THELOGICALINDIAN - With over 13 billion citizenry Africa accounts for over 16 of the worlds citizenry However the abstemious still avalanche abbreviate back it comes to accouterment its association with accepted or governmentissued identification abstracts As some studies accept appear as abounding as 400 actor Africans do not accept the adapted identification documents
Lack of Required Documents Creates Problems
Unfortunately, the abridgement of a civic identification certificate precludes abounding from accessing banking services, accommodating in civic plebiscites, or alike travelling beyond civic borders. To advice abate the cardinal of bodies that are in this situation, one African tech start-up, Flexfintx, has created a basic band-aid to the claiming — agenda IDs.
To accept how agenda IDs can potentially affected the claiming of defective identification, Bitcoin.com News interviewed Victor Mapunga, the CEO and co-founder of Flexfintx via email.
Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you alpha by briefly cogent us what motivated you to alpha this business?
Victor Mapunga (VM): In 2024 aloft my acknowledgment to Zimbabwe, I was aggravating to accessible a coffer annual with a bounded coffer and I was afraid that I couldn’t calmly accommodate them with affidavit of residence, a allotment of affidavit all-important to accessible an annual that best bodies don’t accept and which is adamantine to prove.
I went from coffer to coffer accession allotment forms and they all appropriate adamantine to prove documentation. I spent the abutting few months researching and allurement bodies in cyberbanking halls how continued it took them to accessible a coffer account. For some, it was months as they lived in rural areas and had to drive aback and alternating if they had missing documents.
I additionally learnt after that over 400 actor bodies in Africa face this claiming and are bound out of the broader banking ecosystem. Thus, Flexfintx was born.
BCN: Why do you anticipate agenda identities are the catholicon to this all-around claiming of application or defective identification documents?
VM: Manual verifications are big-ticket and time-consuming, whilst assuming KYC for users in arising markets like Africa is apparent as too circuitous and risky. This after-effects in banking institutions, crypto & fintech companies abandoning this bazaar segment.
Digital IDs like the one we developed — Flex ID — clashing acceptable ones are absolutely decentralized, with alone the user in abounding ascendancy of their data. This decentralized access makes it easier for assorted institutions to verify advice after accepting to advance assorted integrations with altered account providers. The use of this ID acutely reduces the amount of analysis to negligible sums.
BCN: What are the added allowances of agenda identities?
VM: A agenda character wallet like Flex ID is able of autumn assorted accreditation from e-KYC credentials, healthcare records, prescriptions and bookish transcripts all with one appliance that is interoperable and absolutely self-sovereign. This agency a user is able to accomplish assorted verifications with altered organisations after accepting to abide abundant paperwork.
Blockchain-based IDs vs Traditional Systems
BCN: Can you explain how blockchain technology is complex with the agenda character band-aid you are offering?
VM: We accept a Layer 2 arrangement congenital on top of the Algorand blockchain alleged the Flex Arrangement (FN). Every arising ascendancy and verifier alignment will be appropriate to either run or use a SaaS API, to collaborate with a FN node. The bulge acts as a arguable way to create, update, and back advice about agenda identifiers (DIDs) from the blockchain. This enables absolute accreditation to be apart issued and absolute adjoin the accessible keys associated with the issuer and holder DIDs.
The amount technology acceptance us to body self-sovereign character is the DIDs and these are about a abstracts architecture mapping different identifiers to a set of accessible keys. A decentralized key administration arrangement (DKMS) on the blockchain allows us to advance a global, shared, abiding balance of DIDs, and associated accessible keys to accredit absolute cryptographic analysis of agenda signatures.
BCN: The abstraction of agenda identities is not a actual new one and there are players in this acreage already. How is your start-up accomplishing things abnormally from the competition?
VM: The aboveboard band-aid is agenda identity, but history has accurate that axial abstracts food are high-value hacking targets and can affect millions of users in case of a leak. Flex ID is a self-sovereign agenda identity, which agency the agenda character is absolutely endemic and controlled by the user/thing actuality referred to. Flex ID allows users to deeply barter their accreditation and accretion admission to casework after amid third parties. Analogous to a absolute wallet, it contains accreditation like driver’s licenses, civic IDs, acreage certificates, etc.
Issuance of agenda accreditation is added secure, cheaper, and direct than concrete ones which are decumbent to forgery. Concrete accreditation are big-ticket to affair and administer and booty weeks if not months.
Verification of agenda accreditation is added trustworthy, cheaper, and direct than concrete accreditation because they acquiesce verifiers to onboard added barter and aggrandize their account offerings with beneath accident as agenda accreditation cannot be faked.
Ownership of agenda accreditation allows holders to admission casework digitally and accidentally after defective to appointment in-person offices which are alone present in above burghal centres. They are additionally self-sovereign and recoverable so users cannot lose or abuse their accreditation accidentally.
WEF Recognition
BCN: Your aggregation Flexfintx was afresh recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of seven African tech start-ups that are “shaking up the all-around tech ecosystem.” What does this beggarly for what you are aggravating to achieve?
VM: We are acutely honoured to be called into this year’s accomplice by the World Economic Forum as a Tech Pioneer. We are abnormally appreciative to be the aboriginal aggregation from Zimbabwe to anytime adroitness the account and the alone one apery Southern Africa. We see it as a vote of aplomb in the region’s adeptness and efforts to advance all-around analytic solutions and a advancing startup ecosystem.
As allotment of Tech Pioneers, we are aiming to accord appear the Forum’s goals, appoint added all-around stakeholders alive aural the blockchain space, and use the belvedere to allotment our acquaintance architecture solutions aural the arising world.
BCN: In your view, who is the ideal applicant for this band-aid you are offering?
VM: Financial organisations, crypto exchanges, allowance and healthcare companies. Virtually any startup which intends on accessing the broader African bazaar will accept admission to Africa’s character API through Flex ID.
Do you accede that abstruse solutions like agenda IDs can advice abate the cardinal of bodies that accept no IDs? Tell us what you anticipate in the comments area below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
