Laz Pieper, Director of Research at Coin Center, wrote that current anti-fraud processes requiring customer identification and verification are inadvertently fueling fraud by handing over sensitive information to criminals. He argues that privacy-preserving identity verification systems could allow individuals to prove only the information required for a service while keeping the underlying data under their own control. The article cited reports that over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's license records are being sold on the dark web, and the FBI is investigating a data breach involving identity verification provider IDScan.net. Additionally, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission received 6.47 million reports of fraud, identity theft, and other consumer issues in 2024, significantly higher than approximately 860,000 in 2004, with global illicit financial activity estimated at $4.4 trillion last year.