Transparent, Tailored & Insured Credit Scoring
Transparent – open to audit and improvement
Tailored – because home buying and renting are fundamentally different
Insured – to be useful in the real world
Background
Credit scores are an essential part of modern life. Whether you’re buying a car, renting an apartment, or buying a house your credit score will be a required part of the transaction. While high credit scores may lower your interest rates or allow you access to higher quality apartments, low credit scores may negatively impact one’s access to housing among other issues. Despite obvious differences between the needs of renters and home buyers, landlords and mortgage lenders may only access a “black-box” credit score in their determinations for credit-worthiness.
A “renters credit score” is one example of an opportunity to deliver a tailored credit score – distinct from a “home buyer” or “car buyer” score it is meant to reflect the likelihood that a person will in fact pay rent on time. Many traditional lenders are seeing the value in this space, and we want to help extend the model to the bankless.
DeFiCo exists to facilitate the development of mechanisms to generate tailored credit scores using traditional fintech APIs and data science, as well as a system for securing these scores through bonded collateral staked in a blockchain ecosystem. With these tools, and the help of our network of partner organizations, the DeFiCo project aims to assist community members combat against the endemic inequalities of financial access while preparing onboarding avenues for greater financial achievement in their personal goals.
Community Advocates – all work is informed by real-world stakeholders:
- Piedmont Housing Alliance – Financial Opportunity Center: Led by former Charlottesville mayor Dave Norris we are working to find community members already interested in developing improved credit.
- AIM Cville – already gathers financial data to support “hand-up not hand-out” grants
- UVa Credit Union – our local non-profit bank and credit union that supports personal growth over profits as its core mission.
- IRC – The International Rescue Committee has a far-reaching network and professional language interpretation capabilities
Gathering data:
We have several sources for our initial phase data
- Thanks to a grant from the Center for Civic Innovation we now have a Capital One account to begin work with.
- AIM Cville requires access to financial data and we will have restricted access to this data
Current status
- Credit scoring options – working with https://www.openriskmanual.org/ to develop feasibility
- DID component – review in progress
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AaqMxO467xzg7_Z7bMen8I75XJgmMPheaf-QcZtIyvE/edit
- Pseudonymous vs fully KYC’d options
- Interoperability
- Captive Insurance – working with LexBlock to consider legal goals
- Credit disputes are a guaranteed issue
- Need to insure that we don’t create a system that continues to punish those who can least afford bad credit
Development Team
Dr. Joe Burdis – Business AI & Financial Analyst
Hollis Cutler – Programmer
Eric Humenay – Programmer and data scientist
Anson Parker – Aragon dTech Developer & project coordinator
Taylor Rawlings, JD – Law and blockchain advisor
Jason Stajduhar – Lead programmer
Jake Spradling – Programmer & USDC advisor
Dr. Scott Stornetta – co-author of the original blockchain, mathematician and philosopher
Financial Advisors
Eric Cope, MBA – Blockchain ecosystem advisor
Joe Raichel, MBA – Chief Lending Officer @ UVa Credit Union
Marci Stewart, MBA – Corporate strategy @ Capital One
Boots on the Ground
Rich Gregory – Financial manager at AIM Cville
Chris Headings – Marketing strategist
Dave Norris – Piedmont Housing Alliance’s Director of the Financial Opportunity Center
Christie Taylor – Center for Civic Innovation