Gates-funded World Bank project seeks to connect digital ID with fast payment systems

Tim Hinchliffe
Mon, 11 Aug 2025 19:40:22 +0000
Government and Policy, Technology, digital id, Digital Identity, digital public infrastructure, dpi, globalism, great reset, perspective, united nations, world bank

The public-private financial revolution requires every person to have a digital identity, so they can be tracked, traced & connected to a programmable digital currency: perspective

With financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank is looking to connect digital ID with fast payment systems in an effort to make Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) more seamless and interoperable.

DPI is a civic technology stack consisting of three main components: digital identity schemes, fast payment systems (including programmable digital currencies), and massive data exchanges between public and private entities.

On August 5, 2025, the World Bank Group published, “How interoperable digital public infrastructure can transform fast payments” in which the authors argued that “connecting payment systems to identity and data platforms allows providers to strengthen trust, reduce costs, and serve more users through simpler, faster processes.”

With that belief, the authors, whom both previously worked for VISA, called for the creation of two “new foundational services and capabilities”: the Payments Identity Credential (PIC) and the Trusted Access and Credentialing Hub (TACH) that when connected would “allow for seamless onboarding, secure transactions, and flexible data exchange, while adapting to a variety of country contexts and existing infrastructures.”

“Bringing together digital identity, fast payments, and consent-based data exchange into a coherent, interoperable infrastructure benefits everyone”
World Bank, How interoperable digital public infrastructure can transform fast payments, August 2025

Source: World Bank

“By using common building blocks such as the Payments Identity Credential and the Trusted Access and Credentialing Hub, countries can move beyond fragmentation and toward a shared foundation for trusted and seamless service delivery”
World Bank, How interoperable digital public infrastructure can transform fast payments, August 2025

The PIC, they say, “brings together account information, identity verification data, and user consent preferences into a secure, portable credential.”

Meanwhile, the TACH has three core functions:

1. To establish the trust framework that links fast payment systems and digital ID platforms, ensuring that identity and payment credentials can be securely recognized and validated across systems.

2. To act as an orchestrator, managing interactions between service providers, identity systems, and payment platforms in real time.

3. To govern the lifecycle of the Payments Identity Credential by overseeing its creation, binding it to verified sources, and enabling its secure and consent-based use across financial services.

After declaring the need for the PIC and the TACH, the next steps will be to publish “a white paper outlining legal, regulatory, and technical considerations, along with further exploratory work to support country-level implementation.”

Source: World Bank

“By building digital public infrastructure that is connected, inclusive, and interoperable by design, we can transform fast payments from siloed systems into the foundation of more equitable, efficient, and resilient digital economies”
World Bank, How interoperable digital public infrastructure can transform fast payments, August 2025

Source: World Bank

“Digital identity and fast payment systems each hold immense power to transform financial access. On their own, they enable greater reach, lower costs, and real-time convenience. But when designed to work together, their combined potential grows exponentially“
World Bank, How interoperable digital public infrastructure can transform fast payments, August 2025

The goal of combining fast payment systems with digital identity schemes is to create a common technical and governance framework that is interoperable between governments, businesses, and users.

The World Bank itself is a specialized agency of the United Nations, and just about all of the World Bank organizations working to accelerate global Digital Public Infrastructure rollouts are funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

These Gates-backed World Bank organizations include:

The Payment Systems Development Group (PSDG)

Project FASTT (Frictionless Affordable Timely Transactions)

The Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative

The Gates Foundation is a major donor to the World Bank’s Finance for Development (F4D) Program, which is also supported by VISA, the European Commission, and the governments of Austria, Canada, and Switzerland.

Just about all DPI funding leads back to the Gates Foundation.

“By 2028, more than 500 million more people will have a digital identity that allows them to access employment and education opportunities more easily, as well as financial services, healthcare, and government programs”
Melinda French Gates, 50-in-5 Campaign Launch, November 2023

"By 2028, more than 500 million more people will have a digital identity that allows them to access employment & education opportunities more easily, as well as financial services, healthcare & government programs": Melinda Gates, 50-in-5 DPI Campaign #digitalID #digitalidentity pic.twitter.com/vtzdJ1scXY
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) November 8, 2023

On November 8, 2023, the UN, the Gates Foundation, and their partners launched the 50-in-5 campaign to accelerate DPI rollouts in 50 countries.

The 50-in-5 campaign is a collaboration between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Development Program, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, the Center for Digital Public Infrastructure, and Co-Develop; with support from GovStack, the Inter-American Development Bank, and UNICEF.

Co-Develop was founded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nilekani Philanthropies, and the Omidyar Network.

The Digital Public Goods Alliance lists both the Gates and Rockefeller foundations in its roadmap showcasing “activities that advance digital public goods,” along with other organizations and several governments.

The Center for Digital Public Infrastructure is backed by Co-Develop and Nilekani Philanthropies.

“If you think, ‘what are the tools of the New World?‘ — Everybody should have a digital ID; everybody should have a bank account; everybody should have a smartphone. Then, anything can be done. Everything else is built on that”
Nandan Nilekani, IMF Spring Meetings, April 2023

"What are the tools of the New World? Everybody should have a digital ID; everybody should have a bank account; everybody should have a smartphone. Then, anything can be done. Everything else is built on that": @NandanNilekani to @IMFNews #DigitalID #DigitalIdentity #IMFmeetings pic.twitter.com/6HIAqfBigz
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 19, 2023

Nilekani Philanthropies is the product of India’s Aadhaar digital identity architect, Nandan Nilekani, who has been a fierce proponent of digital ID and DPI.

Last year, Nilekani and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) general manager Agustin Carstens unveiled their proposal to create “the financial system for the future” that they dubbed “the Finternet.”

"We don't want [The Finternet] to be only one ledger. THIS IS NOT LORD OF THE RINGS. This is about having multiple ledgers with multiple providers" Nandan Nilekani, India's Aadhaar Digital ID architect pic.twitter.com/iYKXEnWEWW
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 19, 2024

The Finternet “leverages existing infrastructure, including identity systems, digital signature certificate systems, connectivity, registrars and registries, and digital public infrastructure, along with any other reusable services available within a jurisdiction”
Bank for International Settlements, “Finternet: the financial system for the future,” April 15, 2024

"We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to revisit the architecture of the financial system.. [One that] relies on the exchange of tokens in the context of unified ledgers.. Intermediaries would facilitate.. the tokenization of assets" BIS GM Agustin Carstens on "The Finternet" pic.twitter.com/PjBUkI6jrh
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 19, 2024

In The Finternet, "Central bank money will represent the 1st Tier & commercial bank money the 2nd.. Wholesale tokenized central bank money is a necessary foundation" — all on "public-private programmable infrastructure": BIS GM Agustin Carstens pic.twitter.com/WZYFyhH2x7
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) April 19, 2024

The concept of a finternet fits perfectly within the vision of the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, and the United Nations to rollout digital public infrastructure throughout the world.

“Interoperability” is a keyword for these rollouts. Each government and corporation can tinker with their offerings to an extent, but the idea is for the technical foundation to all be the same throughout the world.

And with that foundation, the United Nations and its partners are looking for a single framework for global governance over the three core components of DPI: digital identity, fast payment systems, and massive data sharing between public and private entities.

These efforts were codified in the Global Digital Compact, which was part of the Pact for the Future, which was signed at the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024.

“We commit by 2030 to increase investment and funding toward the development of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure, especially in developing countries (SDG 17)”
UN, Digital Global Compact Draft, July 2024

UN Global Digital Compact. Step 1: Get everyone connected to the internet. Step 2: Install Digital Public Infrastructure (digital ID, CBDC, Massive Data Sharing). Step 3: Censor any narrative that doesn't align with UN or impedes on Agenda 2030 @Bannons_WarRoom @JOEBOTxyz pic.twitter.com/KEprOQummb
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) September 19, 2024

By signing the Global Digital Compact, member states agreed to:

Close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals

Expand inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all

Foster an inclusive, open, safe and secure digital space that respects, protects and promote human rights

The first objective to “close all digital divides and accelerate progress across the Sustainable Development Goals” is all about getting every human being connected to the internet.

The second objective on “expanding inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all” is about making sure that all countries share knowledge with one another about how to effectively set up their digital ecosystems, just like the World Bank is doing by connecting digital ID with fast payment systems.

Third on the objectives list is “fostering an inclusive, open, safe and secure digital space that respects, protects and promote human rights,” which sounds nice on the surface but is really about establishing global internet governance and how to censor views that go against UN-approved narratives.

Going through the UN Global Digital Compact objectives one-by-one, we catch a glimpse of a dystopian future where unelected bureaucrats get nation states to commit to creating a digital control grid that fuses digital ID with fast, programmable payment systems, along with massive data sharing under a new form of global internet governance.

“You could have a potentially […] darker world where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable like say ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of the sort“
Eswar Prasad, WEF Annual Meeting of the New Champions, June 2023

"You could have a potentially […] darker world where the government decides that [CBDC] can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable like say ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of the sort": Eswar Prasad, WEF #AMNC23 pic.twitter.com/KkWgaEWAR5
— Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) June 28, 2023

The World Bank’s new efforts to connect the Payments Identity Credential with the Trusted Access and Credentialing Hub is a continuation of a years-long agenda to overhaul the entire global financial system.

This overhaul requires every person to have electricity, internet access, and a digital ID, so they can be tracked, traced, and connected to a programmable digital currency.

From there, the public-private digital gulag can truly be realized.

Anything you say on social media can be flagged as violating your provider’s terms of service, and you could be fined instantaneously with money taken out of your account in real-time.

Alternatively, you could also be de-platformed, de-monetized, or de-banked and your digital ID would be recognized by governments and corporations that would pin you as an “untrustworthy” citizen in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) style system of social credit.

As one of the biggest private funders of all of the UN-related efforts concerning DPI the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wields enormous influence into every aspect of our daily lives.

But the foundation is hardly alone.

The DPI space is fair teeming with governments, NGOs, think tanks, big tech companies, international banking interests, and major credit card companies working together through global public-private partnerships — the merger of corporation and state.

Image Source: Freepik

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