Concordium's utility token, CCD, helps replace selfie-based verification with secure identity authentication and powers an auditable payment infrastructure as user-friendly as Google or Apple Pay.
Every time someone repeatedly uploads an ID to access a website, two parties lose. The user surrenders more data than necessary. The platform inherits liability for storing it. And both pay for a verification system that creates friction, not trust.
This model breaks down when verification needs to scale. Adult platforms in the UK are now losing millions of daily visits or exiting the market entirely. Stablecoin payments struggle to enter mainstream because not enough or too much control diminishes core value propositions.
There is a need for an infrastructure that can be both private, auditable, and scalable.
There is a need for a next-gen privacy infrastructure.
The Age-Gating Challenge
It is estimated that over 300 million children per year are being exposed to explicit content online. The current countermeasures are an effort to reduce that amount, and lessen the societal impact. Those solutions, however, come with their own set of challenges, often at the cost of millions of user’s privacy.
According to Ofcom, around 14 million people in the UK watch pornography online, roughly a quarter of the adult population. In 2025 an average of 7.8 million users per day accessed adult platforms that had implemented age-assurance measures. The enforcement of those age checks through the Online Safety Act in July 2025, has increased the amount of age verification by 5 million per day in the UK alone.
The current age checks are either invasive in nature, requesting the picture of an ID, or not strong enough to properly age-gate, relying on selfies that can be easily circumvented using AI or someone else’s face. This friction has prompted Aylo, one of the biggest players in the adult content industry, to make a change of stance that will result in no new users on their platforms in the UK starting in February 2026.
This problem isn’t just visible in the adult content business. It seeps into industries like gaming, gambling, or dating – any space where age confirmation is crucial. Those industries are supported by the same solutions known to deter underage internet users from seeing adult content, and as a result, face the same challenges.
A Change on the Horizon
Even though Aylo is playing by the regulators book, competitors are disregarding those regulations. Ofcom has started giving out fines, some of them reaching £1 million, and is cracking down on sites that don’t abide by the rules.
To help platforms comply using a privacy-preserving approach, Concordium developed Verify with Concordium ID, a solution already live on creator platforms such as Snappy, SoSpoilt, and Mintstars.
Users verify their identity once and then reuse it to prove specific attributes, such as age, without revealing personal data. Powered by CCD, the flow reduces access checks to a single action, clicking “Yes, I’m over 18,” this time supported by cryptographic proofs generated from prior verification events rather than self-asserted declarations.
The Case for Privacy-Preserving Payments
Beyond access, the same regulatory pressure is now shaping the future of payments. The digital payments market is already measured in the tens of trillions of dollars, with transaction value estimated to approach USD 20 trillion by 2026. Stablecoins are often positioned as the next step: instant settlement, global reach, and lower costs than card networks.
The problem is that they are trapped in their own crypto ecosystems. $35 trillion in transactions happened with stablecoins last year, but only 1% of those is attributed to real-world payments, such as vendor payments, payrolls, remittances and capital markets settlements.
That is a direct result of stablecoin payment systems struggling in regulated environments. Their infrastructure was not built to enforce rules at the point of transaction. When accountability is required, the result is higher costs, and weaker privacy guarantees for both users and merchants. Apple Pay handles roughly 400 million daily transactions at an average of $57. Reaching a similar scale with stablecoins needs a new privacy-preserving approach.
This is the gap Concordium Pay is designed to fill. By embedding accountability directly into the protocol through privacy-preserving identity proofs, eligibility can be enforced at the moment of payment without collecting documents or storing personal data. CCD, Concordium’s utility token, is used to cover transaction costs and it makes stablecoin payments viable for everyday commerce combining low fees, instant settlement, and compliance-readiness in a single flow.
With the solution already live in the ecommerce sector, it is currently being implemented directly into Bitcoin.com and Ledger wallets, over 100M users and thousands of merchants will be able to use Concordium’s next-gen privacy infrastructure in Q1 2026.
Privacy, Rebuilt
As regulation moves to the point of interaction, the internet needs infrastructure that can enforce rules without absorbing value or exposing users. Age-gating and payments are not separate problems, they are early examples of the same structural shift.
What follows is a requirement for a privacy-preserving infrastructure that is low in friction, fast in execution, and cheap for platforms to operate. This way, the websites that are both impacted by the cost and drawbacks of regular age-gating, and the ones that are still evading the grip of the regulator have an alternative privacy preserving solution. The infrastructure uses the CCD utility token to cover merchant-side fees each time a user proves their age, turning auditability into a predictable, usage-based cost rather than a fixed operational burden.
Taking into account the rising number of age verifications taking place in adult content, gambling, dating, and the daily amount of transactions that goes through web2 payment solutions like Apple Pay, the token will be seen everywhere in the ecosystem and beyond. CCD sits at the core of this infrastructure, connecting access and value in a single flow and laying the groundwork for everyday digital commerce that works for users, merchants, and regulators alike.
Disclaimer
CCD is a utility token designed for use within the Concordium ecosystem and associated applications. It is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, an investment product, financial instrument, or regulated payment instrument. Concordium provides protocol-level blockchain infrastructure and tooling only and does not operate as a financial institution, payment service provider, or regulated identity verification service. Any access to, or use of, CCD is facilitated by independent third-party service providers, each of which is solely responsible for its own regulatory compliance, user onboarding, and service operations in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations. Concordium does not provide financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, does not make compliance determinations, and does not assume responsibility for the services or regulatory status of any third-party providers. Users should obtain independent professional advice before engaging in any activity involving CCD.