Decentralised identity platform Civic hire former Apple executive

Decentralised blockchain start-up Civic have hired former Apple executive Phillip Shoemaker as the new executive director at Identity.com.

Civic announced on Thursday that Shoemaker will be responsible for “growth and development” of the decentralised identity platform.

Jonathan Smith, CTO and co-founder of Civic, said: “Phillip’s knowledge of blockchain and expertise building internal infrastructure will guide Identity.com through a key time of deployment and growth.”

Shoemaker was the senior director for the App Store Review division during his seven-year stay at Apple, building a team of four up to 300 employees. He showed a keen interest in blockchain technology following his departure from the tech giant, acting as an advisor to various blockchain start-ups.

He said in a statement: “Identity is the biggest unsolved problem of our society, and blockchain technology has the potential to completely revolutionise how we prove and verify identity. Enabling a trusted, open-source identity ecosystem, where anyone can contribute or participate, is a key part of making digital identity accessible and functional in our modern world.”

Civic grew their business by purchasing the Identity.com domain in July. The cost of the purchase wasn’t disclosed, but Civic CEO Vinny Lingham admitted that it was “very opportunistic, and we lucked out for sure.”