Proposal: How do we get a FOSS UPI mobile app

IndiaFOSS Conference CFP IndiaFOSS 2.0
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link: How do we get a FOSS UPI mobile app

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Happy to answer any questions here. I’ll be at the June 22nd Meetup as well, and open to discussions there as well.

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Hey guys,
Recently left Paytm Bank UPI product team. Have good domain knowledge here and would love to help out and contribute towards this in whatever ways I can.
Also have fosspe.com domain waiting to be utilised :smiley:

Had personally thought of starting to build an open source backend client based on UPI APIs (e.g. https://nfinite.in/product-detail/8cce7b57-b64e-458d-915f-b07e115bb1e3 ) which hopefully can have contributors from ecosystem and NPCI to keep it updated to latest features. :crossed_fingers:
Main Benefit of this:

  • We won’t have to wait for all the banks to independently develop the same features based on same NPCI APIs and reach feature parity.
  • This could reduce the multi-quarter delays and extensions for features to get live from NPCI end to final PSP/TPA apps… :crossed_fingers:
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None of those APIs are directly used by clients (mobile apps), so the UPI specification (or documentation) being public (for a while, it was pulled down from the NPCI website) is a moot point, since nobody but a few preferred parties can actually call these APIs.

Building a FOSS UPI app has both technical and legal challenges, hoping to cover both in the talk.

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@Nemo Can you share the major points discussed at the June 22nd meetup?

Also, other than the FOSS UPI mobile app, has someone looked into ONDC to create open source implementations of the required mobile apps and I suppose server?

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Governments from other countries are interested in implementing UPI so there is pressure on the Indian Government and NPCI to open source UPI. One lesson here is that the technical specifications and code should ideally be built by a non profit, while the organization that uses the code to deliver services should be a separate entity. In my view, the Beckn (tech protocols) and ONDC (market and infrastructure) separation is an ideal model to follow. This also allows the FOSS community to build solutions easily. ONDC could take off quickly in the next few years and may be a good project to work on.