Cardano Foundation CEO argues child safety online should not come at the cost of privacy
Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard argues that the push to protect minors online is colliding with a long-running weakness in digital identity systems: age checks often rely on vendors that collect and store highly sensitive personal data. In his CoinDesk opinion piece, he points to recent breaches involving identity verification providers, including AU10TIX in 2024 and a Discord age-verification provider in 2025, as evidence that systems built for safety can turn into breach vectors once they depend on stored identity records and third-party operators. The piece arrives as the U.S. House has passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act, or KIDS Act, on June 29 by a 267-117 vote. The bill is now before the Senate, where KOSA co-authors Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn have rejected the House version and are backing a tougher approach. Gregaard’s argument is that even without an explicit age-verification mandate, liability rules can still push platforms toward collecting more user data. He says a narrower model is possible. Citing Veridian, built by the Cardano Foundation and already used in Utah’s State-Endorsed Digital Identity framework, Gregaard says users should be able to prove whether they are above or below a certain age without disclosing broader identity information. His proposed standard is simple: protect minors, minimize data collection, limit retention, and preserve privacy.
