Changing the world one transaction at a time. Where’s the first place you think of when somebody says “cryptocurrency?” The Silicon Valley? South Korea? Japan? Maybe Australia? And that, right there, is the biggest problem with cryptocurrency adoption. Most new cryptocurrency startups come from regions that already have world-class infrastructure and low-fee, lightning-quick digital payment systems. For example, in the , just 7% of households don’t have a bank account. In , however, this number skyrockets to 78%. United States Vietnam The population of sits at a little over 60% unbanked. And although has reduced the number of people without bank accounts from 47% to just over 20% in the last couple years, there are still almost 200 million Indians without a checking or savings account. Nigeria India If it ain’t broke, you can’t fix it In places like the US where almost everyone already has a credit/debit card or access to a digital payment system through their phone, cryptocurrency just isn’t that useful at the moment. Using and may be more secure, but right now their networks can only handle a fraction of Visa and MasterCard’s collective per second. Bitcoin Ethereum 5,000+ transactions Put plainly: in highly developed nations, paying with cryptocurrency still isn’t as easy or fast as paying with fiat. In places where most people already have bank accounts and streamlined digital payment methods, your average consumer just wouldn’t see any benefits by incorporating cryptocurrency into their daily routines. But let’s keep in mind, developing nations don’t necessarily have the same level of infrastructure. There are plenty of countries still filled with unbanked citizens. And for those that are banked, sending/receiving money comes with high fees and long wait times. A.K.A. the perfect opportunity for cryptocurrency to provide immediate value to the world. In 2016, international migrants sent ~ back to family members still living in their home countries. Of this, $441,000,000,000 went to developing countries alone. $601,000,000,000 For families and businesses in frontier markets, remittance is an integral part of their economy. The is with the intermediary services required to make these international transactions happen — Western Union, Money Gram, and other popular companies charge up to 10% on every transaction. problem The good news? Using cryptocurrency makes this process a whole lot cheaper, easier, and faster. Again, the problem with cryptocurrency adoption isn’t what’s being developed — it’s where it’s being deployed. Despite the fact that frontier markets are prime candidates for rapid cryptocurrency adoption, only a small fraction of the world’s crypto startups are creating solutions for developing markets. Instead, most of them are still trying to deploy solutions in areas of the world that already have nearly kink-free financial systems. Cryptocurrency can drastically increase financial inclusion Mobile devices are everywhere. Bank accounts still aren’t. It’s that simple. Getting someone to sign up for a digital wallet from their smartphone is a lot easier than requiring them to submit identification documents and wait multiple days for verification. And even if you do have a bank account, securing a small loan in places like Nigeria and India is nearly impossible. business Aside from giving the unbanked access to banking services and financial , companies like BitPesa, M-Pesa, and Nebeus leverage crypto-backed loans to give business owners in developing nations equal access to lending opportunities. tools We can’t expect to get the entire world using cryptocurrency until everyone is up to speed. Cutting remittance costs in developing nations may not be as tantalizing to startup founders as tracking diamonds from the mine to the store, but it’s what the world needs in order demonstrate cryptocurrency’s mainstream potential. TLDR Banking the unbanked with traditional infrastructure is a lot harder than it looks In developed nations, cryptocurrency doesn’t have a real use case yet as most existing payment systems are still advantageous for daily use The same can’t be said for less developed nations — it’s quite difficult to get verified for a bank account in some areas, remittance fees are absurd, and international business transactions are unnecessarily expensive Some solutions are already using cryptocurrency as an intermediary step to reduce international transactions into developing nations are starting to pop up, but there’s still a long way to go Developing nations are getting new technology fast, but financial inclusion is still extremely low because most banks rely on archaic verification processes With modern cryptocurrency based financial institutions, all you need is a phone and an internet connection Originally written for Melewi.net/blog
