Welcome to r/OBaaC — Open Banking as a Community
Welcome to r/OBaaC! This community is dedicated to pioneering Open Banking as a Community (OBaaC)—a new, bottom-up movement that turns consumer financial data into a powerful tool for climate action, accountability, and system change. Below is our comprehensive FAQ, detailing our philosophy, the security behind our technology, and how we are using open banking to rebuild collective climate power.
The Vision & Philosophy
What is OBaaC?
Open Banking as a Community (OBaaC) is a grassroots initiative to reclaim consumer financial data. Historically, financial institutions and corporations have used your transaction data to target you, build credit scores, and maximize their profits. OBaaC flips this on its head. By securely linking our bank accounts together, we aggregate our purchasing decisions to prove consumer demand, monetize sustainable choices, and force collective accountability on markets and politicians alike.
What is the "Out-In" model?
Currently, our political and environmental systems operate on an "In-Out" model. This is a top-down approach where a central authority (politicians, regulatory bodies) tries to push climate policies outward to the public. Because this central point is heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists, these policies are often watered down, scattered, and fail to deliver meaningful change. OBaaC proposes an "Out-In" model. Instead of waiting for top-down action, we start on the outside (individual citizens making sustainable choices). By aggregating our verified transactions, we drive a concentrated force of consensus inward to the center. When politicians see a massive, undeniable block of citizens shifting their actual wallets, it empowers them—and forces them—to pass bolder climate policy.
What do you mean by "Reclaiming Your Carbon Footprint"?
In 2004, BP and big oil companies hijacked the concept of the “carbon footprint” to shift the blame. They wanted you to feel personally guilty about driving to work while they extracted billions of barrels of oil from the ground. They wanted you to think your footprint was a burden.
They were wrong.
The carbon footprint wasn't invented in a corporate boardroom; it was created by ecologist William Rees to give us a physical tape measure for Earth's boundaries. Your footprint is not an instrument of guilt—it is your personal dashboard on a finite planet, and it is the physical link between the human world and the natural world.
It's our only hope.
Governments treat “per-capita emissions” as an abstract, top-down statistical average.
We are taking that number back.
By tracking, pricing, and settling our individual footprints, we transform carbon from an invisible threat into a real-world decision tool and a ground-up consumer movement.
Concrete Proof: The Climate Savers Pilot
What does this look like in practice?
Our first major implementation of the OBaaC standard is Climate Savers, a platform that rewards users for making verified, low-carbon travel decisions. To prove how this works, we partnered with the European Sleeper Train. Here is the real-world impact of our community's choices:
The Hard Math
Traveling from Amsterdam to Berlin by the European Sleeper train produces only 12 kg of CO₂, compared to 89 kg by car or a massive 142 kg by flight. Choosing the train saves up to 92% of CO₂ emissions.
Taking the train saves up to 92% CO₂ compared to flying
The Power of Wallet Share
We track our collective impact on a public dashboard. To date, our users have logged 7,853 total train bookings. This isn't just an abstract stat; it is a verified register of 7,853 consumer decisions opting for a lower-carbon choice, proving a growing collective willingness to trade convenience for the planet.
The Reward Loop
We reward sustainable actions with cashback funded by eco-conscious merchants. Currently, Climate Savers has 342 pending claims (€4,280 value) undergoing verification, and has already paid out €28,450 directly back to our members' bank accounts.
Privacy, Trust & Technology (Plaid)
How does the financial tracking work? Is it safe?
The biggest hurdle to building a data-sharing community is trust. We address this proactively. OBaaC and its applications (like Climate Savers) use Plaid to connect to bank accounts. We Never See Your Password: When you link your account, you do not give your username or password to OBaaC. Instead, you log in directly to your bank through Plaid's secure, bank-grade portal. The "Valet Key" Analogy: When your bank verifies your login, it does not hand over a master key. Instead, it issues a scrambled digital "token." This acts exactly like a valet key: it allows read-only access to verify specific transactions (like buying a European Sleeper ticket), but it has absolutely no power to move money, change account settings, or view unauthorized data. Total User Control: You are in charge. You can instantly revoke this digital token directly from your bank's dashboard at any time, instantly severing the connection.
Is my data anonymized?
Yes. Your individual banking data is strictly private and used only to verify your specific cashback claims. For public advocacy and the "Out-In" model, data is stripped of all personally identifiable information (PII) and aggregated into a single, unified community metric (e.g., "7,853 collective bookings") to show market demand.
How to Get Involved
How do I join the movement?
- Join the subreddit: Subscribe to r/OBaaC to take part in discussions on how we can expand this open-banking community standard.
- Visit the website: Go to OBaaC.org to read our full technical standards and developer guides.
- Try Climate Savers: Link your account, opt for sustainable choices, and start getting rewarded while building the collective momentum needed to force bolder climate action.
“Small choices, repeated often, shape the bigger picture.”