Advancing Mobile Money Payments Through Blockchain and Interoperability Protocols

Currently, mobile network operators (MNOs) manage their own Mobile Money (MM) transaction solutions, making them responsible for managing transaction databases and their interaction with customers. The goal of integrating Mobile Money transactions onto the Blockchain is to improve trust in the Mobile Money system. In this paper, we propose a Mobile Money payment protocol based on Blockchain technology, called “Mobile Money Using Blockchain (2MUB)”. This protocol aims to improve the security, speed, interoperability and trust of financial transactions by using the advantages of Blockchain technology while offering an intuitive user experience. We discuss various aspects of this protocol, including advantages for users, potential challenges, and opportunities for its large-scale adoption, particularly in developing countries where Mobile Money is a real economical fact. Account management of users using approved BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) standards allows for revealing only the minimal transaction data necessary for traceability in an enhanced version of this protocol. However, this may increase the size of transaction data on the Blockchain to some extent. In addition to improving trust in the MM ecosystem, it also addresses the problem of interoperability by federating Mobile Money solutions in the ecosystem. Finally, we present the results of a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of our protocol in a real-world environment, such as Burkina Faso.