GetChkd is Building a Universal Verfication/Payment System for Retail with Blockchain and Biometrics

Buy a beer in Texas and a pizza in Paris using just your hand.

GetChkd’s CEO Michael Caplovitz has a big, yet specific, vision for his company. As he explained to me by video chat this week, Caplovitz wants people to be able to pay for a beer and pizza in Texas, then hop on a plane and fly to Paris where they buy another pint and pizza — all with just a wave of their hand.

What he’s talking about, and GetChkd is creating, is sort of a universal verification, payment and loyalty system, powered by biometrics and blockchain technology. To boil it down, you would verify your identity (and age) and connect that information to a piece of biometric data (Caplovitz likes vein pattern recognition in your hand). Throw in a payment system and Bob’s yer uncle. GetChkd is building the underlying architecture and using existing off-the-shelf verification and payment processing tools (Jumio, Trueface, Stripe, etc.).