aster.cloud aster.cloud
  • /
  • Platforms
    • Public Cloud
    • On-Premise
    • Hybrid Cloud
    • Data
  • Architecture
    • Design
    • Solutions
    • Enterprise
  • Engineering
    • Automation
    • Software Engineering
    • Project Management
    • DevOps
  • Programming
    • Learning
  • Tools
  • About
  • /
  • Platforms
    • Public Cloud
    • On-Premise
    • Hybrid Cloud
    • Data
  • Architecture
    • Design
    • Solutions
    • Enterprise
  • Engineering
    • Automation
    • Software Engineering
    • Project Management
    • DevOps
  • Programming
    • Learning
  • Tools
  • About
aster.cloud aster.cloud
  • /
  • Platforms
    • Public Cloud
    • On-Premise
    • Hybrid Cloud
    • Data
  • Architecture
    • Design
    • Solutions
    • Enterprise
  • Engineering
    • Automation
    • Software Engineering
    • Project Management
    • DevOps
  • Programming
    • Learning
  • Tools
  • About
  • Big Data
  • People
  • Tech

A Billion People Have No Legal Identity – But A New App Plans To Change That

  • root
  • December 2, 2021
  • 3 minute read
  • A billion people in the world have no legal identity.
  • Without an ID they can’t open a bank account, get a loan, or even vote.
  • Now a tech entrepreneur has come up with an answer.
  • Joseph Thompson’s digital app allows people to prove and protect their identity.
  • His company, AID:Tech, has also found a way to protect charity funds from corruption.

A legal identity is not just about opening a bank account: access to healthcare and your right to vote may depend on it. But just under 1 billion people in the world can’t prove who they are, according to the World Bank.

It’s an issue that tech entrepreneur Joseph Thompson has found a way to tackle. His start-up AID:Tech has created a digital app that allows people without official documents to create a personal legal identity.


Partner with aster.cloud
for your next big idea.
Let us know here.



From our partners:

CITI.IO :: Business. Institutions. Society. Global Political Economy.
CYBERPOGO.COM :: For the Arts, Sciences, and Technology.
DADAHACKS.COM :: Parenting For The Rest Of Us.
ZEDISTA.COM :: Entertainment. Sports. Culture. Escape.
TAKUMAKU.COM :: For The Hearth And Home.
ASTER.CLOUD :: From The Cloud And Beyond.
LIWAIWAI.COM :: Intelligence, Inside and Outside.
GLOBALCLOUDPLATFORMS.COM :: For The World's Computing Needs.
FIREGULAMAN.COM :: For The Fire In The Belly Of The Coder.
ASTERCASTER.COM :: Supra Astra. Beyond The Stars.
BARTDAY.COM :: Prosperity For Everyone.

A UN goal

Ensuring everyone has a legal identity, including birth registration, by 2030 is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It prompted the World Bank to launch its Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative in 2014.

The latest data from the Bank shows there are just over 987 million people in the world who have no legal identity, down from 1.5 billion in 2016. The majority live in low-income countries where almost 45% of women and 28% of men lack a legal ID.

For the almost 80 million people forced to flee their homes by war or persecution last year, the situation is even worse. Identity documents are often lost in the confusion and yet they can be vital to the success of their claim for refugee status.

Read More  7 Tips You Should Remember To Stay Safe When Shopping Online

A smartphone solution

Joseph Thompson mobile app blockchain legal identities
Joseph Thompson’s app paved the way for the first ‘lockchain baby’.Image: AID:Tech

Thompson’s app uses blockchain to preserve the user’s digital identity from interference, making it accessible only to the person whose ID it holds. As a digital solution, it goes with the grain of how many people in emerging economies manage their finances using smartphones.

A study of 15 developing nations identified 600 million people who have a smartphone but don’t have a bank account. Many of these people use digital payment apps to manage their money and these transactions can be used to digitally verify their identity.

More transparency for charities

Thompson hit on the idea after taking part in the gruelling six-day Marathon des Sables in the Sahara. He raised $122,000 for charity, but when he asked how the money had been spent, the charity was unable to tell him because it had no way to track individual donations.

“I’m not a humanitarian or anything, but I just thought there has to be a better way for transparency and traceability of fund transfer,” he says. So Thompson and his team created their ‘Transparency Engine’ which enables charities to follow the money they send to projects.

By making the transactions digital, not only can charities see that donations reached their intended recipients but, by using blockchain, the whole system is much more secure than sending cash.

Digital identity healthcare telecommunications smart cities telecommunications e-government social platforms e-commerce humanitarian response travel and mobility food and sustainability financial services
Why a digital identity matters.

The first blockchain baby

That’s when Thompson’s thoughts turned to helping solve the problem of people with no legal ID. One of the issues they face is registering the birth of a child. Women without legal ID face particular obstacles where laws require the father’s ID to be used when a birth is registered.

Read More  Verizon And Honeywell Enable Utilities To More Quickly Deploy LTE Smart Meters

“We’ve got projects in Tanzania where we had the first baby in the world born on the blockchain,” says Thompson. “The mother who gave birth – she owned the data for the child. So she was building a data credit profile. She could prove she got the right medicine.”

AID:Tech, which recently signed off on a project that will help 2 million people, is also working on financial inclusion projects in Uganda, Nigeria and Southeast Asia. Now it’s turning its attention to helping the almost 40 million Europeans who lack access to financial services.

Last year, Thompson and AID:Tech won the Game Changer of the Year award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship for the impact of their innovations on fighting corruption.

Social innovations are the focus of the Forum’s Pioneers of Change Summit this year. Sessions featuring speakers including Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, can be viewed online after the virtual event.

Sources: WEForum


For enquiries, product placements, sponsorships, and collaborations, connect with us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!

Our humans need coffee too! Your support is highly appreciated, thank you!

root

Related Topics
  • Blockchain
  • Charities
  • Digital Identity
  • Donations
  • Identity
  • Security
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Featured
  • People

Conclave: How A New Pope Is Chosen

  • April 25, 2025
Getting things done makes her feel amazing
View Post
  • Computing
  • Data
  • Featured
  • Learning
  • Tech
  • Technology

Nurturing Minds in the Digital Revolution

  • April 25, 2025
View Post
  • People
  • Technology

AI is automating our jobs – but values need to change if we are to be liberated by it

  • April 17, 2025
View Post
  • Tech

Deep dive into AI with Google Cloud’s global generative AI roadshow

  • February 18, 2025
Volvo Group: Confidently ahead at CES
View Post
  • Tech

Volvo Group: Confidently ahead at CES

  • January 8, 2025
zedreviews-ces-2025-social-meta
View Post
  • Featured
  • Gears
  • Tech
  • Technology

What Not to Miss at CES 2025

  • January 6, 2025
View Post
  • Tech

IBM and Pasqal Plan to Expand Quantum-Centric Supercomputing Initiative

  • November 21, 2024
Black Friday Gifts
View Post
  • Tech

Black Friday. How to Choose the Best Gifts for Yourself and Others, Plus Our Top Recommendations.

  • November 16, 2024

Stay Connected!
LATEST
  • 1
    Just make it scale: An Aurora DSQL story
    • May 29, 2025
  • 2
    Reliance on US tech providers is making IT leaders skittish
    • May 28, 2025
  • Examine the 4 types of edge computing, with examples
    • May 28, 2025
  • AI and private cloud: 2 lessons from Dell Tech World 2025
    • May 28, 2025
  • 5
    TD Synnex named as UK distributor for Cohesity
    • May 28, 2025
  • Weigh these 6 enterprise advantages of storage as a service
    • May 28, 2025
  • 7
    Broadcom’s ‘harsh’ VMware contracts are costing customers up to 1,500% more
    • May 28, 2025
  • 8
    Pulsant targets partner diversity with new IaaS solution
    • May 23, 2025
  • 9
    Growing AI workloads are causing hybrid cloud headaches
    • May 23, 2025
  • Gemma 3n 10
    Announcing Gemma 3n preview: powerful, efficient, mobile-first AI
    • May 22, 2025
about
Hello World!

We are aster.cloud. We’re created by programmers for programmers.

Our site aims to provide guides, programming tips, reviews, and interesting materials for tech people and those who want to learn in general.

We would like to hear from you.

If you have any feedback, enquiries, or sponsorship request, kindly reach out to us at:

[email protected]
Most Popular
  • Understand how Windows Server 2025 PAYG licensing works
    • May 20, 2025
  • By the numbers: How upskilling fills the IT skills gap
    • May 21, 2025
  • 3
    Cloud adoption isn’t all it’s cut out to be as enterprises report growing dissatisfaction
    • May 15, 2025
  • 4
    Hybrid cloud is complicated – Red Hat’s new AI assistant wants to solve that
    • May 20, 2025
  • 5
    Google is getting serious on cloud sovereignty
    • May 22, 2025
  • /
  • Technology
  • Tools
  • About
  • Contact Us

Input your search keywords and press Enter.