Learning about local currencies (4)
In the last post, I mentioned about digital wallet with local currencies.
Today, I'm going to talk about local currencies and banking system in Kenya.
Kenya is the country where over 70% of people live off the grid and 80% of population use mobile payment system.
These innovation started from the distance between banks and mobile accessibility.
Location-wise it is difficult to find a bank branch except the center of big cities, which means 80% of African do not own bank account.
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When cheap Chinese cellphone were massively brought into Kenya, Safaricom, the local telecommunication company puts spurs to the frugal innovation.
Safaricom
All the users have to do is visiting any corner store and paying cash to the distributor. The money would be sent after few seconds, their M-Pesa, mobile payment system, account almost immediately therefore the user can use it as a virtual currency in their virtual wallet.
As M-Pesa generalized, Kenyan do not have to face the risk of taking paper money which was a huge burden.
These successful result motivated developing countries such as Pakistan (Easypaisa) and Columbia(Transfer).
The beginning of mobile transaction is sending and receiving money, and it is expanded to international wire transfer, loan and insurance.
The innovation of Kenya is not only affect banking system but land owning issue. Overlapping title over a land had been unsolved challenge to Kenyan government. Due to the corrupt regime and bribery deteriorated the conflict between citizens.With decentralized blockchain technology, Land Layby tries to make the contract of title public and delete overlapping recorded title.
Land Layby is a virtual land registry runs by a cryptocurrency, Harambee Token which is given to the users who correct the errors.
Last June, Bancor has announced blockchain based Kenyan community currency to revitalize economy and eliminate poverty.
Bancor's technology enables users to create digital currencies that hold one or more balances in a connected currency. These currencies, known as Smart Tokens, rely on smart contracts to automate currency conversions and calculate prices
based on a currency’s supply, which adjusts dynamically to its use. The unique innovations are already being used to process over $20 million per day in token conversions via the Bancor Network, and are now being rolled out to underserved communities across Kenya.
Not only local currencies, but also blockchain technology has been contributing local economy a lot.
In the following post I'm going to talk about Central Government Issued Cryptocurrency.
Thank you.