The recent Equifax hack brings to light some valid concerns: will our information ever be safe? Isn't this company too big to fail? Is there any trustworthy source to get credit scoring from?
Currently, businesses and credit bureaus transfer sensitive data back and forth between each other on a regular basis, leaving that data vulnerable to exposure each time. Bloom, an end-to-end protocol for decentralized identity attestation, risk assessment and credit scoring, aims to use blockchain technology to protect consumers information as well as address four other key credit infrastructure issues:
- Cross-Border Credit Scoring
- Credit history is not transferable across borders. If you were to relocate, you'd have to re-establish your credit from scratch. Some country's governments and scoring agencies can lower your score based on political and religious affiliation.
- Creditworthiness Assessment
- Since they rely heavily on historical debt repayment information, most credit systems can not score users who are new to credit and haven't taken any out. This leaves over 3 billion people across the world credit invisible.
- Limited Ability to Expand
- Borrowers in markets with less developed financial infrastructure struggle to access credit as lenders have limited identity and scoring data.
- Uncompetitive Credit Scoring
- Credit data is centralized. In most markets, a single provider scores credit, resulting in an uncompetitive ecosystem for evaluating credit risk. In America, FICO holds a monopoly on scoring.
For more information on Bloom, check out this Forbes article. Want to learn more about blockchain technology? Read about it here.
Unsure of how to navigate your score or want to understand more about what drives it? Check out our blog on understanding your credit score.
