NEAR Notary

We would like to convert the traditional remote online notary solutions to use blockchain to validate an online notarization. We feel this will be the future of online notary's.

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Inspiration

We have a few team members that are Notaries in the USA. We see the antiquated ways this industry is and how Covid has kicked it into new areas. One of these areas is Remote Online Notarizations. We looked at the requirements and regulations each state asks of Notaries and built them into Blockchain.

What it does

We allow a participant that needs a simple notary to complete it 24/7 using our Remote Online Notary(RON) platform. They only need to register, upload the documents needed to be notarized, and start a session. It is that simple.

We have built a solution for a Commissioned Verified Notary to register and receive their Verified Notary Commission NFT to complete Notarizations. Once this Token is received, they can join a session, prepare the documentation in real-time, verify the participate, and complete the signing.

The solution then signs the document traditionally using a state-approved SSL signature and releases an NFT pdf signed by both parties for minting. Once minted, the participant pays for the service and receives both the NFT and downloads the digitally signed PDF.

How we built it

We built this with actual notaries getting feedback on how they are delivering this service using web2 solutions. Taking this feedback, we have converted the minimum features needed to complete a true notarization using Aurora.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into a number and quickly found out that there are a lot of different notarizations that need to be supported. We have listed more features that allow a mortgage, power of attorney, and other notarizations. We also ran into what happens with Journal for a notary. Because of the tamper-proof historical data, Aurora is a natural solution for a notary journal. It also allows the notary to be in complete control of their data for the 7-year state requirements. It also allows them to bring this data to other platforms if they choose to later.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the ability for a decentralized notary web of trust. Being able to use the system to approve Notary's access using an NFT token based on a notarization is going to clear the headaches of long wait times for RON. We are proud of being able to mint a notary's digitally signed PDF that can be verified off-chain.

What we learned

We learned that this solution could be used today but would need many more features and state-by-state approval because once any state approves the system, any RONs from that state can perform notarization in any state. We learned that on-demand RON is used 24/7 and is very expensive. We also learned that big RON establishments hold your data for a subscription and force you to keep paying to get your data at a later date.

What's next for NEAR Notary

If we can get the funding, we would like to launch this in the states of Florida, Washington, and Virginia. We would need to add an admin portal, finish the web of trust, and allow for embedded media for the NFTs. A great first customer would be the grants department at NEAR, as they are using ironclad, which we could replace.

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