Proof-of-Address (PoA)
Offers privacy-first address verification through Zero-Knowledge Proofs, ensuring users meet jurisdictional requirements without exposing their full address details.
User Journey
Alice wants to access a platform that requires confirmation of her country of residence for compliance. With zkMe, she proves her actual residential address by scanning a recent bank statement, utility bill, lease agreement, or tax notice. The zkMe widget validates the document type, checks that it was issued within the last 90 days, and confirms her home jurisdiction without exposing plaintext details. After this one-time verification, she receives a Proof-of-Address credential in the form of a Soulbound Token (SBT) containing a zero-knowledge proof, which she can reuse across multiple services that require proof of living address while keeping her sensitive information private.
See It in Action
See how users can prove their location without sharing coordinates and generate a zkPoA credential in just a few simple steps.
Why Verify Residence?
Proof-of-Address (PoA) is a cornerstone of global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. Financial institutions, crypto platforms, and other regulated services are legally required to verify a customer's residential address to assess risk, prevent fraud, and ensure compliance with jurisdictional laws. Traditional PoA verification forces users to repeatedly upload sensitive documents like bank statements or utility bills, creating massive privacy risks and friction. zkMe's zkPoA transforms this necessary compliance step into a privacy-preserving and user-centric process, enabling trust and compliance without the data liability.
Why zkMe zkPoA?
Privacy first: Validate user’s residential address with zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) without exposing or storing sensitive documents.
Reliable verification: Confirm address using trusted sources (e.g., utility bills, bank statements, tax notices) with built-in cryptographic assurance.
Compliance-ready: Satisfy global AML/KYC requirements for address verification, ensuring alignment with jurisdictional regulations.
Reusable within validity: Once issued, zkPoA credentials are reusable across multiple platforms for the entire duration of their validity, eliminating redundant verification steps.
Decentralized & Secure: Proofs are generated and verified without central storage of raw address data, eliminating the risk of leaks.
Seamless integration: Easily embed zkPoA into onboarding or transaction flows using our SDKs for instant, compliant address checks.
How It Works
The Zero-Knowledge Proof-of-Address (zkPoA) procedure verifies a user’s residential address without exposing sensitive personal data. It validates documents, checks recency, and confirms eligibility, all while preserving user privacy. Here’s a high-level overview of the procedure:
Define Verification Criteria:
Jurisdiction Policy: Define allowlists or denylists of countries/regions to enforce compliance.
Address Proof Requirements: Specify which document types are acceptable (e.g., utility bill, bank statement, lease agreement, tax notice).
User Document Verification & Data Extraction:
Authenticity Check: Confirm that the uploaded document is valid and untampered.
OCR Extraction: Extract key fields including full name, residential address (street, city, region, country), document type, and issue date.
Recency Validation: Check that the extracted issue date is within the last 90 days.
Identity Matching: Validate that the extracted name matches prior KYC records through secure hash comparison.
Address Validation: Confirm that the extracted address is properly formatted, mailable, and corresponds to a valid location.
(Optional) Location Cross-Check: Confirm that the user’s current GPS country matches the document’s country through Proof of Location programs.
Generate Random Number: The user's device generates a random number as part of the zkPoA process.
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) Protocol:
Commitment Phase: The user generates a cryptographic commitment. This commitment includes hashed information that encodes proof of address validity without revealing the raw address. And the commitment is securely stored on the user's device, ensuring it cannot be tampered with.
Challenge Phase: The verifier (the service or entity performing the verification) selects a random challenge to ensure the user's commitment is valid and sent to the user's device for processing.
Response Generation: The user’s device processes the challenge by combining it with the previously generated random number and the commitment, then sends the response back to the verifier.
Response Validation: The verifier checks the proof against the defined criteria, ensuring compliance without accessing plaintext details.
Verification Result: Based on the verification outcome, the verifier confirms the user's eligibility. If the verification is successful, the user is granted access to the next steps.
Key Benefits
Uncompromising Document Privacy: Users prove their address validity without exposing the actual documents. Sensitive details like account numbers, transaction history, and exact street addresses remain confidential on the user's device.
Streamlined User Onboarding: Eliminate the friction of repeated document submissions. A single, one-time verification grants a reusable credential that speeds up onboarding across multiple services.
Robust Fraud Prevention: The combination of document authenticity checks, recency validation (within 90 days), and optional location cross-checks creates a strong defense against forged documents and fraudulent applications.
Regulatory Compliance by Design: The protocol is built to satisfy AML/KYC requirements for address verification across multiple jurisdictions, providing the necessary audit trail for regulators without exposing personal data.
Reduced Operational Cost: Automate the address verification process, minimizing the need for manual review and the associated costs of maintaining secure document storage systems.
Use Cases to Benefit
DeFi and CeFi Onboarding: Cryptocurrency exchanges and decentralized finance platforms can seamlessly comply with "Know Your Customer" and "Address Verification" regulations for users accessing high-value transactions or specific financial products.
High-Value Goods and NFT Purchases: Marketplaces for luxury goods, real estate, or high-value NFTs can verify a buyer's jurisdiction for regulatory and shipping purposes without handling sensitive customer documents.
Banking and Financial Services: Traditional banks and fintech companies can streamline account opening processes, offering a modern, privacy-focused alternative to cumbersome document uploads for new and existing customers.
Government and Public Services: Enable citizens to prove their residency for access to localized public services, voting eligibility, or benefit programs while significantly reducing administrative overhead and data breach risks.
Telecommunications and Utilities: Simplify the sign-up process for new services (internet, mobile contracts, energy) where proof of residence is required, using a credential that is instantly verifiable and highly secure.
Global Payroll and Gig Economies: Companies with a distributed, international workforce can verify the country of residence for contractors for tax and compliance purposes in a privacy-preserving manner.
Pricing & Integration
From startups to scale-ups, our pricing and simple integration are designed to support your growth and follow industry best practices.
A flat rate of US$0.5 per verification applies, which is around ⅓ of typical providers charge, giving you a clear and transparent cost model.
We stand by the value of our offering and provide a price-match guarantee for equivalent services upon review of a valid quotation.
Drop us a line at [email protected] and let’s kick things off!
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