Articles

Closing the cash gap with Cryptocurrency

Picture: Sarafu-Credit

The basic idea is that in communities where cash incomes are low and often sporadic, the vouchers can be used as credits to keep the local commerce in basic goods and services flowing. “We are not trying to create a new currency,” says Ruddick. “We are just filling a gap.” Crucially, the system is supported by agreement within the local community, rather than facilitated by charging interest, as in formal banking.

Kenya has proven fertile ground for successful new-money technology, leapfrogging more developed economies with the mobile money system M-Pesa. In emerging markets such as Kenya, the relatively shallow reach of traditional financial systems and institutions means there’s less resistance to new financial technology, including blockchain, according to Marina Niforos, an economist and author of a series of studies on blockchain for the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank Group.

Full article: BloombergBusinessweek

 


 

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