In the age of fake news, fake IDs, fake everything, companies cannot know who they dealing with as Peter Steiner’s classic cartoon shows:

Source & Copyright©1999 - Peter Steiner, The New Yorker

And it has got much worse since 1999 when this cartoon was first published. Having an ID is critical for everything.

Mobile ID part of the answer

Zac Cohen General Manager at Trulioo, writing in The PAYPERS about the the rising use of mobile phones as proof of identity given “ongoing challenge for payments companies due to rigor of know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance regulations, which require them to verify every user’s identity” believes that the mobile nework operators (MNOs) are crucial here. 

He writes, “Mobile technologies are allowing payments companies to leverage smartphones as a gateway to verify identity. Mobile network operators (MNOs) already have extensive identity information for their subscribers, due to the KYC requirements that they are required to meet. As customers can connect to their own MNOs from any other network, mobile devices and SIM cards for mobile identity can easily be used across borders.”

The problem is how likely will the mobile ID be accepted? Cohen believes that, “The outlook is incredibly promising – it’s already happening with two-factor authentication (2FA), which typically involves an SMS text message being sent with a verification code to the user’s mobile device. This code is then used to authenticate that the account being accessed is by the verified user.”

The UNA ID2020 project the aim to much more than just payment ID

The United Nations Project’s objective is to give everyone give everyone a legal identity, which is part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. Chris Skinner writes in his blog that, “The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They tackle the root causes of poverty and unite us together to make a positive change for both people and planet.”

“Poverty eradication is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda, and so is the commitment to leave no-one behind,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said. “The Agenda offers a unique opportunity to put the whole world on a more prosperous and sustainable development path. In many ways, it reflects what UNDP was created for.”

The goal of giving everyone a legal identity including birth registration is vital. The solution is likely to be based around a mobile biometric recording by local agents, stored on a shared immutable ledger. This is an enormous, vital project developing payment ID is a small part.

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CTMfile take: Having a legal, usable ID will make the world a betterplace, while payment ID will just make payments easier.