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View all search resultsDigital signature gains traction. So long, wet signature
Globally, the market of digital signatures is valued at around US$1.04 billion, and it is expected to reach $6.13 million by 2026.
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M
ore than a decade ago, the digital signature was introduced to establish authenticity of electronic documents (legally known as the electronic certificate). Since then, it has gained much attraction, as evinced in a 350 percent rise on the acquisition of digital signatures into business and financial transactions (Katadata.co.id, June 5, 2020).
One of the reputable providers of digital signatures told journalists that more than 4,5 million individuals use its products to electronically sign documents for opening bank accounts, making contracts with loan companies and credit card companies, establishing employment relationships, invoicing customers, processing order and delivery receipts, publishing intra-organization memos or entering partnership contracts (Kontan.co.id, Dec. 9, 2019).
Globally, the market of digital signatures is valued at around US$1.04 billion, and it is expected to reach $6.13 million by 2026 (Fortune Business Insight, 2019) with year-on-year growth of about 20,45 percent globally (Technavio, 2020).
For businesses, the adoption of a digital signature has benefits, such as lower costs for pens and paper, binders, physical archives, document printing, packaging and shipping. Incorporating digital means for the signing also evidently speeds up the signatory process by omitting physical signatory activities, eliminating fraud, minimizing human error risks, improving data integrity, scalability and transparency, as well as encouraging technological innovation.
Digital signature solutions employ certificate-based digital identification for validation of document integrity. The certificates are often issued by a certificate authority (CA) that guarantees that the document is valid in the sense that has not been tampered with after the electronic signature (e-sign) was applied.
The e-signing process for agreeing a contract can employ special software to confirm signatory identities, such as email address, a secure pin, or biometrics. These solutions are often managed by third-party providers, so-called identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) providers or (in an emerging trend) blockchain secure authentication for passwordless authentication.
To migrate from ink-based signatures to valid digital signatures, account should be taken of the validity of e-signatures under prevailing laws. A valid e-signing process will have a legal impact and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings equivalent to the legal impact of a handwritten or “wet” signature.
