After struggling, in 2014, through the asylum process and “being invisible”, Tey founded Tykn: a company that uses blockchain for digital identity. He also gave numerous talks on that topic and his journey, like at TEDxAmsterdam. As he is so passionate about the topic of digital identity, he recently started researching a new project. Tey is now looking more into biometrics, more precisely, on how to provide non-intrusive biometrics. He will share more insights on this and his entrepreneurial journey with us and we are all curious to hear!
Where does your passion for digital identity come from?
Well, I was never explicitly interested in digital identity in the first place. My passion was sparked when I needed to apply for asylum and realized that actually 1.2 billion people do not have any documents to identify them. For me it was never a problem to not have a birth certificate, as I had my residency card, passport, and so on, living in the Netherlands. However, when my work contract ended, I needed to apply for asylum and therefore needed to give back all of those documents. That was the moment when I became invisible.
How did you come up with your idea and how does it work?
It actually happened while waiting for my residence permit in the refugee camp. As we were not allowed to cook ourselves, we were quite unhappy about the food there. When I realized I still had bitcoins on my phone, I used them to order Pizza. This was the moment where I realized “hey this technology is really powerful, I was using it without any identity needed”. So, I thought, maybe I can use blockchain to permanently authenticate birth certificates, passports, and all other kinds of civic documents. The whole technology works like that: We use a public blockchain to give keys to NGOs and they can then sign with those keys on the identity for other people. It’s not an online authentication but an offline one and it uses the public keys of a blockchain. This helps to identify people by organizations like the red cross and get access to some basic services like healthcare. It doesn’t allow you to vote or travel but it gives you a trusted identity in order to get access to basic services.
Why are you now looking into biometrics?
My big question was how to make biometrics safe for the users. This led me to a new way of authentication using the ear or the ear canal as a way to authenticate people. Since it is in your body and is not publicly seen, it is less intrusive and the authentication is happening on the phone and not on a third-party server. I want to launch this to help the unidentified population, getting access to services by proving who they are as a person and not as data. It is a super early stage, I’m still researching models with a group of scientists, backed up by a European university. My plan is to open-source it, in order to make it publicly available.
What was your best moment, until now, on your entrepreneurial journey?
I think the best moment until now, was when I won the startup weekend Utrecht competition. It was my first competition ever and so I left directly from the refugee camp and went to the accelerator for the next 6 months. On that day I shared with the world what I believe in and 5 years later my dream came true – an existing marriage between digital identity and blockchain for impact.
What are and were the biggest challenges for you?
Firstly, I would say dealing with racism as a founder is definitely a huge challenge. Being a refugee, people always think you have intentions or you are a terrorist. I’m really fragile in my identity because I’m Syrian and a refugee. There are always people who are just waiting for me to make a mistake. When the prince of Holland gave me a price, one reporter wrote that I bluffed the prince and that I lied to them. Racism is still a huge topic in the Netherlands too. When I did the fundraising, the newspaper headlines were saying “The Syrian refugee raised 1.2 million” – this wouldn’t happen if I would be Dutch or European.
Secondly, filling the gap between human development and technological development is definitely an issue. Technology is developing at a very fast pace but humans are not. For example, when you say I want to protect my privacy, people still think you are a criminal or you want to hide something. Moreover, many people don’t understand the technology and they are afraid of their privacy, it is a literacy problem. But there is also a trust component involved. As many big corporations misused data, many people lost their trust in technology – this needs to be rebuilt.
And at last, I also face some entrepreneurial challenges, like measuring the impact of your startup. This is a big deal when you are an impact tech founder. Additionally, the expectation of investors can be very challenging too, as well as the different priority setting between founders, so I always recommend choosing the people you work with wisely.
What would you recommend (future) founders?
Impact starts with yourself first. You need to take good care of yourself, so you can sustain the impact you want. That’s why sleeping early, taking naps, eating well, and drinking lots of water, are the most important habits I developed. When I feel tired I just take a rest and don’t push myself to the limit. I always try to find some balance and listen to my body’s energy level.
Choose your team and co-founders based on your intuition. Plus, if along the way you have the feeling it’s not the right fit, immediately say it – like in a normal relationship. This is important for a good working climate and also for investors, as they put money into the team, not in your idea, so be sure you are with the right team.
Find yourself good mentors. As a founder, pitching and stage presence is a highly important skill. Therefore I have a mentor supporting me with learning and practicing those, but also supporting me personally. Additionally, I got one mentor for my emotional intelligence: we work on my emotions and how to be a leader. In my opinion, having emotional intelligence is very important, especially if you want to be a change catalyst.