Steve Glaveski for the NewLaw Academy: “Smart contracts, dispute resolution, IP rights… where The blockchain can support evidence of creation, first use, and rights management, and can track distribution. This ultimately prevents copyright infringement and enforces mitigation via time-stamped copies of work, aiding plaintiffs if appearing before a court. Land and property registries (that today) are notorious for being out of date, decentralized, and restricted. And public service records.”

Again, at ZorroSign we have seen law firms and legal departments start with digital signatures for digital transactions, then quickly expand their use of blockchain to store, track, and manage their contracts and agreements. Contract lifecycle management (or CLM) solutions help attorneys to manage the complex and evolving nature of contracts—making them more efficient at producing, executing, and upholding contractual agreements. Leveraging blockchain, ZorroSign manages contracts as we manage all digital documents, providing digital signatures to quickly execute legally binding contracts, a patented Z-Forensics token to ensure contract immutability, and a document management system built on blockchain for immutable storage.

Consensys, a software foundry providing decentralized software services and apps on Ethereum, believes blockchain can make the legal industry more accessible and more transparent. “Lawyers can leverage blockchain technology to streamline and simplify their transactional work, digitally sign and immutably store legal agreements,” claims a Consensys article. And “blockchain-based contracts have baked-in compliance, no surprises, and no room for misinterpretation.”

As transactions and records move to digital workflows, digital signing ceremonies, and digital storage, blockchain will be a boon to law firms and legal department in 2023 and beyond.

Identity

Finally, with the move to digital commerce and communications, our individual identity—as mapped to digital worlds—becomes increasingly important to control and authenticate.

“Identity systems are currently flawed in a number of ways. They are porous, operate in isolation and prone to error,” adds Finnegan Pierson again in Chetu. “Blockchain systems can solve these problems and provide a single source to verify identity and assets. Blockchain identity can also offer a type of ‘self-sovereignty’ that hasn’t existed before.”

This desire for control over one’s personal information—and digital data across platforms—lies at the heart of web3. While web3 starts with blockchain, its ambition and scope will spread far across the Internet, metaverses, and shared networks.

“Identification and credentials are easier for everyone to work with when they’re digital: vaccination cards, academic qualifications, occupational licenses, employee ID and more. But this highly personal information must remain private and secure,” says IBM. “Governments, businesses and educational institutions are turning to blockchain as a proven way to enable a secure and trusted infrastructure and improve services.”

“One of the most problematic results of the internet age has been identity security,” notes Nathan Reiff for Investopedia. “Blockchain technology has already demonstrated the potential for transforming the way that online identity management takes place. The applications for blockchain and identity management are wide-ranging.”

From cloud services, cybersecurity, and IT to financial services, government, healthcare, legal services, real estate, supply chains, and other industries, blockchain is changing how we do business, share information, and identify ourselves.

These trends are just the start, however, and the opportunities for blockchain to improve the privacy and security of our digital data will flourish in the years ahead.

Contact us to learn more . . . or start a free trial to put our blockchain software for digital signatures to the test!

blockchain trends

We at ZorroSign recognize that the technology industry is constantly evolving and changing. As new innovations are created and others evolve, we find it important to stay on top of these trends so that we can provide our customers with the most current, useful and secure technology possible.

A report by Fortune Business Insights predicts that the global blockchain market will grow from $7.18 billion in 2022 to $163.83 billion by 2029. With that explosion in growth, here are some recent trends to keep your eye on as more and more blockchain solutions come to market . . .

Environmentally-Friendly Blockchains

While blockchain has brought about amazing transformation in businesses and the tech space, one of the largest obstacles for a future of blockchain is the excessive use of energy needed to run proof-of-work blockchains.

“Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind,” said Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, in a live-streamed Clubhouse session with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in 2021. “And so it’s not a great climate thing.”

However, evolving trends in blockchain technology increasingly focus on developing “greener” blockchain systems. Solutions like carbon offsetting and focusing on bringing less energy-intensive proof-of-stake blockchain architectures are introducing more environmentally-friendly blockchains.

“With the rise of blockchain technology, a number of platforms have emerged that are allowing users to reduce their overall energy consumption by a huge margin,” notes a recent article in Finance Magnates. “For example, Cardano reportedly consumes only 6 GWh of power per annum, while Stellar (XLM), Iota (MIOTA), and Tron, also have extremely low power needs.”

Furthermore, one of the most popular blockchain networks, Ethereum, is moving to a proof-of-stake algorithm this month with “The Merge.” This proof-of-stake validation offers a more sustainable solution for enterprises attempting to make the jump towards greener blockchains.

Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS)

At the intersection of blockchain and cloud computing can now be found Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)—a service offering that allows businesses to use cloud-based solutions to develop, host and adopt their own blockchain applications, smart contracts and other relevant functions on the blockchain. Here, the cloud-based IT partner or service provider manages all the required tasks and activities to keep the distributed ledger infrastructure up and running.

BaaS allows organizations to focus on operations and key tasks, and it reduces the technical difficulties and the need to purchase expensive technology solutions. Based on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, this third-party service delivers the installation, configuration, monitoring, and maintenance of the infrastructure. Moreover, this blockchain technology trend offers the ability to take benefit of blockchain features without the need to learn difficult coding.

Companies like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and others have already implemented it BaaS and we will continue to see other businesses make the leap.

Metaverse and Web3

Web3 refers to the next generation of the internet that will be decentralized, open, and run on blockchain. In its current form, web2 is overwhelmingly dominated by Big Tech corporations that use, control, and monetize the personal data of its users.

The dream of web3 is to break the centralization of information and democratize the Internet more to the vision of its earliest founders. “Web3,” claims Chris Dixon from Andreesen Horowitz in an article in The Economist, “combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of web1 with the advanced, modern functionality of web2.”

Web3 “will be based on the convergence of emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented reality,” notes Neeti Aggarwal and Dandreb Salangsang in The Asian Banker. “It will be characterized by decentralized data, a more transparent and secure environment, machine cognitive intelligence and  three-dimensional design.”

Web3 advocates claim that the technology will give users back control over their data through decentralized applications.

The metaverse is essentially described as an immersive 3D world that users can transport themselves into for work, play, and communication by using a combination of VR, AR, and other advanced technologies. Blockchain is a driving force behind many aspects of the Metaverse, including NFTs, gaming, payment methods, virtual real estate, and even identity authentication.

The idea of the metaverse is sometimes inaccurately conflated with Web3. But while it’s built on Web3, the metaverse—or metaverses, given that there are many—is about user experience and arguably about web culture as much as the tech on which it relies.

The metaverse will become a virtual world that will provide its users with unforgettable digital experiences. And built on blockchain technologies, the more popular the metaverse becomes, then the more blockchains are deployed and engaged.

At ZorroSign, we love learning the latest trends in blockchain technology so that we can continue to provide the most secure and user-friendly digital signatures platform available. Put our blockchain to the test by signing up for a free trial at https://www.zorrosign.com/new/.

User Experience

The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of technologies, especially web-based solutions and apps, are critical to such technologies’ market success. “Taking advantage of the benefits of great UI/UX design is more vital than most people realize,” explains Eliza Brooks in a JumpStory article on design. “Everyone wants to experience and have the best technology, while at the same time not wasting any precious time.”

“If users cannot use your product and access all of its features, your prospects of success are greatly reduced,” notes Digital Solutions. “This usability factor is where the realms of User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) enter the picture. A great User Interface will draw people to your app right away, while a great User Experience will leave a lasting impression on your users.”

At ZorroSign, we have taken this truth to heart and are proud to unveil our entirely redesigned UI/UX for the next generation of our multi-chain blockchain platform for digital signatures!

ZorroSign.com/new

UI v. UX

To begin, a quick definition of UI and UX may be helpful. “Generally speaking, UX is the one that ensures your digital platform works smoothly—including pleasant and accessible designs, a clear and concise user journey, simple navigation processes, responsiveness, etc.,” explains a recent Wire Delta article. “On the other hand, User Interface or UI Design is for just that—the interface. In other words, UI takes care of typography, layouts, colors, graphic design, and visual design. So, while it is helping customers interact with different digital products and services, it does not consider the user journey.”

Source: www.mindinventory.com

In other words, the UX is the sum of the whole—the complete experience a user has of using a specific UI, engaging its features and functionality, and generating whatever outcomes the technology produces—functionality, information, calculation, etc.

While the UI is the environment of the screen or app, the physical engagement and interaction via clicks, buttons, form entry, and all other inputs and outputs.

“User interface elements usually fall into one of the following four categories,” write Maria de la Rivva for Career Foundry. “Input Controls, Navigation Components, Informational Components, Containers. Input controls allow users to input information into the system. If you need your users to tell you what country they are in, for example, you’ll use an input control to let them do so. Navigational components help users move around a product or website. Common navigational components include tab bars on an iOS device and a hamburger menu on an Android. Informational components share information with users. Containers hold related content together.”

So UX is the total experience of using a technology, while UI is the tactical, direct engagement of the technologies interface.

Why Your UI/UX Must Continuously Evolve

“User Interface (UI) updates present an exciting opportunity for design teams to reinvigorate stale experiences, address issues, and explore future iterations,” writes Ayana Campbell Smith for Envy Labs. “It’s never a question of if interface updates will be necessary, but instead, when.”

For an innovative technology company, resting on the laurels of a successful product is simply not good enough. Innovators must continuously revisit, refine, and improve their solutions to ensure their great technologies are also great experiences for their customers, clients, users, and prospects.

A well-designed user interface delivers five key user experiences according to GeeksforGeeks

  • Simplicity—which is to say, the minimum clicks or keystrokes to achieve a task
  • Consistency—across typeface, style, size, and components to deliver information with minimal chaos and ambiguity
  • Intuitiveness—input and navigation that is easy to learn, with concise and cogent icons and labels
  • Prevention—readily prevent users from performing inaccurate/inappropriate actions on the site by steering them always to the correct functions
  • Forgiveness—a quick way back/out if users find themselves in functions or content they did not mean to engage

Perhaps equally important, users’ expectations for simplicity, consistency, intuitiveness, prevention, and forgiveness evolve over time—especially as new technologies come to market and reshape their expectations. Recall for example the leap in UI expectations from desktop computers (keyboard and mouse), to our expectations on mobile phones or tablets (touchscreen or voice command)! Evolving technologies produce evolving user expectations and needs for UI/UX.

The Value of Great UI/UX

“A strong and valuable user experience offers a business a strong competitive advantage in attracting and retaining their customers,” continues Brooks. She calls out five critical benefits to a strong user experience, including:

  • Improving customer acquisition—”The more aesthetically pleasing a brand’s site design is, and the more intuitive the features are, the easier it is for them to build trust and thus increase the chances of the brand attracting users and quite possibly converting them into customers”
  • Helping with customer retention—delivering an intuitive, beautiful experience brings people back to that experience!
  • Optimizing development time and costs—by focusing on the customer experience, development teams can more “easily pinpoint and address usability issues” and “anticipate the needs of users before releasing the solution to a wider audience”
  • Increasing productivity—efficient UI/UX design streamlines tasks, work, and outcomes
  • Generating more user engagement—for example, employing UI design that is instructive, clearly conveying the help/benefits of engaging a specific page or functionality
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“Investing in an effective Ul/UX design increases customer satisfaction, resulting in satisfied customers,” continues Digital Solutions. “People like to work for companies that make them happy. Ultimately, this will improve your firm’s credibility as a client and fosters positive associations with your company and brand. As a result, the worth of your company and your brand name will shoot up and increase.”

At ZorroSign, we agree completely!

“Digital products with a good user interface give you a competitive edge in a constantly growing world where companies are starting to realize the importance of good user experience,” says Tiffany Eaton for UX Collective. We realize this truth and are excited to share the new UI/UX we bring to market.

Contact us to learn more about ZorroSign’s completely redesigned UI/UX for 2022 . . . or start your free trial to put our next generation user interface to the test!

Innovation awards

With new technologies constantly coming to market, companies must make an effort to be innovate in order to stay relevant and not get left behind. 

ZorroSign is committed to continuous technology innovation and our achievements have been recognized with the following awards over the past year:

Then, in June 2022, ZorroSign was recognized as the “Most Innovative Blockchain Company from Sri Lanka” by APAC Business Headlines. The award celebrates ZorroSign’s software development team in Sri Lanka as they lead innovation in blockchain technologies for the company’s global customers.

ZorroSign was awarded a gold Stevie in the Blockchain Solution category at the 18th Annual International Business Awards at the end of 2021. We were also recognized with two bronze Stevie® Awards for Company of The Year – Computer Software and Most Innovative Tech Company of The Year.

According to the judges, ZorroSign “pushes the needle on innovation,” demonstrates “great use of blockchain and Hyperledger to solve signature issues,” is “one of the few companies that are able to use blockchain technology to solve a real business problem,” and declares, “blockchain is the future of digital signature.”

We could not be more proud of this recognition and the Stevie judges’ comments!

APAC Business Headlines

APAC Business Headlines praised ZorroSign’s commitment to delivering superior privacy and security, as well as the company’s ability to make a difference through sustainable practices.  You can read the magazine article at https://www.apacbusinessheadlines.com/Blockchain-2-web-version/ZorroSign/

Insights Success

And in July 2022, ZorroSign announced our appearance on Insights Success cover as one of the “Ten Most Innovative FinTech Solution Providers in 2022.”

Insights Success celebrated ZorroSign’s multi-chain blockchain platform as a groundbreaking solution in financial technologies and driving force for blockchain and web3.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by Insights Success and counted amongst the most innovative fintech solutions providers today,” said Shamsh Hadi, co-founder and CEO of ZorroSign, Inc. “As most financial service providers currently deploy legacy technologies, the opportunity for early adopters to leap ahead with blockchain solutions—such as ZorroSign—becomes an asset and key competitive advantage.”

ZorroSign continues to create and use new technologies, driving both industry innovation and greater sustainability. On August 15th we will be launching our completely redesigned next generation platform—including upgrades to our user experience, user interface, new features, security, compliance and system updates.

Contact us to learn more . . . or start your free trial to put our innovative digital signature software to the test!

Global ZorroSign
(Originally published on LinkedIn by Shamsh Hadi, CEO and Co-Founder of ZorroSign)

Last year, I shared how ZorroSign’s early roots in Dubai, UAE, helped us grow into an international company. I want to update that theme today and talk about ZorroSign’s role as a global company providing global solutions that improve data democratization, privacy, and security.

As CEO and co-founder of ZorroSign, I have dedicated my career to advancing technology while simultaneously advancing sustainability:  Ensuring the new technologies we bring to market elevate information privacy, data security, and data democratization while not coming at the expense of future generations.

At ZorroSign, we saw very early a market need to push past web2 solutions for digital signatures and digital transactions—escaping centralized information architectures that consolidate data with a provider (and expose that data to the risks of single-point-of-failure cyber-attacks) while simultaneously pulling data ownership away from users (to be housed and monetized by the web2 provider). Alternatively, ZorroSign empowers our users by deploying web3 solutions that decentralize data and ensure users will always own their documents and transaction metadata—even after their subscriptions with us end.

Dubai Start, Dubai Strong

As a long-time resident of Dubai, I was greatly inspired by the Digital City Vision—Smart Dubai of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. ZorroSign’s technology very purposefully supports Dubai’s paperless initiatives for Digital Dubai and helps to advance Dubai’s leadership in digital operations, specifically focused on:

  • Security—providing superior digital privacy and security by leveraging a private, permissioned blockchain technology
  • Digital Signatures—a platform that is easy-to-use and legally compliant to global standards
  • Chain of Custody—delivering immutable records of every step of every digital transaction: Authenticating users, securing data, and verifying documents for legal enforceability
  • Advancing UAE’s 10 Principles for the Next 50 Years—specifically helping Dubai to build the best and most dynamic economy in the world; defining new UAE development with digital, technical, and scientific excellence; and promoting a value system based on openness and tolerance

Initially, our company served government departments in UAE but soon grew into an international business—helping people to build, sign, store, and track mission-critical documents on the blockchain in Sri Lanka, India, and the United States.

Last year, ZorroSign was named Blockchain SaaS Innovator of the Year at the UAE Business Awards 2021, then at the turn of the year, Unlock News Desk showcased a story on UAE Based ZorroSign introducing six new features to our blockchain platform.

This spring, Tech Channel wrote a great article on ZorroSign making waves in digital signature space using blockchain technology, and TahawulTech.com interviewed me on how ZorroSign helps tackle identity theft on our now multi-chain blockchain platform.

And most recently, ZorroSign was highlighted in a Zawya article for UAE businesses and a TECHx article on ZorroSign’s mission to provide businesses across the Middle East with seamless integration of document management and secure digital signature solutions.

I am incredibly proud of our continued success in my home town, and while ZorroSign expands our global presence, the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries will be a strategic market for us.

Success in South Asia

From the start, ZorroSign has had close ties with the south Asia countries of India and Sri Lanka. While operations started in Dubai, our development center of excellence has always been in Colombo!

Our blockchain architecture was conceived, coded, and cultivated entirely in Sri Lanka with a vision to provide global customers with the ability to securely transform paper-based workflows to digital operations. I could not be prouder of our Sri Lanka team, and though they are struggling through that beautiful country’s difficult political and economic crisis, they have proven again and again the resilience and tenacity of their engineering genius.

Recently, APAC Business Headlines recognized the ZorroSign team as the “Most Innovative Blockchain Company from Sri Lanka” for 2022! The award validates the hard work of our center of excellence team, and further proves blockchain’s prominence on the global stage.

This recognition followed our 2021 success where the International Business Awards® named ZorroSign a Gold Stevie® Award Winner for Blockchain Solutions. The Stevie’s are the world’s premier business awards program, where in 2021 more than 3,700 nominations from organizations across 63 nations and territories—of all sizes and in virtually every industry—were submitted for recognition. We were delighted to be awarded a gold Stevie for our blockchain solution and to be recognized as a Company of the Year, and Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year. Most flattering, the judges were quick to note that ZorroSign is “one of the few companies that are able to use blockchain technology to solve a real business problem” . . . a strong endorsement of our digital signature technology, built on blockchain, and paired with identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) and patented fraud detection, to authenticate users and verify documents across digital transactions.

Tackling North American Markets

As a U.S. citizen who has lived in Canada, China, and the UAE at various times over the past forty years, my goal was always to return home and bring ZorroSign’s blockchain solutions to North American users.

In August 2020, we opened our global operations hub in Phoenix, Arizona—ushering in a new phase of business growth. We quickly established local partnerships with Arizona State University, Grand Canyon State University, the Arizona Commerce Authority, Arizona Technology Council, City of Phoenix, Global Chamber®, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and many other incredible organizations!

And we’ve engaged government agencies, financial services providers, IT businesses (and departments), legal services firms, real estate companies, and several other verticals to prove the value of a paperless life and the most private, secure, compliant digital transactions hosted on blockchain. Early adopters of our web3 solutions are excited to embrace ZorroSign’s robust platform to advance their digital operations and gain a competitive advantage in a market place still dominated by legacy, web2 technologies.

Global Privacy and Security Compliance

Our unique combination of blockchain architecture, web3 technologies, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and patented fraud prevention grants ZorroSign compliance across many international standards for privacy and security.

The list continues to grow as we expand our markets, but already includes:

  • Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
  • Canada’s Uniform Electronic Commerce Act (UECA)
  • The European Union’s Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data privacy and security
  • EU’s electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) regulation
  • India’s Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act of India)
  • International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402, Type II audited
  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 certified
  • PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures (PAdES) is a set of restrictions and extensions to PDF and ISO 32000-1
  • The UAE’s Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 regarding Electronic Transactions and E-Commerce granting electronic signatures legal force and effect
  • The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 Type I audit
  • USA’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • USA’s Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) encryption standards
  • USA’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
  • USA’s Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act)
  • USA’s FDA Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations; Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures
  • USA’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • USA’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)

I am proud of all ZorroSign has achieved for our international customers and incredibly excited about some big announcements later this summer! ZorroSign is truly a global company delivering global solutions, and we are not resting on our laurels—the best is yet to come.

Contact us to learn more . . . or start your free trial to put our digital signature software to the test!

The Arizona Technology Council and Phoenix Business RadioX are proud to host monthly podcasts on technology events, forecasts, issues, and trends. For the July 27th podcast, hosts Karen Nowicki and Steven Zylstra invited experts from DocSolid, OnStream Software, and ZorroSign to discuss how digital transformation can reimagine customer interactions.

Steve Irons of DocSolid, Tiffany Ma of OneStream Software, and Kristen Harder of ZorroSign spoke on the importance of digital transformation for businesses, issues and obstacles businesses often encounter when moving to digital, how DocSolid, OneStream, and ZorroSign help companies transition from paper-based operations to digital, business benefits beyond faster digital processes, future trends, and predictions for the next ten years of digital transformation.

You can find and listen to the AZ TechCast from July 27 at https://businessradiox.com/podcast/phoenixbusinessradio/digital-transformation-of-operational-workflows-e28/

AZ TechCast
July 27 Podcast on Digital Transformation
ZorroSign for Real Estate
ZorroSign Brings the Elevated Security and Compliance Standards that Your Real Estate Business Needs

Many in the real estate industry have made the jump into digital operations and this has allowed them to conduct business on the go while elevating their client’s security and compliance needs.

Only ZorroSign pairs a web3 transaction platform with mobile technology—delivering 21st century security to the age-old ceremony of signing and storing purchase agreements, and giving your customers peace of mind needed when conducting real estate transactions digitally and remotely.

Here are three reasons that you need to make the switch to digital operations with ZorroSign . . .  

Give Your Client Peace of Mind

By using ZorroSign, all the parties involved in a real estate transaction can Z-Sign documents anywhere, anytime and from their preferred device. That’s a win for everyone—especially the client! You no longer have to patiently wait through the frustratingly slow process that is paper operations. And they can keep up with their busy schedule and buy that house all while saving time and money. ZorroSign relieves you from being tied to the office or one particular place and lets you and your clients sign, send, and track documents while on-the-go.

Ensure Elevated Security

ZorroSign is the only company that offers a multi-blockchain platform to secure, track, and manage your digital signatures, transactions, and documentation.

By using distributed ledger technologies—originally built on Hyperledger Fabric and recently expanded to include the Provenance Blockchain—ZorroSign provides superior privacy and security, offering peace of mind for your real estate digital transactions, while preventing fraud and ensuring regulatory compliance.

How does this blockchain architecture contribute to ZorroSign being the best platform for your real estate needs?

Blockchain provides structural layers of protection from cybercrime, like ransomware, malware, or phishing attacks: First, by decentralizing the data set itself (preventing any one breach to access the entire data set); and second, by giving endpoints (or nodes) a quick path to recovery, even if they are themselves breached or their access ransomed.

Unlike centralized databases which can be breached at unsecure endpoints (users and devices)—or even at managed service providers (MSPs) hosting them—giving attackers complete control once they gain central access, blockchain technology distributes data physically across separate nodes. By decentralizing data storage, blockchain effectively prevents any one endpoint (even if compromised) from gaining control of the full data set.

This distributed nature so defeats any attack seeking to breach a system and holistically encrypts the data files stored inside: A single endpoint node might be breached, and its files held for ransom, but the larger data set cannot be controlled by any one endpoint (or central authority) and so attackers cannot capture the full data set for encryption, ransom, and shutting down the network.

ZorroSign intentionally used blockchain as the framework of our business to ensure that our customers were able to experience elevated security and peace of mind.

Stay Compliant

With ZorroSign, you can easily complete and sign multiple mandatory documents and ensure compliance at every stage—we are proud to make the security and privacy of our customers’ data our top focus!

Our unique combination of security architecture and data privacy functionality grants ZorroSign compliance across international standards for privacy and security, including but not limited to:

  • Canada:  The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
  • Canada:  The Uniform Electronic Commerce Act (UECA)
  • EU:  Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data privacy and security
  • EU:  The electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) regulation
  • India:  The Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act of India)
  • International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402, Type II audited
  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 certified
  • PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures (PAdES) is a set of restrictions and extensions to PDF and ISO 32000-1
  • UAE:  Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 regarding Electronic Transactions and E-Commerce granting electronic signatures legal force and effect
  • USA:  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 Type I audit
  • USA:  California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • USA:  Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) encryption standards
  • USA:  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
  • USA:  The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act)
  • USA:  FDA Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations; Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures
  • USA:  The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • USA:  The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)

To learn more about how ZorroSign serves the Real Estate industry, please contact us or start your 14-day free trial subscription today!

questions and answers

We are proud of our multi-chain blockchain platform at ZorroSign—delivering digital signatures paired with identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) technologies, a patented fraud prevention solution, AI/ML-driven form completion, and customizable workflows to ensure the highest privacy, security, and compliance for your digital transactions!

But while we live-and-breathe digital signatures, you might still be learning how digital signatures work and what benefits they might bring to your organization.  We can help! 

Below find some common questions we hear about digital signatures and short answers to get you started . . .

  1. 1. Are digital signatures legally accepted/enforceable like paper-based signatures?

Yes!  Back in 2000, the U.S. passed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act along with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) granting electronic signatures the full strength and legality of paper-based “wet” signatures.  As such, digital signatures are valid in all 50 U.S. states, plus most countries around the world.

Beyond the United States, Australia’s Electronic Transactions Act, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), China’s 2004 Electronic Signature Law, the European Union’s Directive 199/93/EC, India’s Information Technology (IT) Act 2000, Japan’s Law Concerning Electronic Signatures and Certification Services, New Zealand’s Electronic Transactions Act, the UAE’s Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 regarding Electronic Transactions and E-Commerce, the United Kingdom’s Electronic Communications Act and subsequent Electronic Signatures Regulation 2002, all regulate and support the legal enforceability of digital signatures around the world.

  1. 2. Why do companies, governments, or other organizations typically switch from paper-based to digital signatures?

Public and private organizations move to digital signatures for many different reasons, for example:

  • Some switch to save the costs of paper-based document printing, copying, couriering, and storage
  • Some switch to speed transaction workflows, document signing ceremonies, and execution of legal agreements
  • Some seek to improve regulatory/quality compliance with the digital management of transaction and personal information
  • Some want to improve the privacy and security of documents and transactions through digital encryption and security protocols
  • Some aspire to improve customer/constituent experiences with digital and mobile operations
  • Some are looking for the competitive advantage digital operations bring with all these benefits

Why are you considering the move to digital signatures?

  1. 3. With digital signatures, how do we know the person signing is really who they say/are supposed to be?

While some digital signature platforms grant access via simple username and password, the industry standard is two-factor authentication and rapidly evolving to MFA with password-less logins.

With ZorroSign, we’ve integrated identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) technologies to verify users, for example:

  • ZorroSign technology leverages the biometric capabilities of hardware endpoints to verify user identities.
  • ZorroSign is the first to adopt password-less login amongst our digital signature competitors.
  • ZorroSign MFA provides maximum security, as before a user can sign a document, our platform can validate multiple dimensions of authentication based on the transaction security needs, such as:
    • What you know (i.e., your ZorroSign login password),
    • What you have (e.g., your laptop or mobile device),
    • Who you are (e.g., biometrics such as fingerprints or eye iris on the device securing who can access it), etc.
    • Additionally, ZorroSign users can optionally use our dynamic knowledge-based authentication (KBA) feature—provided by LexisNexis—which requires the knowledge of confidential information of the individual to prove that the person providing identity information is the actual person.

These technologies secure the endpoints of our private, permissioned Hyperledger Fabric blockchain architecture where only approved nodes (endpoints) are allowed to access our distributed ledger system.

  1. 4. How Does ZorroSign Use Blockchain and Web3 Technologies for Digital Signatures?

ZorroSign is the first company that offers a multi-blockchain platform to secure, track, and manage your digital signatures, transactions, and documentation!

Since 2000, several technologies have come to market to deliver digital signatures, but when a distributed ledger technology—or DLT, such as blockchain—is used for digital signatures, signers gain the unique advantages of:

  • Privacy — with a private blockchain, only participants to the transaction can see details of the transaction, and those participants share equal access to such details
  • Immutability — all records and changes are tracked and cannot be changed, providing important chain-of-custody audit capabilities for courts
  • Security — all records are individually encrypted and distributed for better protection from phishing and ransomware attacks

ZorroSign was built from the ground up on Hyperledger Fabric to deliver digital signatures with the superior privacy and security of blockchain.

And we recently announced a partnership with Provence Blockchain to add their DLT to our architecture as well, effectively becoming a multi-chain blockchain platform.

Assuming contracts are critical to your business or organization, then a secure, reliable solution for contract lifecycle management (CLM) is imperative and blockchain supports CLM in amazing ways.

Strong CLM solutions must include visibility (a dashboard or overview of where individual contracts are in the life cycle), integration with communications and storage systems, automation (as few contracts start from scratch—most are iterations of previously created agreements), and of course change tracking to readily see how contracts changed during negotiations and what final version was executed by all parties.

With our blockchain architecture, ZorroSign’s platform unites and uniquely delivers:

  • Digital signatures via Z-Sign to quickly execute legally binding contracts
  • Patented Z-Forensics token to prevent fraud and tampering
  • Z-Flow workflow automation to quickly build templates and approval chains
  • Z-Fill leveraging ZorroSign’s artificially intelligent, machine-learning engine
  • Z-Verify to know exactly who signed what and when, with full validation of every document’s authenticity and immutability
  • Z-Vault to securely store contract and transaction records immutably on blockchain

ZorroSign’s platform can be accessed via PCs and mobile devices, allowing your legal department, operations and procurement teams, and sales teams to efficiently generate, negotiate, communicate, and sign agreements. And with our Z-Vault, contracts reside on an immutable document management system (DMS) where they can be saved, searched for, and managed easily from a single, intuitive user interface.

  1. 5. How Do Digital Signatures Meet International Privacy and Security Compliance?

At ZorroSign, we are proud to make the security and privacy of our customers’ data our top focus. 

Our unique combination of security architecture and data privacy functionality grants ZorroSign compliance across international standards for privacy and security, including but not limited to:

  • Canada:  The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
  • Canada:  The Uniform Electronic Commerce Act (UECA)
  • EU:  Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data privacy and security
  • EU:  The electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) regulation
  • India:  The Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act of India)
  • International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402, Type II audited
  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 certified
  • PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures (PAdES) is a set of restrictions and extensions to PDF and ISO 32000-1
  • UAE:  Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 regarding Electronic Transactions and E-Commerce granting electronic signatures legal force and effect
  • USA:  American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 Type I audit
  • USA:  California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • USA:  Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) encryption standards
  • USA:  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
  • USA:  The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act)
  • USA:  FDA Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations; Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures
  • USA:  The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • USA:  The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)

We invite you to request a copy of our ZorroSign Security Brief for details on our private blockchain architecture, document storage and protection, and platform security measures.

  1. 6. How much does it cost to try digital signature software and learn if it’s right for me?

ZorroSign offers a free 14-day trial license to test out our features, securely sign digital documents, build templates and approval workflows, and store your transaction data on blockchain. 

No credit card required, visit our Free Trial page to get started!

June 30th, 2022 marks the 22nd anniversary of the U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN Act)—a critical piece of legislation that ensures “a signature, contract, or other record relating to such [commercial] transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.”

In 2010, both Houses of Congress passed a resolution recognizing June 30th thereafter as National ESIGN Day!

If you’re a fast-growing business or organization that still uses pen and paper to sign your mission-critical documents or uses a different digital signature solution, here are three reasons why you should start using ZorroSign on this day we commemorate the global adoption of digital signatures . . .

Elevated Privacy and Security

ZorroSign was built from the ground up on Hyperledger Fabric—one of the most trusted private blockchains—to deliver digital signatures with the superior privacy and security of blockchain. “Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain where each component and actor has an identity, and policies define access control and governance,” explains Hyperledger’s Security Model. “Each of these actors has a digital identity encapsulated in an X.509 digital certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA). These identities matter because they determine the exact permissions over resources and access to information that actors have in a blockchain network.”

As a distributed ledger technology, ZorroSign stores information in a secure and accurate manner using cryptography, where “once the information is stored, it becomes an immutable database and is governed by the rules of the network.”

Further, ZorroSign incorporates Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) to authenticate users across multiple dimensions, such as what you know (your login password), what you have (your laptop or mobile device), and who you are (biometrics such as fingerprints or eye iris on the device securing who can access it), etc.

All that being said, with the amount of cybercrime that is present today, it is vital that you have peace of mind that your information and critical documents are private and secure, and ZorroSign provides that solution for you and your business.

Helps Reduce Errors and Omissions (E&O)

Make your critical document form-fill completion process smarter, faster and more accurate using ZorroSign’s automated engine, Z-Fill.

Built with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to speed form completion and increase accuracy, ZorroSign’s Z-Fill feature helps your customers fill forms with ease by anticipating entries, reducing errors by matching profile information to form-fill options, and learning from historical form-fills to anticipate more and more entries over time.

Plus all of your documents can be stored on ZorroSign’s Z-Vault for regulatory compliance and the immutability of signed documents, metadata, and workflow records. Z-Vault enables you to store, structure, organize and search documents in folders and subfolders natively, with the peace of mind that comes from superior blockchain privacy and security.

Available in Multiple Cloud Configurations

On top of providing the security and compliance features that your company and customers need, ZorroSign’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) model can be deployed in various cloud configurations, making it seamless to integrate into your existing platform.

Our multi-chain blockchain platform can be deployed in a public, private, hybrid, or on-premise cloud:

  • Our standard deployment is on Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud computing network
  • In our private cloud configuration, all your data and the ZorroSign application run in a private and secure cloud network dedicated to your organization
  • In a hybrid cloud configuration, your data can be stored on either ZorroSign data centers or in the private cloud, while the ZorroSign platform and applications run on their standard public cloud configurations
  • On-premise deployments require your department to manage and maintain your own data centers, but gain the benefits of unlimited API calls and total control over identity access management (IAM), data privacy and security, and data integrity processes

If you’re ready to try ZorroSign’s multi-chain blockchain platform for yourself on National ESIGN Day, start your Free Trial today!

ZorroSign’s YouTube Channel

In today’s global economy, there are lots of bad actors and threats to your digital information. Whether you work for a government agency, a business, an IT department, a law firm, a financial service provider, or just about any other organization generating and storing digital data, your information—and your customers’ or constituents’ information—must be protected.

“You need a trusted friend,” says Kevin Youngblood from Youngblood Works. “ZorroSign is built on blockchain and is the most secure platform available.”  See Kevin’s endorsement video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcM3KoA_qI4

Kevin Youngblood

ZorroSign’s U.S. headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona brings blockchain technology to U.S. companies, organizations, and individuals signing digital documents and executing transactions digitally.

“If you’re looking for a secure way to transact with third parties or multi-parties,” says Robert Vera from GCU‘s Canyon Ventures Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, “ZorroSign is that technology that you need to have confidence that your transactions are secure in today’s environment.”

See Robert’s endorsement video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vcTlYnRfiY

Robert Vera

If you’re ready to try ZorroSign’s multi-chain blockchain platform for yourself—for superior privacy and security for all your digital signatures and transactions—start a Free Trial today!

(Originally published in Tech Channel News)

Our CEO and co-founder, Shamsh Hadi, was recently interviewed by two technology news outlets—Tech Channel News and TahawulTech.com.

Tech Channel News helps C-level executives in India and Gulf identify technologies and strategies to empower and streamline business processes. Their portal at techchannel.news informs leaders of what’s new in tech and why it matters.

TahawulTech.com, published by CPI Media Group, is the definitive platform in the Middle East for IT content. Covering stories across enterprise technology, cybersecurity and the region’s IT channel industry, TahawulTech.com brings business leaders and technology decision makers together to share their stories of transformation.

Here are short summaries of those interviews and links to read the original pieces!

ZorroSign Making Waves in Digital Signature Space Using Blockchain Technology

In April 2022, Tech Channel News’ Naushad K. Cherrayil interviewed Mr. Hadi on how ZorroSign safeguards the privacy and security of digital documents, and provides an immutable chain of custody for digital transactions, for governments and organizations in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries.

The article notes that there are “huge players in the digital signature space, but none of them have figured out how to cost-effectively map their legacy software in technologies and evolve it into Web 3.0 and blockchain solutions today.”

“We have solved all these problems,” said Hadi. “Successfully bringing blockchain to digital signatures—unlike other competitors, big and small, who simply tried to add blockchain onto their legacy software.”

The article explores ZorroSign’s roots in Dubai with development in Sri Lanka, moving the company’s global headquarters to Phoenix, and standing out from the crowd in a competitive eSignature space.

“Our platform was invented to move documentation, digital transactions from a relationship built on trust to a relationship built on truth, providing customers the ability to positively impact the environment with sustainable practices and securely transform their paper-based workloads to digital in a bid to remove errors and increase productivity,” Hadi added.

Tech Channel News uncovers how ZorroSign leverages blockchain’s zero-trust environment to support governments in the Gulf who are looking specifically for blockchain solutions, noting “two countries that are pushing forward are the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”

You can read Mr. Cherrayil’s full piece in Tech Channel News at https://www.techchannel.news/18/04/2022/zorrosign-making-waves-in-digital-signature-space-using-blockchain-technology/

Tackling Identity Theft

In May 2022, TahawulTech.com’s Anita Joseph interviewed Mr. Hadi on how ZorroSign not only provides digital signatures built on a blockchain architecture, but also integrates identity-as-a-service (IDaaS), biometrics, KBAs, and patented Z-Forensics token to prevent fraud and address identity theft risks.

Ms. Joseph also starts with ZorroSign’s founding in Dubai and how HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Digital City Vision for Smart Dubai has been a guiding principle for ZorroSign—including his goal of a paperless life in the UAE by 2030.

The article then talks of identity theft and how ZorroSign technologies confront the issue: “Not only does our web3 platform leverage the cryptographic security capabilities of blockchain,” said Hadi. “But it also integrates Identity-as-a-Service technologies into our solution set to combat fraud, identity theft, and cyber-attacks.”

Security trends, cybercrime, and various cyber-attacks are discussed, as well as how distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain can help defend and/or recover from such attack vectors.  The article ends with ZorroSign’s plans for 2022 and early verticals benefitting from blockchain-based digital signatures.

You can read Ms. Joseph’s full piece in TahawulTech.com at https://www.tahawultech.com/industry/technology/interview-tackling-identity-theft/amp/

Learn more about how ZorroSign helps governments, companies, and individuals around the world with digital signatures and maintaining privacy and security with their digital transactions:  Contact us today or start your Free Trial.

https://www.zorrosign.com/solutions-by-industry/real-estate/

If you work in real estate, you understand the need to provide superior customer service to close deals. Only ZorroSign pairs a web3 transaction platform with mobile technology—delivering 21st century security to the age-old ceremony of signing and storing agreements, and giving your customers peace of mind needed when conducting real estate transactions digitally and remotely.

ZorroSign not only delivers superior privacy and security through our multi-chain blockchain transaction platform, but also ensures that your real estate deals are closed with ease, elevating the customer experience and saving time and money.

Improve Your Customer Service

U.S. real estate deals have already moved from paper-based to digital experiences and processes. Evolving towards newer technology has allowed for real estate agents to close deals faster and from anywhere in the world—you no longer have to meet in person to deliver physical papers in order for your clients to sign.

While there are many technology platforms that provide the option to sign and store documents, real estate firms and agents not only need a digital experience that is fast and efficient, but they need one that they can trust with their information and their customers’ information.

This is where ZorroSign comes in!

Built on blockchain, ZorroSign’s unique digital signature solution makes contracts, counter-offers, purchases, and amendments accurate, faster, easier, and more secure than ever.

Here is what Mr. Richard Green from enTrust Escrow and Title says after using ZorroSign as his transaction platform:

“This is a game changer for our company. Our customers are very impressed with the technology and the ease of use. They appreciate that their escrow can be tracked on their mobile devices anywhere and anytime. In most cases, escrow officers have been able to reduce the time it takes to complete a transaction and the fact that every step is recorded online ensures that all parties are aware at the same time.
 
“The escrow officers also love using this solution as it also helps keep a check and balance on them as well. Overall this is a great solution that the management have implemented and I hope that customers will refer others to us since we are using the best technology today.”

enTrust & Title Company

ZorroSign helps bring your real estate business into the digital age:  Speeding customer processes and service, helping your organization “go green” with paperless operations, and allowing you to serve customers from anywhere, anytime! 

Close deals faster

It is no secret that there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to real estate. This often makes it difficult to nail down a time and place to meet with customers for signatures. With ZorroSign’s transaction platform, everyone can sign and send documents when they are prepared, allowing the platform to transmit documents to the other agents, saving time for everyone with an efficient digital workflow.

This is especially helpful for you as an agent or broker, since it frees you up to keep the transaction moving while you are on-the-go. When you are dealing with a quick turnaround in a multiple-offer situation, signing and sending documents online can be the difference in closing the deal!

With our patented, legally binding, fully automated digital signature technology, ZorroSign’s platform enables you to skip the print/sign/scan process, stop chasing paper signatures, and instead sign and send digital documents from anywhere—all the while monitoring a policy document’s current status from the ZorroSign dashboard.

Automate With Z-Fill

Finally, with our intelligent form-fill process, Z-Fill, ZorroSign’s platform allows you to digitize documents, eliminate the paperchase and improve efficiency, while speeding up the process of filling out forms.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, members rely on repeat clients and referrals from past clients for 30% of their business. With ZorroSign’s Z-Fill technology, you can save time and ensure that clients sign and fill out forms correctly—every time. Z-Fill can help you complete real estate agreements faster and with ease, improving your customer experience and winning repeat and referral business.

To learn more about how ZorroSign serves the Real Estate industry, please contact us or start your 14-day free trial subscription today!

https://www.zorrosign.com/z-vault/

Block it down!  Now, you can count on regulatory compliance and the immutability of your signed documents within your stored data and workflow records on ZorroSign’s blockchain.

Z-Vault enables ZorroSign platform users to store, structure, organize and search documents in folders and subfolders natively, with the peace of mind that comes from superior privacy and security.

Digital Signatures on Blockchain

Since 2000, several technologies have come to market to deliver digital signatures, but when a distributed ledger technology—or DLT, such as blockchain—is used for digital signatures, signers gain the unique advantages of:

  • Privacy — with a private blockchain, only participants to the transaction can see details of the transaction, and those participants share equal access to such details
  • Immutability — all records and changes are tracked and cannot be changed, providing important chain-of-custody audit capabilities for courts
  • Security — all records are individually encrypted and distributed for better protection from phishing and ransomware attacks

ZorroSign was built from the ground up on Hyperledger Fabric to deliver digital signatures with the superior privacy and security of blockchain. And we recently announced a partnership with Provence Blockchain to add their DLT to our architecture as well, effectively becoming a multi-chain blockchain platform.

Z-Vault for Better Contract Lifecycle Management

Contract lifecycle management, or CLM, spans the entire process of generating contracts, the workflows of approving and negotiating changes to contracts, the signing (or executing) of the contracts, storing and archiving the executed contracts, plus tracking and audit trails to retrieve contracts and review their lifecycle of approvals, iterations, and signatures.

If contracts are critical to your business or organization, then a secure, reliable solution for managing the contract life cycle is imperative.

Key functionality to look for when assessing CLM solutions include visibility (a dashboard or overview of where individual contracts are in the life cycle), integration with communications and storage systems, automation (as few contracts start from scratch—most are iterations of previously created agreements), and of course change tracking to readily see how contracts changed during negotiations and what final version was executed by all parties.

ZorroSign’s platform unites and uniquely delivers:

  • Digital signatures via Z-Sign to quickly execute legally binding contracts
  • Patented Z-Forensics token to prevent fraud and tampering
  • Z-Flow workflow automation to quickly build templates and approval chains
  • Z-Fill leveraging ZorroSign’s artificially intelligent, machine-learning engine
  • Z-Verify to know exactly who signed what and when, with full validation of every document’s authenticity and immutability
  • Z-Vault to securely store contract and transaction records immutably on blockchain

ZorroSign’s platform can be accessed via PCs and mobile devices, allowing your legal department, operations and procurement teams, and sales teams to efficiently generate, negotiate, communicate, and sign agreements. And with our Z-Vault, contracts reside on an immutable DMS where they can be saved, searched for, and managed easily from a single, intuitive user interface.

Z-Vault Benefits

  • Superior privacy and security to PKI-based solutions using a centralized database
  • The latest privacy and security technologies, delivering powerful encryption safeguards
  • Secure, yet intuitively navigable and easily accessible (for authorized users) platform
  • Ability to share and review eSign and architectural drawings, adding your own comments
  • Time savings with access to specific folders and documents in seconds, no loss of records

ZorroSign Privacy & Security Compliance

Our combination of security architecture and data privacy functionality ensure your compliance across many international standards for privacy and security, including:

  • Canada: The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
  • Canada: The Uniform Electronic Commerce Act (UECA)
  • EU: Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data privacy and security
  • EU: The electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) regulation
  • India: The Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act of India)
  • International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402, Type II audited
  • International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001 certified
  • PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures (PAdES) is a set of restrictions and extensions to PDF and ISO 32000-1
  • UAE: Federal Law No. 1 of 2006 regarding Electronic Transactions and E-Commerce granting electronic signatures legal force and effect
  • USA: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 Type I audit
  • USA: California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • USA: Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) encryption standards
  • USA: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
  • USA: The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act)
  • USA: FDA Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations; Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures
  • USA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • USA: The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)

To learn more about Z-Vault and how ZorroSign can help you securely store contracts, data, and documents on blockchain, contact us today or start your 14-day Free Trial subscription!

Sustainable technology
Originally published by Shamsh Hadi on LinkedIn

In an earlier article, I briefly introduced sustainability in advancing technology—specifically urging innovators to be aware of the impact of their new technologies on the environment and human sustainability.

In advance of Earth Day 2022, I reiterate that while it is easy to laud the potential of new technologies, we must also be wary of their effects on the environment . . . specifically the depletion of natural resources which may disrupt ecological balance. This is not to say innovation must be stymied, but that the true price of innovation must be measured in more than purely economic terms.

Defining Sustainability for Business

My quick definition of sustainability—from the Brundtland Report, drafted by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987—is simply “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Bigger picture, the idea of sustainability is “often broken down into three pillars: economic, environmental, and social—also known informally as profits, planet, and people.” For me, new technologies tend to span all three: Driven by economic goals, but often extracting environmental and social costs.

For example, it has been a long-running criticism of bitcoin that the proof-of-work data mining required to produce coins consumes an astonishing amount of electricity. With many public blockchains used for cryptocurrencies, mining coins requires complicated mathematical processing on high-end graphic processing units (GPUs), consuming energy both for calculation processing and cooling those GPUs down under heavy load.

“Scientists from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School recently built an interactive analysis tool to calculate the real energy cost of bitcoin cryptocurrency,” explains Caroline Delbert in Popular Mechanics. “Using their energy use model, the researchers found that bitcoin mining uses more energy each year (130.00 terawatt-hours [TWh]) than the entire country of Argentina (125.03 TWh).”

Another example might emphasize social sustainability. “Social sustainability is about identifying and managing business impacts, both positive and negative, on people,” notes UN Global Compact.

Recall how Facebook’s social network technologies were taken to task by The Social Dilemma—a documentary highlighting the dangerous impact of social networking, which represents a sustainability challenge to human societies.

The film shows that while social networks’ cost is not environmental per se, social media’s “design nurtures an addiction, manipulates people’s views, emotions, and behavior, and spreads conspiracy theories and disinformation . . . [plus an] effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates).” Such social costs put existing social media in direct conflict with sustainable practices.

Balancing Innovation and Sustainability

So how can innovators build and create without jeopardizing the “ability of future generations to meet their needs”?

Such effort requires vision beyond immediate solutions and an eye for real-world consequences . . . even those completely unintended or unexpected in the deployment and adoption of new technology.

“The Industrial Revolution brought forth extraordinary gains in financial prosperity. Between 1870 and 1910, per capita income in the United States rose almost 40 percent, and the value of manufacturing output increased sevenfold. Yet rapid industrialization left in its wake darkened noontime skies, noisy and unsafe machinery, and severely compromised living conditions,” write David Austin and Molly K. Macauley in a classic article from Brookings. “Technology is a double-edged sword—one capable both of doing and undoing damage to environmental quality.”

“Technology has the ability to significantly impact the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” says Jeff Fromm in a Forbes article on sustainability and innovation. “As well as improve work/life balance, enable commerce and so much more.”

Here, environmental technologies have a chance to remedy the historical efforts of Industrial Revolution technologies that brought pollution and ecological disruption, as well as massively depleting natural resources.

“We are currently living in a period of rapid change, where technological developments are revolutionizing the way we live, at the same time as leading us further into the depths of catastrophe in the form of climate change and resource scarcity,” adds a great piece by Edinburgh Sensors. “While the impact of technology on the environment has been highly negative, the concept of environmental technology could save our planet from the harm that has been done.”

Even those technologies that simply avert environmental damage, without perhaps directly rebuilding or restoring natural resources, can have a tremendously positive effect on sustainability.

ZorroSign’s Example

Circling back to my company, ZorroSign’s platform was originally built on private, permissioned Hyperledger Fabric.

Starting with this economic pillar, we constructed a blockchain platform unlike bitcoin and the proof-of-work cryptocurrency models, instead leveraging Hyperledger Fabric as a next-generation enterprise blockchain architecture with lower electricity costs and a smaller carbon footprint. Hyperledger Fabric is a next-generation enterprise blockchain architecture “with even lower electricity costs and attendant carbon footprints,” writes Michael Barnard in a CleanTechnica report.

Hyperledger Fabric’s architecture is so completely different from the mining and broadly distributed model of bitcoin, that the enterprise blockchain can operate faster with far, far lower energy consumption rates. This combination of speed and energy-efficiency made Hyperledger Fabric the sustainable choice to launch ZorroSign’s digital platform.

For the environmental pillar, ZorroSign’s vision includes a commitment to saving trees and having a positive impact on the environment through sustainable practices. With our Save-a-Tree, Plant-a-Tree program, ZorroSign plants a tree on behalf of our customers every time they save 8,000 pages of copy paper! As one tree produces roughly 8,000 pages of copy paper, this amounts to a double incentive:  Reducing the destruction of trees via reduced paper use and increasing the number of trees as reward for reducing paper use. Again, our efforts aspire to realize significant environmental benefits such as conserving water, reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, and reducing deforestation.

At ZorroSign, we use blockchain to help individuals, businesses, and governments to achieve a paperless life. Here we embrace the social pillar: Understanding that switching to digital records is not only a smart business decision, but it is also good for the environment and society.

Every time someone uses ZorroSign to digitally sign agreements, contracts, and other documents—instead of printing, faxing, scanning, and couriering documents to collect signatures—we all save trees, save water, and reduce carbon emissions. By moving social costs from paper consumption, logistics, and storage to digital signatures, digital archiving, and digital chains-of-custody, we advance a technology that similarly advances sustainability.

I am eager to engage technology innovators in advancing their solutions while also advancing sustainability goals!  Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamsh-hadi/

It is no secret that cybercrime has skyrocketed within the last few years, in fact, cybercrime in the U.S. jumped by 55%. This increased risk drives a greater need for privacy and security, especially within IT companies and departments responsible for digital data and cybersecurity.

ZorroSign can help your IT company or department combat the elevated security risks with our digital transaction platform, built on blockchain architecture, and calibrate your company and customers for success!

Blockchain Architecture For Elevated Security

ZorroSign is the only company that offers a multi-blockchain platform to secure, track, and manage your digital signatures, transactions, and documentation.

By using distributed ledger technologies—originally built on Hyperledger Fabric and recently expanded to include the Provenance Blockchain—ZorroSign provides superior privacy and security, offering peace of mind for your company’s and customers’ digital transactions, while preventing fraud and ensuring regulatory compliance.

How does this blockchain architecture contribute to ZorroSign being the best platform for IT companies?


Blockchain provides structural layers of protection from cybercrime, like ransomware, malware, or phishing attacks: First, by decentralizing the data set itself (preventing any one breach to access the entire data set); and second, by giving endpoints (or nodes) a quick path to recovery, even if they are themselves breached or their access ransomed.

Unlike centralized databases—which can be breached at unsecure endpoints (users and devices) or even at managed service providers (MSPs) hosting them—giving attackers complete control once they gain central access, blockchain technology distributes data physically across separate nodes. By decentralizing data storage, blockchain effectively prevents any one endpoint (even if compromised) from gaining control of the full data set.

This distributed nature so defeats any attack seeking to breach a system and holistically encrypts the data files stored inside: A single endpoint node might be breached, and its files held for ransom, but the larger data set cannot be controlled by any one endpoint (or central authority) and so attackers cannot capture the full data set for encryption, ransom, and shutting down the network.

ZorroSign is a strong addition to your security stack, and brings the cybersecurity capabilities of blockchain to your company’s and customers’ digital signatures and transactional documentation.

Z-Forensics Token

ZorroSign has further elevated our security through our patented fraud detection technology we call the Z-Forensics token.

This unique digital solution that can:

  • Prove that the individual who is performing the action to sign the document is who they claim to be (verification); 
  • Apply a digital equivalent of a wet-ink signature to the document (legal intent); and, 
  • Prove the authenticity of the printed copy or digital version of an electronically signed document, its content, attachments, and the signatures on it (authenticity).

Unlike any other digital signature solution, ZorroSign seals all your documents with our Z-Forensics token—capturing the complete audit trail and accompanying attachments and signature workflow. The token is encrypted and contains all the details about the transaction: Time stamps, user authentication, documents and attachments.

Your IT company or department gains peace of mind when you Z-Sign!

Cloud Configuration

On top of providing the security that your company and customers need, ZorroSign’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) model can be deployed in various cloud configurations, making it seamless to integrate into your existing platform.

Our multi-chain blockchain platform can be deployed in a public, private, hybrid, or on-premise cloud:

  • Our standard deployment is on Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud computing network
  • In our private cloud configuration, all your data and the ZorroSign application run in a private and secure cloud network dedicated to your organization
  • In a hybrid cloud configuration, your data can be stored on either ZorroSign data centers or in the private cloud, while the ZorroSign platform and applications run on their standard public cloud configurations
  • On-premise deployments require your department to manage and maintain your own data centers, but gain the benefits of unlimited API calls and total control over identity access management (IAM), data privacy and security, and data integrity processes

Your IT company or department can scale and deliver data privacy and security aligned to your existing deployment architecture—as public, private, or hybrid as it may be!

To learn more about how ZorroSign helps IT companies and departments elevate your data privacy and security, please contact us or start your 14-day Free Trial today!

In a digital environment, transactions take place between people and organizations who may not know each other, and likely cannot verify each other’s identities using traditional, physical means.

Yet as the world moves more and more to digital transactions—exchanging real-world assets such as automobiles, financial instruments, goods and services, even real estate, to exchanging digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, in-game purchases, metaverse assets, NFTs, and even more in the years ahead—it becomes critical to verify exactly who signed what and when, with full validation of every transactional document’s authenticity and immutability, to prevent forgery, fraud, or tampering.

CNBC reports that “Sales of real estate in the metaverse topped $500 million last year and could double this year, according to investors and analytics firms.” And transactions in the metaverse were expected to cross $6 billion in 2021, according to India’s Business Standard.

To facilitate commerce in digital realms, ZorroSign is pleased to include the Z-Verify feature in our multichain blockchain platform to protect privacy, secure transactions, and prevent fraud.

Digital Signatures for Digital Transactions

To transact business, commerce, government operations, or individual trade in a digital environment requires legally enforceable digital signatures to prove agreement and intent. There are several technologies supporting digital signatures, but how do such solutions provide legal enforceability? 

  • They must ensure WHO is signing the legal documents via user authentication; plus,
  • They must ensure WHAT was signed (agreed upon) via immutable document control with full audit trail of changes for document verification; and
  • They must ensure WHERE, WHEN, and HOW digital signatures were executed in signing ceremonies via metadata captured on digital devices and digital network.

On June 30, 2000, then President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act), establishing that electronic signatures have the same legality as traditional signatures on paper, and defined the criteria for legality. The legislation opened the door for digital transactions and digital commerce has boomed in its wake.

Digital Signatures on Blockchain

Since 2000, many technologies have come to market to deliver digital signatures, but when a distributed ledger technology—such as blockchain—is used for digital signatures, transaction parties gain the unique advantages of:

  • Privacy — with a private, permissioned blockchain such as Hyperledger Fabric, only participants to the transaction can see details of the transaction, and those participants share equal access to such details
  • Immutability — all blockchain records and changes are tracked and cannot be changed, providing important chain-of-custody audit capabilities for courts
  • Security — all records are individually encrypted and distributed for better protected from phishing and ransomware attacks

Perhaps most importantly, digital signature platforms that incorporate Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) can authenticate users across multiple dimensions, such as what you know (your login password), what you have (your laptop or mobile device), and who you are (biometrics such as fingerprints or eye iris on the device securing who can access it), etc.

Digital Signatures with Z-Verify

ZorroSign’s Z-Verify unites multi-factor authentication, the biometric capabilities of your hardware devices, the opportunity for password-less logins, and even knowledge-based authentication (KBA) features—requiring the knowledge of private information of the individual to prove that the person providing identity information is the actual person—to ensure each party to the digital transaction is who they claim to be.

Further, Z-Verify features allow ZorroSign users to maintain and review a chronological, immutable, real-time record of transactions: Ensuring the security and privacy of users’ information and that of the data itself!

Z-Verify Benefits:

  • Immutable attribution of the signatory of any document secured in ZorroSign
  • Globally accepted security certificates that never expire – unlike any competitive solution certificates
  • Secured by private, permission-based blockchain technology built on Hyperledger Fabric
  • Authentication, verification and validation of digital and paper versions of documents using our patented Z-Forensics token
  • Verification applies to internal (registered) and external (not registered) users alike!

To learn more about Z-Verify and how ZorroSign can ensure you know exactly who signs your digital documents, when they signed, how they signed, and what they signed has not changed—contact us today or start your Free 14-Day Trial subscription to test us yourself!

The way that the legal industry conducts business has changed drastically over the last few years, foremost due to the shift during the COVID-19 pandemic to a remote lifestyle. A recent survey by the American Bar Association shows that more than half of all attorneys are now working from home almost exclusively. This switch to remote work has caused the legal industry to look towards technology to move the bulk of their processes and workflows online.

With that industry shift in mind, here are three ways that ZorroSign helps to law firms, legal departments, and attorneys worldwide to thrive in an online environment!

Automation

Lawyers are often swamped with paperwork and the hassle of printing, signing, and scanning documents. While much of this work is important to the successful operation of legal services, future-thinking law firms and legal departments are identifying repetitive, manual processes and incorporating automation to drastically improve their workflows. This allows attorneys to spend more time on client development and for staff to become more productive.

Incorporating technology into your legal service workflows can expedite operations, accelerate growth, and increase the value of the services delivered to clients. When used strategically, technology can also free up your teams from mundane tasks and enable them to apply their expertise to higher-value work. As a result, law firms and legal departments become more efficient, innovative, competitive, and profitable.

ZorroSign’s blockchain platform allows firms to build and automate templates and approval workflows, ensuring compliance with business regulations while streamlining processes from a single dashboard. Our contract lifecycle management (CLM) capabilities support automation and help move attorneys to digital record-keeping, digital communications, and digital chains-of-custody.

Expanding Privacy Regulations

Gartner predicts that by the end of 2023, modern privacy laws will cover the personal information of 75% of the world’s population. It is also expected that more state legislatures will enact privacy laws similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them. Eventually the United States can expect a law that mirrors the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—one of the toughest privacy and security laws in the world.

The increased demand for privacy has been driven by individuals’ demands for improved protection of their personally identifying information (PII), healthcare records, autonomy, and digital data privacy. Expanding regulations have pushed organizations to take the necessary steps to support data sharing, while preserving the privacy of those that they are working with and who are within their organization. All in all, organizations that choose to prioritize privacy have an opportunity to win greater loyalty and more business from their customers.

So how can ZorroSign help?

ZorroSign was created with the privacy of users in mind. Built from the ground up on blockchain technology for a zero-trust digital ecosystem, we deliver top notch security that has evolved to meet the legal enforceability needed in a court of law. ZorroSign is already compliant with CCPA and the EU’s GDPR policy—plus many Canadian, Indian, UAE, and United States data protection and privacy standards, ISO 27001 certification, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) SOC 2 Type I audit, and International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402 Type II audited.

For the growing list of ZorroSign privacy and security standards, visit our recent blog on global compliance.

Transfer to the Cloud

While storing information on a hosted cloud server is not a new concept, the legal industry has been slow to migrate its data because of the security concerns that this presented. Telecommute work, however, has pushed legal organizations towards cloud solutions to better connect remote workers. The cloud’s cost-effective delivery of near-unlimited storage, paired with technology like blockchains, bridges the gap between the risk of remote connections and the need for elevated data security.

ZorroSign’s multi-chain blockchain platform can be deployed in a public, private, hybrid, or on-premise cloud, while ensuring your data and privacy and security needs are met:

  • Our standard deployment is on Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud computing network
  • In our private cloud configuration, all your data and the ZorroSign application run in a private and secure cloud network dedicated to your organization
  • In a hybrid cloud configuration, your data can be stored on either ZorroSign data centers or in the private cloud, while the ZorroSign platform and applications run on their standard public cloud configurations
  • On-premise deployments require your law firm or department to manage and maintain your own data centers, but gain the benefits of unlimited API calls and total control over identity access management (IAM), data privacy and security, and data integrity processes

To learn more about how ZorroSign serves the Legal Industry, please contact us or start your 14-day free trial subscription today!

March 21, 2022, marked the 10th anniversary of International Day of Forests. This day calls attention to the importance of practicing sustainability in both your business and your personal life. Often people have a desire to live a more sustainable life, but do not know where to start . . .  

Here are four ways you can practice sustainability in your day-to-day life!

Recycle & Reuse

One ready way to practice sustainability is to make a real effort to recycle and reuse. Did you know each ton of recycled paper saves an estimated 17 trees and 3.3 cubic yards of land space? Every small and large contribution that you make counts!

You’ve most likely heard the phrase “Reduce, reuse, recycle” your whole life, but how do you actively turn a nice-sounding phrase into a habit?

  • Try to reuse products and items as many times as possible before binning them to reduce waste. Check out this list of household items that you would normally throw away, but you can reuse!
  • Avoid thin plastic packaging, as it’s usually non-recyclable. Instead go for reusable glass or thick plastic.
  • Instead of using plastic bags, bring reusable bags and Tupperware when going shopping or packing food or leftovers.
  • Buy products in bulk. Purchasing goods in large amounts means less packaging and even less cost per amount.
  • Utilizing trash removal and recycling services can also help you to manage waste effectively

Monitor Energy Use

Another great way to be sustainable is monitoring your energy use. By using less energy, you can help to reduce carbon emissions. There are a number of ways you can save energy at home, and most of them are practices that take no extra effort on your part.

Here are a few ways to do it:

  • Turn off the lights when you’re not in the room; use natural light instead of turning the lights on as much as you can.
  • Turn off appliances that you’re not currently using.
  • Dry your clothes outside instead of using the drying machine.
  • Save money with solar energy

Save Water

It is a fact that 70% of the Earth is covered with water, only one percent of it is available for human consumption. Conserving water is important because it keeps our water clean while protecting the environment.

Here are some effective and easy ways to cut back on your water footprint and save some money in the process:

  • Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth
  • Wash dishes in the sink instead of under running water
  • Only run the washing machine and dishwasher when you have a full load
  • Check your kitchen pipes and dishwater hose for slow leaks

Go Paperless with ZorroSign

ZorroSign is committed to having a positive impact on the environment through sustainable practices. Switching from doing business using paper to digital is not only a smart business decision but it is also good for the environment.

Office paper waste is estimated to be around 12.1 trillion sheets of paper a year, with paper accounting for 50% of waste from businesses.

However, each time you use ZorroSign to digitally transact instead of printing, faxing, scanning, and shipping documents to collect signatures, you save trees and water . . . plus reduce carbon emissions while your business saves time and money!

To further the cause of Paperless Life, ZorroSign encourages all businesses to go digital and save trees. Our Save a Tree – Plant a Tree program is ZorroSign’s effort to do our part to help the environment. For every 8,000 pages of paper you save by using ZorroSign, we plant a tree on your behalf—that’s saving an existing tree and planting a new tree by going paperless with ZorroSign.

To learn more about ZorroSign’s commitment to sustainability and environment conservation, and how we deliver greater privacy and security for digital signatures and documents, contact us today!

The Move to Digital

Since the invention of microchips and semiconductor transistors in the 1950’s, the world has moved steadily to more and more digital information. Computers for government, then computers for business, then home computers brought vast amounts of data into digital formats, and with the birth of the World Wide Web digital information has exploded in volume.

Today, we rely on digital documents for our business operations, our finances, our government, our healthcare, our legal system, and vast amounts of news and information—both personal and public. Trusting such digital documents is critical to ascertaining truth and accurately conveying facts.

“Documents comprise evidence, and are generally assumed to amount to evidence upon which the parties and the court can rely,” explains Helen Brander for Counsel magazine. “For every point that is made, one hopes there is a document to support that point.”

The Risk of Fraud

Throughout history, there have been various techniques to authenticate documents. In the pre-industrial age, it was common in Europe for someone to sign a document in ink and to then press a wax seal on the document to indicate the authenticity of that document. It was always possible, of course, that someone could tamper with the document and forge signatures, information, or the wax seal itself.

In the modern age, the United States has notary publics who can witness a person signing a document and endeavor to authenticate the signer’s identity by inspecting a driver’s license, passport, or other form of identification for that person. Again, the risk remains that it is possible to forge such identity materials, or alter the actual documents or signatures after signing.

More recently, with the popularity of electronic or digital documents, the digitization of business processes is taking place. In other words, from the creation of documents, to the signing of documents, to the storage and subsequent retrieval of documents, one or more steps may be conducted digitally.

For example, a document may be created on a computer and subsequently printed, signed with wet ink or electronically, then faxed, delivered via courier, or scanned into the computer and finally shared electronically via email or by using other file transfer mechanisms. Despite the technology advances, such documents can still be tampered with and signatures can be forged within this process as well.

“Detecting fraud within documents that have been digitally altered with graphics editors or ‘print-manipulate-scan’ evasion techniques requires more sophistication,” notes Martin Rehak in a Help Net Security article. “Often undetectable to human fraud specialists, building an automated solution requires specialist knowledge of the metadata and digital footprints left by scanning and printing devices.”

As such, modern digital documents require a level of security as evolved and nuanced as the technologies producing, storing, and sharing the digital documents themselves.

The Security of ZorroSign

Facing this historical need, ZorroSign has developed a unique digital solution that can:

  • Prove that the individual who is performing the action to sign the document is who they claim to be (verification);
  • Apply a digital equivalent of a wet-ink signature to the document (legal intent); and,
  • Prove the authenticity of the printed copy or digital version of an electronically signed document, its content, attachments, and the signatures on it (authenticity).

ZorroSign’s patented Z-Forensics token is a tamper and fraud-detection seal for your digital documents, creating an unprecedented, immutable audit trail and complete chain-of-custody validation.

This revolutionary security system allows a validated user to create an electronic document, then allow one or more other users to complete and sign that document in a particular sequence—”the workflow”—all the while capturing the chain of custody and an audit trail of the changes made to the document by the parties in the workflow, such as recording key authentication, security and validation information when an action took place.

Unlike any other digital signature solution, ZorroSign seals all documents with our Z-Forensics token—capturing the complete audit trail and accompanying attachments and signature workflow. The token is encrypted and contains all the details about the transaction: Time stamps, user authentication, documents and attachments. 

Only the Z-Forensics token:

  • Allows ZorroSign customers to manage permissions as to who gets to see what level of information about the transaction and the contract
  • Stores the ZorroSign security encryption certificates, which—unlike other digital security certificates—never expire
  • Can verify, validate and authenticate both digital and printed (paper) version of electronically signed contracts

Our Z-Forensics feature enables ZorroSign users to create a virtual seal for every uploaded document:  initiating a verifiable trail, tracking every step of a document’s journey through users, so that any attempts at tampering, fraud, revision or other alterations are immediately captured.

To learn more about Z-Forensics and how ZorroSign can help you prevent fraud with digital documents, contact us today!

What is Web 3.0?

You may have heard about Web 3.0 (or web3) recently and wondered, what is Web 3.0 and how is it different from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?

A broad definition of Web 1.0 is simply the initial iteration of the World Wide Web in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  “Web 1.0 is the term used for the earliest version of the Internet as it emerged from its origins with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),” writes Kuntal Chakraborty for Techopedia. “Experts refer to it as the ‘read-only’ web—a web that was not interactive in any significant sense.”

From those early static web pages, a platform model of computing soon evolved that would become Web 2.0 or the ‘social web.’  Here, interaction with growing web applications and platforms drove e-commerce and the expansion of the Internet, allowing large providers to aggregate and control much of the shared data.  This is the Internet we know today.

“Web 2.0’s business model relies on user participation to create fresh content and profile data to be sold to third parties for marketing purposes,” writes Charles Silver in a recent Forbes article. “Indeed, the internet has become a massive app store, dominated by centralized apps from Google, Facebook and Amazon, where everyone is trying to build an audience, collect data and monetize that data through targeted advertising.  In my opinion, the centralization and exploitation of data, and the use of it without users’ meaningful consent, is built into Web 2.0’s business model.”

The dream of Web 3.0, however, is to break the centralization of information and democratize the Internet more to the vision of its earliest founders.  “Web3, ” claims Chris Dixon from Andreesen Horowitz in a recent article in The Economist, “combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of web1 with the advanced, modern functionality of web2.”

The Web 3.0 “will be based on the convergence of emerging technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented reality,” note Neeti Aggarwal and Dandreb Salangsang in The Asian Banker.  “It will be characterized by decentralized data, a more transparent and secure environment, machine cognitive intelligence and  three-dimensional design.”

“The rise of technologies such as distributed ledgers and storage on blockchain will allow for data decentralization and create a transparent and secure environment, overtaking Web 2.0’s centralization, surveillance and exploitative advertising,” continues Silver.  “Indeed, one of the most significant implications of decentralization and blockchain technology is in the area of data ownership and compensation… Web 3.0 will bring us a fairer internet by enabling the individual to be a sovereign.”

Web 3.0 isn’t just championed by iconoclasts and trustbusters—Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai, recently shared on a quarterly earnings call, “On Web3, we are definitely looking at blockchain, and such an interesting and powerful technology with broad applications so much broader again than any one application. So as a company, we are looking at how we might contribute to the ecosystem and add value.”

As such, even the biggest players in Web 2.0 are looking to adopt Web 3.0 technologies and strategies as they continue their evolution.

Financial Services on Web 3.0

“Think about all the financial instruments we use today—currency, loans, insurance, bonds, credit cards, stocks, futures, options, interest bearing accounts—being converted to a new model,” asks Thomson Reuters.  “One that doesn’t require a traditional banking institution.”

For financial service organizations, adopting emerging technologies has historically been a slow, prove-it-before-you-move-it endeavor.  With the boom in fintech the past ten years, however, financial service organizations from accounting firms, to banks, credit unions, and credit-card companies, to finance companies and managers, insurance companies, investment funds, notaries, payment providers, stock brokerages, and conglomerates have all moved faster to adopt new technologies and gain a competitive advantage in serving customers.

“Fintech refers to the latest software developments in the financial services sector,” explains a recent Finextra article.  “Using technologies such as artificial intelligence, biometrics, payments, crypto and others, banks are increasingly able to offer their customers more convenient, streamlined services.”

With Web 3.0, however, it may be a case of many financial institutions pushed into new technologies by customers, rather than pulled in the hunt for larger margins and higher profits, as what sets web3 apart from web2 is ownership and control of data.

Already, “a few banks are using blockchain to power real-time transactions,” writes Emily McCormick for Bank Director.  Meanwhile, “Fintechs competing with banks are also taking advantage of the disintermediation trends promised by a Web3 economy.”

Today, cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms challenge traditional banking for services and control of consumer monetary systems.  But while cryptocurrencies provide an exciting alternative to the constraints of fractional-reserve banking, financial services providers need not abandon central bank currencies to adopt Web 3.0 strategies.  The distributed ledger technology of blockchains can also support financial service applications above-and-beyond cryptocurrencies.

Future Technologies for Financial Services

As most financial service providers engage Web 2.0 technologies, the opportunity for early adopters to leap ahead to Web 3.0 becomes clear. 

“Over the next decade, we believe blockchain will become the dominant operating infrastructure of the financial system and look forward to helping our network of regulated banks, brokers and fintechs develop the competency and dexterity to be early adopters of this transformational technology,” said Ryan Zacharia, general partner at JAM Special Opportunity Ventures (JSOV), an affiliate of Jacobs Asset Management (JAM) and FINTOP Capital.

“Unlike the cryptocurrency market, for example—which is built on a digitally native system—Vikram Pandit, CEO of The Orogen Group and former Citigroup Inc. CEO, said that innovations in the traditional banking sector are based on applying new technology to improve old architecture, citing the use of distributed ledger technology in cross-border payments as an example,” notes a recent S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

Payments are another area ready for Web 3.0 transformation.  “In the past, when you transferred money to someone online, you needed a trusted service like PayPal or a bank to make the transfer,” cites an Algorand post.  “With blockchain networks, you can now transfer money directly to anyone with an Internet connection on a peer-to-peer basis.”

Further, securing digital transactions and the digital chain-of-custody are critical for financial organizations.  Even as some financial assets move to the metaverse—NFTs are an early example—a technology that immutably tracks and reports the provenance of assets is necessary to ensure ownership and enforce agreements across transactions and holdings. 

“Issues of trust, transparency, privacy, and user control lie at the heart of Web 3.0,” writes MakerDAO, and “on the back of the blockchain promises to shift the balance of power back in favor of the user.”

Blockchain, built for zero-trust environments, is the ideal architecture for tracking and storing digital transactions and documentation, and another way Web 3.0 technologies support evolving financial services.

ZorroSign and Web 3.0

And here is where ZorroSign shines!  We have built our digital platform from the ground up using blockchain technology.  Launched with Hyperledger Fabric, our multi-chain platform now supports the public Provenance Blockchain as well, giving our users an entirely new world of decentralized digital transactions.

At ZorroSign, we deliver digital signature solutions built on blockchain for greater privacy and security. 

Our Web 3.0 technology platform also provides identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) capabilities through a patented Z-Forensics token plus fraud prevention, user authentication, and document verification.  Web 3.0 features such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) allow us to automate form completion for digital documents, and can improve regulatory compliance across global standards for legally enforceable digital signatures.

Paired with Provenance Blockchain—which reduces the need for third-party intermediation, drastically reducing costs and freeing up capital in financial transactions—ZorroSign’s platform promotes greater transparency and liquidity for financial service organizations, and allows for new kinds of financial engineering and business opportunities.

To learn more about Web 3.0 and how ZorroSign can help your financial service organization meet the future needs of your customers, contact us today!

What is blockchain?

If Bitcoin is a blockchain, is every blockchain a bitcoin?

What are apps and dApps?

What businesses and organizations use blockchain apps today?

We are excited to answer such questions and encourage you to contact us to learn more about blockchain, dApps, and how ZorroSign delivers superior privacy and security with blockchain technology! Read on . . .

Blockchain Introduction

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) leveraging cryptography—user authentication, data encryption and verification—to secure information records (blocks) distributed across peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. DLTs replicate, share, and synchronize digital data geographically spread across multiple sites (nodes), with no central data storage or administrator.

They can be run publicly (open) or privately (permissioned):

  • Public blockchains, or open blockchains, allow anyone to run an endpoint node on the public network. Users can participate by mining a block or making transactions on the blockchain. Famous cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin are public blockchains.
  • Private blockchains restrict the endpoints or peers that can store data, requiring permission to participate on the private network. As such, permissioned blockchains are not used as cryptocurrencies, but instead make excellent business applications for storing, securing, and sharing data. Hyperledger Fabric is a ready example of a consortium private blockchain, allowing organizations to grant limited permissions to those endpoints participating on the blockchain. 


Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Apps

Cryptocurrencies on public blockchains essentially produce a coin which serves as digital money. Cryptocurrency coins have the same characteristics as fiat money: They are acceptable, divisible, durable, fungible, portable, and have limited supply. For example, Ether is the coin of Ethereum and Lumen is the coin of Stellar. Cryptocurrency coins are held in digital walletsthat store private/public keys and interact with various public blockchains to enable users to send and receive digital currencies and tokens.


“Bitcoin was arguably the first dApp,” writes Computerworld. “Enabling anyone in the world to download a bit of open-source code to join a blockchain network and verify transactions using a ‘mining’ algorithm, thereby generating digital currency (cryptocurrency) as a reward.”


DApps, or decentralized applications, are computer programs running on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). With private blockchain dApps, an organization controls access to the blockchain—limiting its distribution but also elevating its security. So while cryptocurrencies are often in the news for major purchases, market fluctuations, and hacks, blockchain business apps make the news by showcasing how blockchain can advance business, government, healthcare, and many other industries.

Mobindustry Corp notes some popular dApps such as:

  • IBM Blockchain – one of the best blockchain apps that helps logistics companies and businesses with long supply chains to track the status and condition of every product on each stage of the supply process: from the start of production to the distribution stage. Blockchain provides full transparency of records, and offers real-time tracking of all parts in terms of their location and condition.
  • MedRec – a healthcare example of blockchain app that provides secure access to medical records across different providers and actors, like doctors, patients, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies.
  • Spotify – uses blockchain database for decentralized connection between Spotify tracks, artists and licensing agreements.


DApps on Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is a private blockchain that emerged from an open-source collaborative effort hosted by the Linux Foundation. Built to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies and improve trust, transparency and accountability, Hyperledger Fabric’s “modular architecture maximizes the confidentiality, resilience, and flexibility of blockchain solutions,” explains IBM.

Hyperledger was built for data protection and confidential transactions, and “was introduced to accelerate industry-wide collaboration for developing high-performance and reliable blockchain,” says the Blockchain Council.

Some prominent Hyperledger Fabric deployments include:

  • Chainyard, designed to improve supplier validation, onboarding and life cycle information management
  • Honeywell Aerospace to create an Amazon-type marketplace for used aircraft parts
  • IBM Blockchain Platform
  • Walmart to create a food traceability system—decentralizing its food supply ecosystem to quickly find the source when an outbreak of a food-borne disease happens
  • ZorroSign digital signature, document management, IDaaS, and transaction management platform


“Hyperledger Fabric is intended as a foundation for developing applications or solutions with a modular architecture,” notes Hyperledger.org “Hyperledger Fabric allows components, such as consensus and membership services, to be plug-and-play. Its modular and versatile design satisfies a broad range of industry use cases. It offers a unique approach to consensus that enables performance at scale while preserving privacy.”


Focused on B2B collaboration where transactions taking place on the network are only visible to the authorized members, Hyperledger Fabric allows dApps to choose between no consensus needed and an agreement protocol—greatly speeding transaction times while minimizing energy requirements to update the blockchain.

  • For example, “transactions in the ledgers of Fabric nodes are always in the same order—they don’t get out of sync,” says BlocWatch. “So any application reading from a Fabric ledger doesn’t have to wait for blocks to age; they can be trusted immediately.”
  • Further, private enterprise blockchain use significantly less energy than public cryptocurrency blockchains, explains Michael Barnard in a CleanTechnica report.


“Think of it as an operating system for marketplaces,  micro-currencies, data-sharing networks and decentralized digital communities,” says GamesdApp.

ZorroSign on Hyperledger Fabric

The ZorroSign platform was built from the ground up on Hyperledger Fabric and delivers digital signatures, identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) features, digital document management, user verification and document authentication, and much more. Our dApp is available on iOS or Android, and can be readily accessed from any device—PC or mobile—anywhere in the world.


“We are proud to deliver a mature blockchain solution for digital signatures that is cost-effective and more secure than any encrypted e-signature technology that relies upon public-key infrastructure for security credentials,” says ZorroSign co-founder and CEO, Shamsh Hadi. “ZorroSign’s platform efficiently leverages blockchain to protect online identities and documents such as business agreements, government files, healthcare records, and other legal evidence stored in digital formats.”

For businesses, institutions, and individuals that desire to securely digitize paper-based workflows, ZorroSign’s digital signature and document management platform can decrease costs, reduce clerical errors, and increase productivity. Plus as a private blockchain, ZorroSign’s architecture has even tighter privacy and security measures than other blockchains.

Learn more our blockchain platform or contact us today to “block it down” for your data!