BABB — We, Together, United!

This is where it started!

Taking inspirations from the loophole in the current Banking system/infrastructure, Rushd built BABB. Influenced by his own story and determined to make a difference, concept BABB is anything you have seen or heard before.

When Rushd Averroes came to the UK in 2009 to work and stud it was required for him to open an account for his day to day money-related tasks. Unfortunately or fortunately (for the envisioning of BABB) his application was rejected by Major Banks of UK. He somehow managed to get an account after completing his university and while working part-time but the process nevertheless was very difficult.

His passion for trading made him set up an Online Money Transfer company which was designed to help immigrants to send money back home. One successful year later, however, banks in the UK decided to close the accounts of all Money Service Businesses (SMB).

As this was not enough Rushd’s account including savings, personal and credit card were all closed at the same time.

According to Rushd, these experiences changed the perspective of Rushd on Banks and how Banking should be. It makes sense that Banking should be Open, transparent, fair and most importantly globally connected.

The interesting story of Rushd’s foray into BABB and Blockchain can be read here Chapter 1, Chapter 2 & Chapter 3.

The Problems in the Present System

With passing times we have become too reliant on banks this means more control in the hand of banks regarding our financial matters, personal information, and regulatory compliance. Not that all this is bad but what if your information with the banks is compromised.

But that’s not the clear picture as currently, around 2 billion or 40% population have no bank accounts or to make matters worse have no access to bank accounts as a whole. This brings to light an opportunity to tap into the underutilized financial resources at hand.

In the UK itself, there are close to 1.5 million people who are unbanked. When this huge no. of financial resources is ignored it creates an inefficient economy which indirectly affects innovation and development as a whole.

Not to forget the use of customer data which is sold to the third parties for profits. The inefficiency of the current system to bring on board the unbanked population due to costs involved. Banking is considered an Oligopoly, a term coined where a handful firms rule the market and eat up large market share. Banking is more about connection and distribution than being centralized and private.

The BABB Idea!

The basic concept behind BABB is that everyone should be able to open a Bank account in the world just with a Smartphone. Then, at the same time, the idea needed to be revolutionary which is not limited to a nifty, pretty Smartphone app.

BABB uses Blockchain, Bio-metrics, and machine learning for the Decentralized access to its Banking system. Anyone in the world can open an account with BABB regardless of his/her origin.

In short, BABB is building a decentralized digital bank over Blockchain platform which integrates digital currencies all over the world using Social Banking.

Bye Bye KYC & Welcoming Social KYC!

Traditional KYC is one of the biggest roadblocks for anyone to open a bank account. Having eliminated this with the advent of Social KYC in BABB ecosystem we have made opening a bank account seamless.

Importantly all BABB users will have a digital identity procured using Bio-metrics, Geo-location and AI. That means you always know who you’re interacting with.

Anyone will be able to open a Tier-1 account by saying a pass-phrase and uploading a selfie. Transitioning to Tier-2 account, however, will need someone from Tier-3 account vouching for you.

The functionality and different tiers of account are given below:

Tier one: full app functionality, modest balance, and transaction limits.

Tier two: full app functionality, generous balance, and transaction limits.

Tier three: full functionality, generous limits & the ability to vouch for others.

OK, Sure! Now how this works?

To open a BABB bank account all you need is a national ID which should be valid. Don’t have an ID? No worries. You can get a basic bank account access with biometric authentication and peer-verification that himself/herself is fully authenticated.

Using Blockchain, BABB can move any fiat currency or host any Cryptocurrency on its platform in including but not limited to its own Token called as BAX.

BABB Mobile App

Using this anyone can open a BABB bank account using voice, selfie or biometric verification. If you need access to a basic account anyone who is fully authorized can authenticate you which is known as peer-verification.

BABB App allows all functions which are provided by native bank apps like payment transfers, cash in/out, p2p transaction. It also allows you to lend money to your BABB account via p2p lending and earn a fee. All this is done using smart contracts.

BABB Black Card

BABB card is a payment card which interacts with your account using NFC or QR code while at the same time providing features similar to a Debit card. If you go to a shop, retailers can accept payments using this card just by downloading the BABB app on their smartphones and scanning the QR code.

What if you cannot find your card? You can easily disconnect it from your BABB account and then link it again when you get it back. If it is lost permanently, you can get a new card from partner retailers with next day delivery option.

The Main use(s) of BABB account

There are 3 major uses of the BABB account:

1. P2P Lending/Cash: helps you accept cash debited by a BABB user and receive payments in local fiat.

2. P2P Borrowing: You can ask for cash and this info will be propagated to all the BABB users in your list. Whoever is willing to lend you will send you funds into your BABB account

3. P2P Fundraising: BABB allows international and local fundraising by

   **a. Private** — Invitation only

   **b. Personal** — broadcasted to friends and family

   **c. Public **— for global approach

Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Regulations

The Blockchain is a secure ledger for that records and shares transactions on a distributed network. This eliminates any need for trusted/third party/centralized body.

All the BABB accounts are operated by and encoded into smart contracts which eliminate the chance of human errors as everything is automated and predefined. The rules local to the central banks of a specific currency will also be encoded in the smart contracts and executed accordingly.

Closing Thoughts

With a revolutionary idea, a strong team and global appeal BABB has all chances of succeeding at Global level. After having read their whitepaper which spiked faith in their approach and honesty in their effort I have all but good things to say about this. I wish them all luck.

More information about them could be found here:

Whitepaper: https://getbabb.com/babb-whitepaper.pdf

Website: https://getbabb.com/?utm_source=trackico

Blog: https://medium.com/@BABB

What are your thoughts about BABB? Do share them below.