Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell. Any decision taken on the basis of this article is not my responsibility. Please do your own research. Doing your own research helps you to stay put during tough times, because you are convinced of the long term potential.
What is BABB
According to their website "BABB is a decentralized banking platform that leverages blockchain and bio-metrics to offer anyone in the world access to a UK bank account for peer-to-peer financial services."
What does this mean in layman terms? It simply means that, they plan to offer banking access to the unbanked through blockchain and biometric services. They plan to offer banking services merely through an app, which will have voice and face recognition and will thus perform automatic KYC and AML procedures. They have a handful of patents for the same.BABB plans to offer banking services to everyone around the world who possesses mobile phones, but doesn't have access to a full fledged bank. They plan to achieve this through their app & other patented technologies.
BABB Future plans
The team is in talks with the UK authorities for a Banking License. They are also in talks with Bank of Bahrain & Bank of Lithuania for banking licenses. After Middle east, they have an eye on Africa. Bahrain has established itself as a fast mover in adopting new technologies. Therefore, I believe that they are likely to get a banking license from Bahrain faster than UK. Once they have a foothold in Middle East, they plan to target Africa while simultaneously pursuing UK licenses.
Now you may think, why would I make such a huge statement comparing BABB and Ripple. So here goes..
Ripple has a suite of software products for Banks and they rely on banks for acceptance. Ripple has done a fabulous job of getting more than 150 banks on board for their famous product XCurrent, which is a messaging protocol. However, truth be told, they are having a tough time getting banks on board for XRapid, which makes use of XRP. Banks are traditional and extremely slow movers. They generally are the last ones to catch any trend and I suppose that in this instance too, they will be the last ones on board. They will get on board for XRP, but that will happen slowly over next couple of years.
On the other hand, BABB has a strategy, which is going a step further. Rather than convince banks to get on board, which Ripple is doing, they themselves are trying to become a bank! That is just pure genius and a great strategy. That way they don't have to rely on third parties for their success. I am convinced of the long term success of this project as long as they stay focused and execute their strategies.