Comment by explaininjs
2 years ago
A Flow:
> Service A => User: Please Enter Your Phone Number and Email
> Service A => Clearinghouse: Please verify phone number XXX wants to sign up for an account with us
> Clearinghouse => User (SMS): Please respond with the Email you used at signup to confirm you want an account with Service A
Later...
> Service B => User: Please Enter Your phone number and Email
> Service B => Clearinghouse: Please verify phone number XXX wants to sign up for an account with us
> Clearinghouse => User (Email): Please verify you want an account with Service B
Not saying it's great (providing email twice is annoying), but it's something.
This does not reduce the overall cost, it just shifts it to the clearinghouse. Who pays the clearinghouse so that they can cover their own exorbitant SMS costs?
You miss the crux of it: the second time onward the clearing houses uses email to authenticate the previously-SMS-verified account.
The clearinghouse may not have the user’s most recent email address, which is common amongst non-tech people. My mom and aunts have lost many email addresses this way and forcing them to use an older email would cause many issues.
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