PRESS RELEASE

San Francisco, CA––October 2, 2019 ePluribus, a civic tech platform that empowers Americans to speak up and get to the top of legislators’ inboxes, today launched its Unum ID app, a decentralized identity platform that sits within ePluribus to enable users to take control of their personal information and securely prove their identity as verified constituents. The company also announced funding from Samsung NEXT, to help them drive usage and promote the importance of eliminating fraudulent actors in politics, who currently outnumber real Americans by 19 to 1. In the long term, Unum ID has the potential to eliminate identity fraud in any industry where personal identification is required.

Today, identity data in stored in massive, centralized databases that are both expensive and prone to fraudsters. Identity fraud is wreaking havoc on our democracy and is one of the biggest unsolved problems in politics, with the internet only exacerbating the scale. In 2017, the FCC received 22 million comments about net neutrality. Independent research found that 94% of those messages were fake or duplicate. Unum ID uses blockchain technology to enable users to verify their identity and stand out from bots, lobbyists, and foreign agents competing for legislators’ attention. Unum ID creates a verified and personally-encrypted constituent ID on each user’s phone, eliminating the need for centralized data storage. Users now have complete control over their data to re-use whenever they need it, and organizations can verify identities faster and at a far lower cost.

“Political fervor is already ramping up for the election and people want to avoid political meddling, data breaches and fake accounts at all costs,” said Aidan McCarty, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of ePluribus. “With Unum ID there is literally no database to be hacked. Breaching 150 million social security numbers would require hacking 150 million independent devices -- not just one database. So whether you’re sending a message to congress, setting up a new bank account, going through TSA at an airport, or signing a petition - we’re giving people the tools to secure themselves and our country. No more data breaches. No more mass identity theft.” 

“The Unum ID platform has never been as relevant as it is today,” said Andy Duong at Samsung NEXT. “But the real magic that drew us to these founders is the decentralized platform that creates a personalized and secure source of truth for everyone in their everyday life - completely free from hackers. This will be a game changing technology as it empowers users to own and use their identity not only in civics, but in many other verticals, fixing the broken online identity system.”

Anyone can download the app today on iOS and Android, and can use it with ePluribus by visiting www.epluribus.io. At TechCrunch Disrupt, users will also be able to use Unum ID to add their verified signatures to an ePluribus petition about preventing bots and Russian interference for 2020. For more information please visit www.unumid.org.

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About ePluribus:

ePluribus is the first and only platform that empowers Americans to contact their representatives as verified constituents. ePluribus provides a suite of tools that make it insanely easy for users to send official messages to elected officials at all levels of government (federal, state, and local). This includes a mobile app (iOS/Android), an embeddable contact form, and even a Chrome extension. ePluribus is now powered by Unum ID, a state-of-the-art blockchain technology that allows users to verify their identities and stand out from bots and lobbyists. The company is based in San Francisco, founded by Aidan and Liam McCarty, two brothers out of Stanford. Current investors include Samsung NEXT and Stanford professors. Please visit: www.epluribus.io or follow the company on Twitter (@ePluribus_io), Facebook (@epluribus.io).