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InVenture, which is based in Santa Monica, California, but operates in Kenya, uses a mobile phone app to scrape data off a person’s mobile phone to give them a “financial identity”, as Ms Siroya puts it. The data range from mobile money spending patterns and calling and travel routines, to the way contacts are organised: for instance repayment of a loan is more likely by someone whose contacts are listed with both first and second names.

“We picked the smartphone data [as the basis for their financial identity] because we felt that was the closest proxy to someone’s daily life,” says the 32-year-old.

The company then issues uncollateralised loans to those who pass the algorithm’s benchmark

From US fintech pioneer’s start-up in Kenya — FT.com

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A bank’s role in future will be protecting your identity. Identity will be the biggest asset.

[From Interview with Fidor Bank CEO as Group BPCE buys app-only bank – Business Insider]

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A cryptography-protected ID, accessed by a unique combination of private and public keys and verified with biometrics, also has the potential to allow users to control their own data, deciding how much of it to share. It is also conceivable that unbanked refugees might rely on the blockchain to be issued an ID so that they can begin their lives anew, free from the threat of a corrupt government subverting their rights.

From Blockchain Can Bring the Unbanked into the Global Economy | Bank Think

I think it probably doesn’t, but that’s a matter of opinion, obviously. I think it is more likely that shared ledgers might be a repository of virtual identities (i.e., bundles of credentials).

In the July 2000 edition of Harper’s Magazine, Dennis Cass wrote about Silicon Valley:

Let’s go Silicon Valley! Wherein the author stalks the flighty, green-backed webhead in his natural habitat

From Let’s go | Harper’s Magazine

He wrote about “the kinds of things you’ve heard bores like Nicholas Negroponte drone on about in Wired magazine, like shoes that can send e–mail to other shoes”. Yesterday, through the miracle of Twitter, I noticed that this dystopia is almost upon us.

Smart Shoes You Can Control With Your Smartphone.

From Smart Shoes You Can Control With Your Smartphone

Even our shoes will be getting hacked from now on.

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The kidnappers have demanded the ransom, a record amount for an abduction in Brazil, be paid in pounds sterling and divided into four bags of cash, Veja reported.

From F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law ‘kidnapped in Sao Paulo’ – BBC News

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Twitter has long come under criticism for not doing enough to police abusive behavior on the often-freewheeling messaging service.

From Twitter announces crackdown after online abuse of ‘Ghostbusters’ actor | Reuters

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This provides the consumer with a full rail of digital payment choices, whether it be credit, prepaid, debit, or direct to bank account without a debit card in between.

From Mastercard Talks VocaLink Acquisition | PYMNTS.com

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Zimbabwe is running out of cash and needs to print more money—so its central bank will print a new currency pegged to the U.S. dollar.

From Zimbabwe Ran Out of U.S. Dollars. So, It Will Print Its Own. – The Atlantic

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Authenticators may be provided by a CSP as part of a process such as enrollment; in other cases, the subscriber may provide their own, such as software or hardware cryptographic modules. For this reason, we refer to the binding of an authenticator rather than the issuance, but this does not exclude the possibility that an authenticator is issued as well.

From DRAFT NIST Special Publication 800-63B

This is how we think of it in the Consult Hyperion model that has been discussed her before.

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Building a digital marketing program around the social media trio of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is a popular strategy by banks aiming to heighten their brand’s visibility, and ultimately, lure new customers. However, social media’s value as a business acquisition tool may be greatly exaggerated.

From Facebook ‘Likes,’ Twitter Followers Won’t Buy You Customers | Bank Think

The study referred to hear notes that word of mouth is the dominant factor in persuading a customer to open an account with a bank. I have no special expertise in the field, but I have long suspected that the social media role has been misjudged. I don’t want to be friends with my bank on Facebook and I don’t want to follow them on Twitter and I have no intention of Snapgramming or Wemailing them or whatever else it is that the kids do today.