Beckn Newsletter Augustā24
Hello to our August readers! š
Welcome to your monthly update from in and around the transformative world of open networks. Weāve got news and views from whoās who, and everything the communityās been up to. Letās dig in!
In this Monthās edition:Ā
š° ONDC introduces seamless, paperless 6-minute loans
šµļø Beckn Origins: The āImpossibleā Aadhaar
šØš»āš» Meet Naman Bajpai, Becknās bright AI intern
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ONDC launches seamless, paperless 6-minute loans
A loan in less than six minutes?! This is no marketing ploy, rather ONDCās move to expand financial inclusion in the same way itās unlocked digital commerce through open, interoperable building blocks.Ā
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The offering provides unsecured credit services and last mile loans to small merchants, retailers, salaried and self-employed, all while simplifying the digital lending experience and increasing access to credit in underserved regions.
āØ How does it work?
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ONDC achieves a faster, cheaper and paperless service by leveraging four digital public goods, allowing for seamless integration of banks, lenders and fintechs.
- Account Aggregator for Data
- Digilocker or Aadhaar for KYC
- Aadhaar eSign for Agreements
- eNACH or eMandate for Repayments
š¬ āThe idea of an open network eventually is that every catalogable product or service should be available on the network using this protocol by itself. It doesnāt have to go through multiple integrations,ā – T Koshy, MD and CEO, ONDC.
š½ļø Click here to watch the full ONDC Financial Services Launch Event (3 hrs; starts at 23:06).
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šµļøBeckn Origins: The āImpossibleā Aadhaar
Tigerfeathers is on the prowl to unearth some insightful gems once again, this time with a tale of particular interest to this community, Indiaās āImpossibleā Aadhaar. Perhaps some of us know of the special connection between Aadhaar and Beckn. (Hint: FIDE co-founders).
š¬ āWhen anyone asks me about the origins of Beckn, I say in many ways it goes way back to March 2010 when I stepped into the Aadhaar office. The days that followed rapidly changed my views on scale, complexity, and working on the āimpossiblesā!ā – Sujith Nair, CEO and Co-Founder, FIDE and the Co-Author, Beckn Protocol.
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From biometric gamification to de-duplication, complex costing and dramatic demos to vet vendor allocationā¦ fine tuning algorithms at a scale never attempted beforeā¦Ā it seemed Aadhaar would never take off. But it did, and went on to become the backbone of scalable DPIs and financial inclusion.
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š Read the full Tigerfeathers article here. (Leave a comment, tell āem we sent you š)
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What would our world look like without Aadhaar and the population-scale tech developments weāre witnessing today? Share your thoughts with the community on our Discord!
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Ā šØš»āš» Meet Naman Bajpai, Becknās bright AI Intern
This month weāre celebratingĀ Naman Bajpai! Our young and shiny AI intern, Namanās journey began as a young aerospace entrepreneur (Dynamic Rocketry). Intrigued by open networks like ONDC, Naman discoveredĀ BecknĀ in 2021, still in 9th grade.
Shortly after, an in-depth conversation withĀ BecknĀ co-authorĀ Ravi PrakashĀ deepened his conviction and understanding of the versatile protocol. This belief is the driving force behind his deep engagement withĀ Beckn, actively exploring and learning with the community. His curious, calm demeanour and zeal for tech make Naman both a passionate teammate and leader.Ā
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Memorable Moment:Ā A serendipitous encounter with Sujith Nair at the Harvard India Conference in November 2023 proved especially influential for Namanās contributions toĀ Beckn. |
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Currently working on:Ā Multiple ongoing projects, including an open-source framework to enable LLMs to interact with any open network. |
Would you like to intern with us, or be part of a tech-enthusiastic community? Join the conversation onĀ Discord.Ā
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šļø Contribution Board
Calling all community contributors, your expertise is needed!
Fresh Tickets
#1Ā BecknĀ Onix Issues
ā ļø The community has identified 39 open issuesĀ in the “beckn/onix” repository. Can you help us solve them?
#2 Protocol Server Validation
ā ļø Do you speak JavaScript and Node.js? Weāre looking for open source contributors to help to fix validation issues with the Protocol Server.Ā More details here.Ā
#3Ā beckn/use-case-gen-frontendĀ
ā ļø The C4GT community has raised 4 PRs for the ābeckn/use-case-gen-frontendā repository. Can you make a contribution?
Contribution Updates:
Well done, contributors! With your help, weāve made serious progress resolving issues, catching bugs and growing the community, one keystroke at a time.Ā
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ā TheĀ BecknĀ FAQ GitHubĀ setup is officially underway! Weāll soon launch a GitBook with popular questions and answers curated by theĀ BecknĀ team.Ā
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ā GitHub Cleanup Drive:Ā We’re converting over 12 repositories from public to private, and continuing with more repo audits.
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Thatās all we have for this month,Ā hereās a little something to start off your September. See you in ~4 weeks! š
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This newsletter is a work of collective creation and we love hearing from readers. Drop us an email atĀ community@fide.org with your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you for being part of our community! š
