Overview
- Peirce delivered the pitch to an industry audience at SIFMA this Wednesday, arguing zero‑knowledge proofs and attribute‑based credentials can prove facts like age, accredited‑investor status, or sanctions clearance without revealing names or other raw data.
- She said current KYC/AML practice builds ever larger “data haystacks” that make it harder to find criminals and create bigger targets for hackers by forcing identical sensitive records to be stored across many firms.
- Peirce recommended regulators permit firms to accept cryptographic attestations from trusted third‑party verifiers so companies do not each collect and retain the same personal files.
- Her remarks cited recent incidents — including reported Revolut and Trezor third‑party exposures — as evidence that centralized KYC data fuels theft, phishing and physical‑safety risks for customers.
- The speech is a public policy push by an outgoing, crypto‑friendly SEC commissioner and is a proposal rather than a formal rule change, so adoption would require follow‑on SEC action, support from other commissioners, or legislation.