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Ali Zaheer (left) and Zain Zaidi co-founded TransCrypts, a start-up giving people direct access to their official documents, such as medical records and income verification forms (Submitted photo)
-- article by Alexa Battler, published February 8th, 2023
To many, the blockchain is the mystifying technology behind cryptocurrency; to the start-up company TransCrypts, it’s a way for Ukrainian refugees to access their medical records and employees to control the official documents usually kept by HR departments.
TransCrypts is a document verification platform making waves in Silicon Valley. It recently landed $2.4 million (USD) in funding from backers including Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban. At the helm is 23-year-old CEO Zain Zaidi, who grew the start-up with co-founder and CTO Ali Zaheer in The Hub, an entrepreneurial incubator at U of T Scarborough. Early funding came from both The Hub and U of T Entrepreneurship — with $5,000 and $10,000 respectively won in start-up competitions last year.
“Our goal is to give you control of all your documents,” says Zaidi. “We can do away with this 20th-century way of verifying documents and create a world where I can instantly show you who I am, my employment and income history and, hopefully one day, my criminal and medical history.”
The company uses blockchain technology to break files into thousands of pieces, or blocks, and store them on computers around the world. The files are so thoroughly encrypted even TransCrypts itself can’t access them without direct permission. For official documents such as medical records, the credentials that make a file legitimate are converted to a block in its blockchain. Owners can share and access those verified files, but can’t alter them.
“One thing we really pride ourselves on is that we don’t store your data like a lot of big tech companies,” Zaidi says. “We consider ourselves like the postal service. We’re delivering the letter. We don't open it, we don’t know what’s inside, we’re just helping share it.”