I dunno, seems sketchy to me, but that could be because I've always lived with an account and something like this seems like it could be ripe for fraud. For example, these tellers...how often will they get set up and robbed? Not to mention phone theft - although that could be solved with encryption and security I suppose. http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/08/tec....html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool&iid=obnetwork It might finally be time to break up with your bank. Not only is banking not for everyone, accounts are inaccessible to about half of the world. People are too poor, live too far from a bank or don't have the required documentation. Abra, a new startup, makes banking more accessible while completely cutting out the actual bank. With Abra, all of your banking lives on your phone. You can withdraw funds, deposit cash and send money using the app. There are no ATMs and no bank branches. (The service is different from recent innovations like Simple, Venmo, PayPal and Chase Pay because those all require bank accounts.) The idea is that all banking should be as easy as sending a text message. "In a hyper-connected world, it is astounding to me that you can't pick up the phone and instantly send money to any other phone number in the world," said Abra founder Bill Barhydt, a former software engineer for Goldman Sachs based in San Francisco. He presented his company last week at the Exponential Finance conference in New York. Related: What the future of crime looks like "Traditional banking is really good at serving the global 5% to 10% of consumers who reach a certain income level," Barhydt said. "The reality is, the majority of the planet is a cash-based economy and banking doesn't work for those people." Here's how Abra works: Say you need $100 in cash. To get it, you would open the app and find a bank teller near you using your phone's GPS. Bank tellers can be regular people, as well as businesses like convenience stores. If it's a person, they've had a background check through Abra. (The system is similar to how Uber vets drivers.) Once you find a teller, you would meet somewhere convenient to both of you. Each person then gets a QR code, which one person scans to validate the transaction. Once validated, the teller would give you $100. A deposit works the same way, just in reverse. Except, unlike your friend, the teller makes money by charging a fee, which can be any amount they choose. (Abra recommends they charge around 1.5%, depending on location and convenience.) Abra charges .25% per transaction, which is the company's only involvement in the actual exchange of currency. Related: Google engineer: Humans will be hybrids by 2030 Abra is just as anonymous as cash. Other than a phone number, no data is collected. (Unless you're a teller.) Abra is currently in beta, but is launching in the U.S. and the Philippines in a few weeks. Barhydt said the company has signed up tens of thousands of tellers in those countries, and it will be available around the world in the next year. Barhydt's only advice for those who sign up with Abra? "Don't lose your phone."
Sounds promising. Have to laugh though at this though- "Abra is as anonymous as cash. No data is collected." The NSA (and IRS) will never let that happen.
I think the iPhone and Android need a P2P solution where the phone, once connected via WiFi or the cell net, automatically establishes a Tor connection, then creates a VPN tunnel through Tor to some random endpoint in the P2P mesh beyond the Tor exit node. Once established, the phone routes all data via the VPN which tunnels through TOR. Your phone would communicate/surf the web without the connection being traceable or subject to man-in-the-middle attacks. The more people that use this method, the faster the connection, and the less likely an individual's activity would be traceable. Eliminate the need for Java/Javascript and sandbox each and every app in it's own container so the app cannot interact or modify the system. Your phone would now be relatively secure. But no matter if the above is implemented. The primary problem is the insecure initial connection to the WiFi router or cell tower. The person sitting next to you in Starbucks can still break into your phone if it doesn't have a bug-free firewall blocking all initial incoming connection attempts.