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Secure, Transparent and Uniform Mobile Money for Internet-Underserved Areas Using Sporadically-Synchronized Blockchain

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e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries (AFRICOMM 2018)

Abstract

This position paper presents the design and outline of the implementation of a mobile money scheme that adapts to the realities of Internet-underserved Areas while exploiting the benefits of Internet protocols. In particular, we implement security and transparency in mobile money transactions using a lightweight permissioned Blockchain infrastructure. Nevertheless, due to network latency and potential connectivity issues, the design of the platform accepts semi-offline transactions: it leverages USSD, a 2nd Generation mobile protocol, only as a back-up channel to force writing of offline transactions to the permissioned ledger and ensure smooth synchronization of the blockchain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://z.cash/.

  2. 2.

    https://cryptonote.org/.

  3. 3.

    https://litecoin.com.

  4. 4.

    https://ethereum.org/.

  5. 5.

    Currently the validation delay takes on average 10 min.

  6. 6.

    https://exonum.com/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SnT, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

    Sankalp Ghatpande & Tegawendé F. Bissyandé

  2. Université Ouaga I Pr. Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

    Hadja Ouattara, Zakaria Sawadogo & Tegawendé F. Bissyandé

  3. Université Virtuelle du Tchad, N’Djamena, Tchad

    Daouda Ahmat

Authors
  1. Sankalp Ghatpande
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  2. Hadja Ouattara
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  3. Daouda Ahmat
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  4. Zakaria Sawadogo
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  5. Tegawendé F. Bissyandé
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tegawendé F. Bissyandé .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LIRT, ESP, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal

    Gervais Mendy

  2. LIRT, ESP, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal

    Samuel Ouya

  3. Lab d’Informatique Réseaux, Dakar, Senegal

    Ibra Dioum

  4. LIRT, ESP, Sanar, Senegal

    Ousmane Thiaré

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© 2019 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Ghatpande, S., Ouattara, H., Ahmat, D., Sawadogo, Z., Bissyandé, T.F. (2019). Secure, Transparent and Uniform Mobile Money for Internet-Underserved Areas Using Sporadically-Synchronized Blockchain. In: Mendy, G., Ouya, S., Dioum, I., Thiaré, O. (eds) e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries. AFRICOMM 2018. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 275. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16042-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16042-5_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16041-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16042-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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