Re: Suggest all WPIG have text on: Goal to advance economic/financial inclusion for unbanked/underbanked

Hi all,

This may not be a popular response but I thought someone needed to play
devil's advocate (please note that this is my personal view, although that
should go without saying).

I would love our vision to include a utopian world where we solve world
hunger and end all wars but we need to be cognizant of what is practical
for our group to genuinely influence. It's a personal bugbear of mine how
often companies or groups place themselves under the banner of "improving
financial inclusion" when they have no practical plan to do anything but
wring their hands and talk about the problem.

The "financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked" is a
fantastically exploited phrase that everybody loves to bandy about as
something they are trying desperately to solve and I don't want us to be
one of those unless we have some real plans to make a difference. How will
financial inclusion be addressed using the Web and specifically how will
new Web standards be a part of that solution?

The reality is that the majority of the unbanked and underbanked are in the
situation they are in because of issues of identity. The developed world
has decided that you may not have access to banking services if you can't
prove who you are and the less developed world must now play by those same
rules, no matter how practical it is to do so.

The traditional banking system is unable to viably support the bottom tier
of customers because the onboarding cost of an individual by a traditional
bank (KYC etc) will never be recovered, assuming the potential customer
even has the necessary documents or proof to follow a traditional KYC
process. Banks are not charities so offering financial services to this
tier of customer is simply never going to come from the traditional banking
industry. There are almost weekly news releases about how crypto-currencies
will swoop in and resolve this but I'm yet to see a practical example of
how this will be achieved. I suggest that you challenge anyone that tells
you they are trying to address the problem of the unbanked with the
question: "How?". It's easy to say that it's important, organisations like
CGAP have proven it's value beyond doubt, but it's a lot harder to
implement solutions.

At the F2F in NYC it was clear that identity is something the group is not
keen to try and take on right now. We all see it as important but not
important enough to be in scope for our first WG. So that leaves me
wondering, how do we plan on impacting financial inclusion through the
narrow scope of our current WG charter? I assume we agree that we are not
so then I propose it is not mentioned in that charter at all.

In terms of the IG's vision, I'm on the fence. I see indirect benefits that
our work, specifically the Internet of Value CG and Credentials CG work,
will have for financial inclusion eventually but the resounding apathy with
which our group dealt with the Credentials CG's attempts to charter a WG
suggests to me that the IG claiming it genuinely wants to contribute to
improving financial inclusion is a stretch.

As Manu correctly points out there are organisations like the Gates
Foundation that are tackling this issue head on but they are doing so using
simple solutions based on mobile phones and text messages. Technology will
certainly play a major role in solving these problems over the coming years
but the role of "the Web" is unlikely to be a major one for some time and
so I am struggling to see where the W3C, and this IG, fits in today.

I wholeheartedly support any initiative that will improve financial
inclusion (it has been a passion of mine for many years) and if it's
something people in this group truly believe we can influence then I'm
eager to hear how and make it a part of our vision.

Otherwise, I'm afraid we are at risk of being another group adding to the
noise but with no practical solutions to put forward and that does more
harm than good because it distracts attention away from groups like the
Gates Foundation that are elbows deep in actually solving the problem.

Hoping to be wrong (and climbing off my soapbox),
Adrian


On 27 July 2015 at 04:27, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:

> On 07/26/2015 02:03 PM, Louise Bennett wrote:
> > One of the major themes of this year's UN IGF is connecting the next
> > billion. I have been inputting to the inter sessional work on this
> > and have described the W3C payments initiative. The draft inputs are
> > now on the web site. Manu are you planning to do anything at the next
> > IGF?
>
> Unfortunately, I'm spread a bit too thin between the Web Payments and
> Credentials stuff in the technical standardization initiatives and won't
> be able to participate in this years UN Internet Governance Forum.
>
> Look out for Pindar Wong and Primavera De Filippi, as I think they
> intend to do something related around blockchain at IGF.
>
> You may also want to link up with James Dailey at the Gates Foundation
> and their work on financial services for the poor.
>
> I've cc'ed each of these people, please link up offline if you can.
>
> > Do you want me to push this work as a sub-theme?
>
> Yes, please, and let us know if this group (or the Credentials Community
> Group) can help in any way.
>
> -- manu
>
> --
> Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
> Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
> blog: Web Payments: The Architect, the Sage, and the Moral Voice
> https://manu.sporny.org/2015/payments-collaboration/
>
>
>