<\/p>\n
We live in a world where many of us routinely use contactless payments, \u201ctap in\u201d to public transport systems and instantly transfer money to friends and family using apps. With that in mind, it\u2019s easy to overlook the fact that there are still millions of households across the world that are entirely unbanked.<\/p>\n
In an unbanked household, nobody has an active bank account. While the number of unbanked people has fallen in recent years, according to the World Bank\u2019s most recent Global Findex report<\/a>, worldwide \u201caccount ownership\u201d encompasses only 76% of the world\u2019s population. Put simply, the remaining 24% \u2014 over one billion people<\/a> \u2014 is an enormous minority to have.<\/p>\n The figures are notably starker when you dig into the detail. For example, in Nigeria, only 45% of adults had an account at the time of the survey. Figures for Bangladesh and Colombia were 53% and 60% respectively. In the U.S., only 4.5% are unbanked \u2014 but that still represents nearly 6 million<\/a> American households.<\/p>\n There are many reasons why an adult may be unbanked, and many consequences that come from the fact. Unbanked individuals can find themselves cut off from earning opportunities and access to essential services. People may be unbanked due to poverty and practical considerations, such as rural communities lacking access to financial institutions, but another major reason is the inability of some people to verify their identity.<\/p>\n Increasingly, blockchain technology is providing new options<\/a> for identity verification.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider how blockchain can help bridge the gap for the unbanked.<\/p>\n Digital identity management has become big business. Since 2016, Accenture has been working with Microsoft on the ID2020 initiative<\/a>, and the focus is specifically on digital ID technologies.<\/p>\n While the initiative highlights benefits for the nearly one billion people who lack the \u201cmeans to prove their identity through any widely recognized means,\u201d it also seeks to address the security shortcomings and impracticalities of more traditional methods of identity verification. IBM also has its own blockchain-based digital credentials service.<\/p>\nAdvances in digital identity technology<\/h4>\n