An Encrypted Future

Tag: impact

Digitizing the Titling Process, Safely and Efficiently

Henry Ford shook the automobile industry with the introduction of his Ford Model T back in 1908. By turning the current business model at that time upside down, he created a path forward for every consumer and family to own their own vehicle. Now, just over 100 years later, we’re witnessing a new automotive transformation, powered by the likes of Tesla, CarMax, Carvana and Vroom, strengthened by a global pandemic and solidified by consumer demand: the digitization of car buying.

Online car purchases represent about 11% of all car sales. That’s expected to grow considerably—over 50% in the coming 4-5 years—and along with this new frontier, other aspects of the process are following suit. Vehicle titling, for example, has long been a time-consuming process for state governments and their motor vehicle constituents, in addition to being prone to errors, expensive and susceptible to fraud. That could soon change as states begin to adopt a digital solution that can effectively serve today’s unique challenges.

Prior to the digital age, vehicle records were kept via paper and filing cabinets. The process was intensive, and the information wasn’t available to anyone outside of the physical location where the records were kept. Along came expensive back-up systems, then computers and finally e-titling. While all seemed well, a bigger, more dangerous problem emerged: cyber threats. The rise of malicious attacks and other potential cyber threats made it difficult to manage the data safely. Even still today, the e-titling process remains fragmented, with each state having their own system, leaving the door open for fraud and driving up costs while lowering productivity.  

“Titling is complicated, involving numerous stakeholders, and it’s getting more difficult to manage in a digital world where the average online car sale is purchased from someone living 900+ miles from the dealership and across state lines,” said Shane Bigelow, CEO of CHAMPtitles (“CHAMP”), a Cleveland, Ohio-based technology startup. “For companies buying and selling vehicles throughout the country, this issue is much more prevalent, often leading to even longer delays and more opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of the system.”

CHAMP is revolutionizing the vehicle titling and registration process with a first-of-its-kind Digital Titling, Registration and Lien Management SaaS software. Not only does it modernize DMV title and registration management, but CHAMP’s new Digital Title and Registration Services (DTRS) also offers NSA-level security protections against fraud.  

“Our security-first titling, registration, and lien management platform is secured by a three-pronged approach that includes a segmented and segregated network; encryption of data in transit and at rest, using elliptic curve cryptography; and the utilization of private-public key infrastructure. In short, aggregate government is waking up to the risks of not using today’s best thinking in technology, and we are excited to be part of the solutions they seek,” Bigelow said.  

The state of West Virginia was an early adopter of this innovative titling technology. “We are proud to be the first state to allow this groundbreaking technology to be a reality for all members of our community. We do believe that enabling blockchain based vehicle titling will offer significant benefits for our auto dealers, lenders, insurance companies, all of their service providers, and most importantly, our citizens,” said Everett Frazier, Commissioner of West Virginia’s Division of Motor Vehicles. “Since the launch, the benefits have been abundant for those who have onboarded to our dealer submission service or our electronic lien and title service, with lots more to come thanks to the forward-thinking design of the DTRS solution from CHAMP. Realizing benefits incrementally has really been great for West Virginia and all who are enjoying these improved ways of transacting, not least of which is the DMV.”  

People often do not think of the consequences of poor record keeping, but it can and does cause major financial or legal problems, as well as the potential for data to be corrupted by bad actors. These consequences can be multiplied in the vehicle titling space, where there are so many stakeholders involved in every transaction, each represented by their state’s own unique government procedures and regulations. Paper processes create incredible costs and slow the pace of commerce, while limiting innovation and providing the easiest path for fraud. Digital processes solve these concerns but require extensive knowledge of cyber security protocols to keep information secure.

“Many of the legacy systems still in use today don’t have the ability to effectively and safely process the thousands of transactions per day and store or transfer the millions of files that otherwise become printed pieces of paper,” Bigelow said. “And when the systems go down, no one knows how to fix them because those who understand the outdated technology are no longer in the industry.”  

CHAMP is on a mission to make these problems relics of the past. Its online solution creates legal, verified digital car titles that enable transferability between state governments, insurance carriers, financial institutions, auto dealers and consumers.  

The patented software digitizes title and registration processes for states as well as their constituents in the title and registration process – vehicle dealers, lenders, service providers, salvers, and insurance carriers to name a few. Further, the technology allows the transfer of ownership of titles to occur in minutes instead of the weeks that most states and their constituents endure today. Other companies have offered their versions of online titling and registration but not to the extent of CHAMP’s, and none have successfully built their platforms with DTRS and limited the change management burden for states—and that’s a major differentiator. DTRS offers a proven method for encryption that certifies corrupt-free data, reducing the risk of fraud and cyber threats, while offering the fastest modernization available in the industry today.    

As the world continues to move toward the digital landscape, partners in the title ecosystem are awakening to the security benefits of this digitized titling and registration process. And now that states, banks, vehicle retailers, insurance companies and many others can quantify the savings and benefits, consumers will soon benefit greatly from the adoption of this technology by government.

CHAMP’s end-to-end vehicle titling and registration solution is rapidly becoming the go-to answer for states to modernize their title, registration and lien management capabilities.  

To learn more about CHAMP and its revolutionary encryption titling and registration software, please visit champtitles.com.  

Digitization in Government

By Joanna Allegretti, CHAMPtitles 

It is 2022, and US government is ripe for adopting digitization for two main reasons: the benefits (cost, security, ease just to name a few) are significant and the touchpoint are numerous (331 million citizens and counting). 

When most people think of government, they do not consider it a first mover for adopting innovative technology, but the desire is there. According to an Accenture survey, more than 65% of public service leaders have cited creating a personalized citizen experience as a priority. More than a mere preference for policy makers, digitization in government is now being adopted at a faster pace than ever before. There are plenty of good examples of implementation to mention.  

Here is one to start: Nearly all US citizens must file a US federal individual income tax return each year. If you submit your return online, you are the beneficiary of this digital government process. E-filing is a huge improvement on completing form 1040 by hand. It also saves the time spent mailing the return at the post office and the cost to send it to the IRS. Best of all, because of the digital process, the tax refund arrives more quickly. Citizens are not the only ones to benefit from this simplified process, so too does the Internal Revenue Service. Between 2010 and 2015, the IRS budget decreased in part due to increased electronic filing. It is no surprise that converting a paper return into a machine-readable format is costly! The more user-friendly digital process also means government resources are freed up for more important things. Customer engagement and satisfaction are also improving; in 2020, 94% of all individual tax returns were filed electronically! Mother nature is equally pleased about this change. Electronically submitting an income tax return is an environmentally friendly alternative to printing and mailing. 

Sadly, not all government processes have transformed like this one though, and there is far from broad-based support for digital government by key decision makers. It is the reason many government agencies at the federal and state level still employ legacy and paper-based processes using mainframes or cloud-based systems to process transactions.  

Take the Department of Motor Vehicles, a government agency that many adults in this country have interacted with whether it was to apply for or renew a driver’s license or title a new car upon sale. Citizens know all too well that these processes are cumbersome and paper-based: long lines and wait times at the DMV office, piles of paper to manually fill in, and the result: a paper license or title mailed home weeks later. For the DMV, these paper-based processes are costly, inefficient, and prone to human error and unnecessary delay. Even moderately sized states use an estimated 18 million sheets of paper per year to process car titles! 

A digital solution for DMVs would be one that modernizes their title and registration systems. For citizens, a digital vehicle title would be profoundly better than what they experience today, lowering costs, increasing security, easing the transfer of ownership, and improving customer satisfaction. As was the case with electronic tax filing, digitization is seamless for citizens and innovative for government. Digital systems replace legacy ones for a fraction of the price, which is a direct savings to taxpayers. A digital process is also more secure for government, and the time efficiencies and cost savings realized by this transformation allow them to pursue other priorities. 

The DMV is just one interesting example of the future of digital government, but the good news is interest in this idea of digitization is on the rise. We, as citizens, eagerly await the simplification and savings of all these once onerous and costly government processes.  

Impacts of Digitization (Part lll of III) – Environment

By Ben Walton, CHAMPtitles

A process can be evaluated from an environmental perspective by measuring the amount of non-reusable resources required. A more environmentally friendly process uses fewer resources. To understand the relationship between digitization and its environmental impact, let’s look into the number of resources consumed by a process pre and post digitization.

An example to consider is a driver’s license. A paper driver’s license requires resources for its creation, transportation, and distribution. The industrial processes used to create the physical license consume water and fuel to run the machines and plastic for the license itself. Packaging the license uses paper or plastic and then more fuel is needed for the transport to state motor vehicle agencies. Paper may again be needed for envelopes to distribute licenses by mail. From the industrial processes to software applications used to manage the entire process, electricity will be consumed, which requires more fuel unless the generation of electricity is from a renewable source.

With a digital driver’s license, the paper version is eliminated, and with it, the resources needed to create, transport, and distribute it. However, there will likely be an increase in the number of software applications or features and internet-connected devices required. As a result, electricity usage will increase, which requires more fuel. To produce more devices, various metals and plastics will be consumed for the device itself. For the industrial manufacturing processes, packaging, and transportation of those devices, water, chemicals, paper, plastic, and fuel will be used.

Digitization reduces some of the non-reusable resources required by a paper process but also demands new ones, so there is a clear trade-off between the two. There must then be some sort of inflection point where the resource reduction is greater than the resource increase. Determining that point is highly process dependent and out of scope for this post, but we can look at current trends to predict its future. 

Three of the biggest cloud providers have made significant environmental commitments: 

  • In 2017, Google reached 100% renewable energy for their data centers and offices1  
  • In 2018, IBM set the goal to purchase 55% percent of its global electricity demand from renewables by 20252 
  • In 2019, Amazon committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 20403  

On the smart device side, Apple aims to “transition to recycled or renewable materials in [their] products”4. In 2018, the company wanted to use 100 percent recycled aluminum and had to develop a new alloy for it to be 100 percent recyclable4.  

No one process – digital or paper – is without any impact to the environment. Digitization saves trees and water, reduces pollution, and cuts down on fuel used by paper, but increases the demand for electricity and devices. The future date when a net positive environmental impact will be achieved from digitization has yet to be determined. Though with many technology companies taking greater action to reduce their environmental impact, there is hope that digitization will win out in the not-so-distant future.

  1. https://www.blog.google/topics/environment/100-percent-renewable-energy/ 
  1. https://www.ibm.com/ibm/environment/climate/renewable_energy.shtml 
  1. https://blog.aboutamazon.com/sustainability/the-climate-pledge 
  1. https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_Responsibility_Report_2019.pdf 

Impacts of Digitization (Part ll of III) – Enhanced Security

By Ben Walton, CHAMPtitles

There is no process with zero risk, only those with very little risk. When improving the security of a process, the goal is to minimize risk as much as possible. To do this, all potential risks are identified, prioritized, and then mitigated, reduced, or accepted. In a paper-based process, there are inherent risks including fraud and loss. When the process becomes digitized, these risks are nearly eliminated.

Fraud can occur in a paper process due to the time lag between when a transaction takes place and when the system of record is updated. Let’s look at a hypothetical situation to better understand how this could happen. We have three individuals: A, B, and C. Individual A sells an asset to individual B. B verifies the authenticity of the asset against a third-party system – it is authentic, so B purchases the asset. B then mails a paper document to an authorized individual to update the third-party system with the change in ownership. Now A sells a duplicate or forged copy of the asset to C. Individual C verifies the authenticity of the asset against the system – it is still authentic because B’s paper document has not yet been received, so C purchases the asset. This time lag has allowed A to commit fraud and receive two separate payments for selling the same asset.

In the digital world, real time communication eliminates the time lag for transactions. Returning to our hypothetical situation, the system of record is updated or flagged as soon as individual B purchases the asset. When individual A attempts to sell a duplicate or forged copy of the asset, the authentication test fails revealing the inauthenticity of the asset attempting to be sold.

Loss, damage, or theft can occur when a paper-based process has an associated physical asset. Let’s look at the example of paying for something. Cash or a credit card can be stolen and then used to make a purchase. Cash can always be used to transact, and a credit card can be used until it is deactivated by the owner, which takes time.

In the digital world, digital payment methods such as Apple Pay provide more security. Theft can still occur; a smart device with a mobile payment option can be stolen and then used to purchase something. However, more built-in security checks mean there is a lower chance of it happening. For example, Apple Pay requires a password to unlock the smart device and then another password to access the application. Multi-factor authentication can also be enabled to add yet another password.

To be clear, digitizing a process does not make it completely secure, but it is infinitely more secure than a paper-based one because it eliminates the inherent risks that lead to fraud or loss. Digitization allows for real-time communication, which removes the time lag for transactions to be recorded and eliminates the chance an asset can be transacted upon twice. A digital asset in place of a physical asset allows for more security measures to be enabled to protect the owner from loss or theft. The relationship between digitization and enhanced security is appealing and further underscores the benefits of creating a digital asset. And still, there is one more to be addressed up next: the environmental benefits.

Impacts of Digitization (Part I of III) – Increased Efficiency

By Ben Walton, CHAMPtitles

Creating a digital asset may seem foreign or technically challenging. Is it time-consuming to create, does it cost more, and is it safe from bad actors? If the current process works well enough, why change?

That last point is the crux of the issue here. There are so many processes that remain paper based simply because they work reasonably well. Here we will make the case for digitization, starting with an argument for efficiency. 

Let’s look at three different ways to buy and then start reading a new book. In each scenario, the process becomes more efficient.  

Method 1: Travel to a bookstore to buy a book in person and begin to read at home. 

Method 2: Go online to a website to buy a book for delivery and begin to read when it arrives. 

Method 3: Pick up an eBook reader to buy a book electronically and begin to read immediately. 

Before we further analyze this example, we want to be clear that we are assuming the purchaser (new owner) of the book has no preference between a physical book and eBook.

For the customer, the biggest enhancement is the reduced time to transfer ownership of the asset (the book). The first method requires the buyer to leave home and perhaps not find the book in stock. The second method allows the buyer to stay home but requires them to wait days or weeks for the arrival of a book by mail. The third method allows the buyer to stay home, and the book is available to them immediately after purchase. The third method eliminates the transportation time to acquire the physical asset (a book) since the book is now a digital asset (an eBook). In this case, the time to transfer the asset is then instantaneous.

For the seller, the biggest enhancement is the reduced cost to transfer ownership of the asset. The first method requires the seller to rent a physical storefront to sell their books. The second method requires the seller to pay for a warehouse to store their books as well as the shipping and handling costs for each book. The third method only requires the seller to pay to build and then maintain the software/hardware used to access the eBook.

To better understand some of the potential cost savings, let’s look at some numbers. According to Statista.com1, there were 675 million physical books sold in the U.S. in 2017. Let’s assume half of those books (337.5 million) were bought online and require delivery. Amazon2 charges $3.99 for domestic standard shipping for each book. If we take that as the cost of shipping and multiply it by 337.5 million books, we arrive at about $1.35 billion spent on shipping annually! Of course, there were many assumptions made here, but even if the savings amounted to a fraction of what was calculated, that would be a substantial amount. And that is in addition to the money saved for the buyer on gas or public transportation and the seller on physical storefronts or distribution centers. 

We have established that digitization reduces the time and cost to transfer ownership, but it is also more efficient due to the elimination of paper. After all, eBooks do not have to be printed! It costs $3 to print a bookso printing all the 675 million physical books sold each year would cost about $2 billion. If half of those were sold as eBooks, that saves $1 billion on printing books! By eliminating paper in the process to create and then transfer an asset, the cost savings become very appealing. 

There are costs for publishing in a digital format that are analogous to printing in a paper format. According to one eBook converter and distributer4, a 100,000-word book manuscript in Word costs a one-time fee of $249 to convert into an eBook format and $99 for eBook distribution. These fees add up to the cost to print 116 books. Therefore, the cost to digitize a book becomes insignificant when compared to printing large numbers of books. The general trend is that the costs of digitizing an asset remain the same no matter the number of transactions on the asset.

For digitization, the final piece of the efficiency puzzle is that it also reduces the time and cost to verify ownership. We will cover this in more detail in a future post. 

In summary, a more digitized process generally leads to a more efficient process as we saw with the shift to eBooks. The close relationship between increased efficiency and reduced process time and costs may alone convince you that the benefits of digitization outweigh most costs and risks. Still, we continue forward in our next post with the impact of enhanced security. 

  1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/717859/print-book-unit-sales-worldwide/ 
  2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201910890 
  3. https://www.millcitypress.net/author-learning-center/book-printing-costs
  4. https://ebookpartnership.com/authors/

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