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TownSquare

Privacy-first age verification

Age verified
Privacy intact

How TownSquare will handle age verification without ever asking for your ID.

See how it works Join TownSquare

The status quo

Here's what other platforms do

Most age checks come with a hidden cost: your data. There's a calmer, safer way to prove the one thing that matters.

Other platforms

Upload, wait, and hope

  • Upload your government ID
  • Wait days for verification
  • Your data stored on company servers
  • The algorithm learns your personal details
  • Real risk of a data breach
  • Your information could be sold or misused
TownSquare

Prove it, and move on

  • Share an age proof from your wallet
  • Instant verification
  • Zero personal data collected
  • We only know: yes, you're old enough
  • No data to breach
  • No incentive to misuse anything

Why this matters

What's a verifiable credential?

The idea behind privacy-first age verification, explained plainly. This is the single most important concept on this page.

The old way: your whole ID

NameJordan A. Rivera
Date of birth04 / 17 / 1994
Address118 Cedar St
License no.••• •••
Prove just the part that matters

The credential: one fact

Over 21

Cryptographically signed · nothing else revealed

Normally, when you need to prove something about yourself online, you show your whole ID. The bartender sees your birthdate, your address, everything. That's inefficient, and risky.

With verifiable credentials, you can prove just the thing that matters. In this case, your age. It's like showing a bouncer a card that just says "over 21" instead of handing over your full driver's license. Except this is digital, instant, and entirely under your control.

Three parties, one proof

1

Issuer

A trusted authority, like your state's ID office, creates a digital credential and signs it cryptographically. This happens once, outside of TownSquare entirely.

2

Holder

That's you. The credential lives in your phone's wallet, not on any company's server. You decide what to share and when. Nobody can take it from you or share it on your behalf.

3

Verifier

That's us. We ask a single question ("is this person old enough?"), check that the issuer's signature is genuine, and get a signed yes or no. We never see the credential itself.

This is what's called a zero-knowledge proof, and the name sounds more complicated than the idea. It means you can prove a fact is true without showing any of the evidence behind it. You can prove you're over 21 without revealing your birthdate. You can prove your ID is genuine without showing your ID number. The proof itself carries the answer, not the underlying document.

That's the whole system: an issuer signs a fact once, a holder keeps it and controls it, and a verifier checks it without ever seeing what's behind it. No new account of you gets created anywhere along the way.

What we never see, no matter what

  • Your birthdate
  • Your government ID number
  • Your address
  • Your full name (you choose a username)
  • Any personal details from your ID document
  • Where you got verified, or who verified you

How it works

Four simple steps

From signup to verified in seconds, with nothing of yours left on our servers.

1

You start signup like normal

Username, email, the usual. When you reach age verification, instead of typing in your birthdate, you tap a single button.

"Confirm age with digital ID" is the only thing that's different from a signup you've done a hundred times.

2

We explain exactly what's about to happen

Before anything is shared, you see plainly what we will and won't see. No fine print, no dark patterns, just a clear account of where your data does and doesn't go.

Want the detail? "Learn more" jumps back up to the full explanation of verifiable credentials, just above.

3

Your wallet handles it, not us

Your age credential lives in your phone's wallet, completely separate from TownSquare. You decide what's shared. We never touch your ID or personal details.

A click of the side button presents a signed proof of age. That's the only thing that crosses over.

4

Done, and nothing was kept

No waiting. No data stored on our servers. No privacy trade-offs. You're straight into the app, verified.

The proof was checked and discarded. There's nothing left behind for anyone to leak, sell, or subpoena.

Compliant by design

Built for users, from the ground up

Regulations around child safety online are still evolving, and platforms are scrambling to catch up: asking for government IDs, adding facial recognition, storing data indefinitely just to prove they checked.

TownSquare didn't have to scramble. We built age verification around the user from day one, which means we already satisfy the intent behind those rules: verify age, protect privacy, don't build a surveillance system to do it. Compliance is a byproduct of that design, not the reason we built it this way.

This isn't a feature we bolted on. It's how we're building.

Ready to join?

Age verification is just one way we respect your privacy. Everything on TownSquare is designed with you in mind.

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