Techniques for an identity-verification system to analyze image data representing palms of users using a segmented, characteristic-based approach. The system may compare palm-feature data representing characteristics of a palm of a user (or “query palm”) with stored palm-feature data of palms for user profiles (or “stored palms”). For instance, the system may identify characteristics of the query palm having salient or discriminative features, and compare palm-feature data for those discriminative characteristics to palm-feature data representing corresponding characteristics of stored palms of enrolled users. Additionally, the system may compare characteristics of the query palm with corresponding characteristics of stored palms until the system is confident that the query palm corresponds to a stored palm of a user profile. By performing simpler characteristic-by-characteristic sameness verification tasks, the system may reduce the amount of time and computing resources utilized to verify an identity of a user as opposed to top-level, palm-identity verification.