Smile Identity Blog

Mark Straub · 25 April 2019

Good ID: Estonia did, and you can too

A country of 1.3M people built an ID system called “e-Estonia” that enables secure, electronic voting from home and allows even non-citizens to become e-citizens in order to incorporate new companies and bank accounts in Estonia.

Mark Straub · 4 March 2019

Principles for Good ID in Africa

What makes an identity system “good?”. Digital identity is simultaneously becoming a hot topic in the global development community and in high technology circles — a rare coincidence.

Mark Straub · 18 February 2019

African Fintechs are knocking down old walls, unleashing growth

Following a global trend in venture activity, much of the investment into Africa has been into “Fintech.” In 2017, Fintech startups took home nearly a third of all African venture funding.

Mark Straub · 12 February 2019

Building for Emerging Markets

As we’re building Smile Identity, I am often asked why we focus on markets outside the United States when identity and security are now such big topics in the U.S.

Mark Straub · 11 February 2019

The Future of Africa is Digital

As we get further into 2019, we’ll take a look at Africa’s Fintech sector, which is experiencing some of the fastest growth. We’ll cover the specific problems that leading fintechs are solving and how #digital identity, #GoodID and #KYC are key enablers of the financial inclusion behind Africa’s growth.

Mark Straub · 13 August 2018

The Responsible Use of Face Recognition Technology

Face recognition, fast enveloping life in China through CCTV cameras tied to government “social credit” systems which rank citizens based on their behavior, is only now receiving scrutiny from Americans and others. We are just waking up to the possibilities — powerful and sometimes frightening — that widely deployed face recognition can have.