Microsoft Corp. has teamed up with management consulting firm Accenture PLC to design a blockchain-based platform that provides identification services to people worldwide.

Presented at the United Nations Monday, the platform is intended to help people such as refugees who have lost their documents to prove whom they are in order to gain access to government services such as education and healthcare.

“Without an identity you can’t access education, financial services, healthcare, you name it,” Accenture Managing Director David Treat told Reuters. “You are disenfranchised and marginalized from society … having a digital identity is a basic human right.”

The platform utilizes a blockchain to create a distributed database run by trusted parties versus a traditional model where a government department or other body centrally stores identification documentation. The idea, particularly in, say, war zones where access to government may be restricted or impossible, is that there is no longer a sole gatekeeper holding a copy of identification documents. That means that no matter what, access theoretically is always available.

Although the idea seems solid, it still has some restrictions which could be either a positive or a negative. The platform relies on biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans to match documentation. and in many Third World countries or those undergoing an Islamic insurgency, the ability to record either can be difficult. That said, the use of either one is a means to authenticate that the records kept are accurate and to build trust in the platform.

The platform was proposed as part of ID2020, a public-private partnership from the U.N.’s 2030 Sustainable Development goal, which aims to give every human an official identity so they can be tracked by the multinational organization.

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