Payment methods: Add support for M-Pesa

[cd2357]

Add support for M-Pesa payment method, used for P2P payments in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan, Lesotho, DRC, Ghana, Mozambique, Egypt.

As per https://twitter.com/KenyaCoin/status/1343803178312208385 :

The reason there's no offers on Bisq for $KES is mostly because the payment method that is most popular for P2P trading in Kenya, m-Pesa, is not (yet) supported by @Bisq_network

As per https://www.vodafone.com/what-we-do/services/m-pesa :

Live in 7 countries
41.5 million active customers
12 billion transactions in 2019

[ayo-dele-akin]

@cd2357 I am happy to implement this with Flutterwave API - https://developer.flutterwave.com/docs/mpesa if anyone would be willing to guide me during the development.

However, The flutterwave platform would require a company/person(flutterwave's customer) to receive the payment into his account. The money can then be transferred out of the account to the recipient. This is not exactly P2P

[m52go]

@pazza83 tagging you here to include you in the discussion. I invited KenyaCoin from Twitter to post help/feedback here as well.

[sgornick]

Here is a blog post with most of the details that might be needed regarding the m-Pesa payment method.

[sgornick]

@cd2357 I am happy to implement this with Flutterwave API - https://developer.flutterwave.com/docs/mpesa if anyone would be willing to guide me during the development.

However, The flutterwave platform would require a company/person(flutterwave's customer) to receive the payment into his account. The money can then be transferred out of the account to the recipient. This is not exactly P2P

Bisq doesn't escrow or otherwise touch any fiat payment methods. It appears that this issue will be where conversation for adding a new fiat payment method begins, and then the Payment Method Maintainer role can guide further, I presume.

[pazza83]

Here is a blog post with most of the details that might be needed regarding the m-Pesa payment method.

Thanks for the link. I will take a look at it and come back with some questions. Sounds like a promising payment method.

[pazza83]

However, The flutterwave platform would require a company/person(flutterwave's customer) to receive the payment into his account. The money can then be transferred out of the account to the recipient. This is not exactly P2P

Thanks I am not sure having an intermediary would be suitable. Hopefully as a P2P payment method this would not be needed.

[pazza83]

M-Pesa has been scored for inclusion to Bisq:

Essential	Desirable	Definite No’s
Very low risk of chargeback	No risk of chargeback	< very low risk of chargeback
Way to verify the sender in the received payment	Way to verify the sender in the received payment and ability to enter a reference	No way to verify the sender in the received payment
~~Trade time less than one week**	Instant payment	Trade time more than one week
Singular Fiat currency	Multi-currency	Not a payment method for fiat currency
Significant user base	Large user base	No significant user base
High usability	High usability and great user experience	< high amount usability
No KYC required for sending and receiving payments	No KYC required for sending and receiving payments, allows users to trade with upmost privacy. Minimal identifying information as possible (no names, email, phone etc required)	Some KYC required (proof of address, ID, selfie) for sending and receiving payments
Low risk of scam attempts	Very low risk of scam attempts	< low risk of scam attempts
Traders can provide evidence of payment / receipt	Traders can provide evidence of payment / receipt and Verification of payment can be made using PageSigner or similar	Traders will be unable to provide evidence of payment / receipt
Minimum limit at least equal to at least account limits protocols	No minimum limits	Minimum limit not able to achieve account limits protocols
Maximum limits equal to at least 0.01 BTC	Large payment limits up to 2 BTC	Maximum limit is less than 0.01 BTC
Likely to increase liquidity	Likely to increase liquidity and open markets for different countries and currencies	Likely to decrease liquidity
Low risk of mediation	Very low risk of mediation	< low risk of mediation
Low risk for traders from government agencies	No risk for traders from government agencies	< low risk for traders from government agencies
Fees should not be a barrier to trading	No fees for transactions	Fees will be a barrier to trading
Only minor changes needed to trade protocol	No changes needed to trade protocol	> Minor changes needed to trade protocol

Score: 7/32
Percentage: 21.88%

[pazza83]

Hi @cd2357, @sgornick and @Ayo-Dele

Looking into M-Pesa it seems that is has some features that make it not suitable for inclusion in Bisq. These are:

• Risk of chargebacks
• SMS based payments (no ability to prove payment made / received
• No web or mobile app for payments

It would be great if you could let me know if I have any of the above information incorrect.

[cointastical]

It would be great if you could let me know if I have any of the above information incorrect.

Safaricom has a mySafaricom app on Google Play (Android) and App Store (iPhone / iPad) with the ability to manage an m-Pesa account, including the ability to send a payment, and also to share a transaction record:

Then earlier this year (2021), there is now apparently an m-Pesa app (standalone), as described in this article on Tech-Ish. In the article it is shown that the app will produce a PDF with a transaction receipt (example: receipt). The use of either app is not required, as m-Pesa can be used from a feature phone even (thanks to the ability to transact using STK (SIM Toolkit)).

There is also Safaricom Selfcare web access, and other methods for accessing a transaction statement as well.

[cointastical]

The above is comment is for Safaricom m-Pesa only (i.e., Kenya). Other m-Pesa franchises may vary in availability of an app, and how receipts are provided.

[pazza83]

Thanks @cointastical ideally it would be good to include a solution that can cover all m-Pesa payments?

@m52go any thoughts on this?

I would be worried that adding m-Pesa is opens up cases where using can not prove they have send / received payment as a simple SMS is not secure enough and phone used may not have record screen option.

Also chargeback risk seems higher that what is normally accepted.

Maybe an alternative would be to choose an app used by multiple countries that utilizes m-Pesa. @cointastical do you know if such an app exists?

[cointastical]

There are a couple other fiat wallet apps which support $KES (Kenyan shillings) and work with either one or more of the local mobile money networks (e.g., Safaricom m-Pesa in Kenya) or with one or more domestic banks. There's EverSend app, and Chipper Cash, as two examples. But the ability to reverse a payment is even greater with these payment networks that sit at a layer on top of the underlying base layer fiat networks, thus they are even less qualified as an alternative to the base layer mobile money network (e.g., Safaricom m-Pesa). And with the various central banks in the region being hostile to bitcoin, there's risk simply in transacting using these fiat payment methods (e.g., Chipper Cash has "temporarily" suspended Safaricom m-Pesa, which has caused anyone with a $KES balance on Chipper Cash app to lose access to their funds, until there is a resolution.)

[pazza83]

Hi @cointastical thanks for the alternative suggestions. I will look into them.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[pazza83]

This can be closed