Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare has introduced Private KYC on Starknet, enabling users to fulfill know-your-customer requirements without revealing their full personal information.
The system, announced as a demo on Tuesday, uses STRK20 privacy features and STARK zero-knowledge proofs to allow users to prove certain characteristics, such as being over 18 or having valid credentials, without revealing their full passport or address details.
“Whether you need to prove you are 18 years or older, have valid credentials, or meet eligibility criteria, verification should only confirm the exact fact,” StarkWare stated. Corporations should not collect full identities “because any identity database becomes a liability the moment it exists.”
KYC compliance involves handing over personal data and trusting companies to keep it protected. The rollout follows a record number of data breaches in the US in 2025: 3,322, an raise of 79% over five years, and the average global cost of a data breach is $4.4 million. According to to station X.
StarkWare users start by scanning the passport with their phone, then reading and confirming the document’s authenticity using the camera and NFC chip, and having the issuing authority confirm its authenticity and signature.
They can then encrypt identity data in their Starknet wallet, record attributes in a public onchain registry, and submit zero-knowledge evidence to selective audits. Verifiers can confirm eligibility by reading the public record without seeing the actual identity data.
Related: Emphasis on privacy as StarkWare and Sui move toward confidential, compliant transfers
“Private KYC shows that verification and privacy are not a compromise” – StarkWare he said. “An institution can confirm exactly what it needs without having to create another copy of someone’s identity that it then has to defend.”
Contracts are checked for evidence, not passports. source: StarkWare
“Today, identity checks require the entire document when only one fact is required,” said the Starknet team.
The system is similar to Sam Altman’s World ID (Worldcoin), which he uses evidence from to verify humanity through iris scans on hardware orbs. However, World ID has faced backlash over its centralized biometric custody, while StarkWare’s self-monitoring model aims to address this issue.
Data breaches cost millions
According to Axis Intelligence, more than 1 billion medical records have been collected violated, with an average cost of $7.42 million as of 2026. In the US, 772 major healthcare data breaches were confirmed in 2025, the highest total number of breaches on record.
The cryptocurrency industry’s largest and most damaging data breach occurred at hardware wallet provider Ledger, which suffered a massive database breach in 2020, resulting in the leak of over 270,000 customer records and a wave of phishing attacks that continue to this day.
