■ BLOCKCHAIN SYSTEMS HELP THE POOR IN THE WORLD
How does blockchain help the poor? A blockchain is a cheaper and transparent way to record monetary transactions between people who may not learn to trust each other. Aid agencies, non-profit and start-up companies are working to transfer knowledge about blockchain systems into the developing world to help poor citizens again access to bank loans and protect themselves.
Wall Street companies are using a technology called blockchain to further increase the already lightning-fast speed of international finance. But it’s not just the upper crust of high finance who can benefit from this new technology.
Most simply, a blockchain is an inexpensive and transparent way to record transactions. People who don’t know each other, and therefore may not trust each other, can securely exchange money without fear of fraud or theft.
Major aid agencies, nonprofits and startup companies are working to extend blockchain systems across the developing world to help poor people around the world get easier access to banks for loans or to protect their savings.
In my work as a scholar of business and technology focusing on the impact of blockchain and other modern technologies such as cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things on poor people, I see four main ways blockchain systems are already beginning to connect some of the world’s poorest people with the global economy.
These are sending money abroad, making insurance cheaper, helping small businesses, and humanitarian aid.
How does a blockchain work?
A blockchain is a fancy word for a transaction-recording computer database that’s stored in lots of different places at once. The best-known example of blockchain technology is the electronic cryptocurrency called bitcoin, but the concept can be applied in lots of different ways.
One way to think about a blockchain is as a public bulletin board to which anyone can post a transaction record. Those posts have to be digitally signed in a particular way, and once posted, a record can never be changed or deleted. The data are stored on many different computers around the internet, and even around the world.
Together, these features—openness to writing and inspection, authentication through computerized cryptography and redundant storage—provide a mechanism for secure exchange of funds.
They can even involve what are called “smart contracts,” transactions that happen only if certain conditions are met, such as a life insurance policy that sends money to the beneficiary only if a specific doctor submits a digitally signed death certificate to the blockchain.
Right now, these sorts of services are available – even in the developed world – only because nations have strong regulations protecting the money people deposit in banks, and clear laws about obeying the terms of formal contracts.
In the developing world, these rules often don’t exist at all – so the services that depend on them don’t either, or are so expensive that most people can’t use them. For instance, to open a checking account in some parts of Africa, banks require enormous minimum deposits, sometimes more money than an average person earns in a year.
A blockchain system, though, inherently enforces rules about authentication and transaction security. That makes it safe and affordable for a person to store any amount of money securely and confidently. While that’s still in the future, blockchain-based systems are already helping people in the developing world in very real ways.
In 2016, emigrants working abroad sent an estimated US$442 billion to their families in their home countries. This global flow of cash is a significant factor in the financial well-being of families and societies in developing nations.
Hong Kong’s blockchain-enabled Bitspark has transaction costs so low it charges a flat HK$15 for remittances of less than HK$1,200 (about $2 in US currency for transactions less than $150) and one percent for larger amounts. Using the secure digital connections of a blockchain system lets the company bypass existing banking networks and traditional remittance systems.
Similar services helping people send money to the Philippines, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda also charge a fraction of the current banking rates.
Insurance
Most people in the developing world lack health and life insurance, primarily because it’s so expensive. Some of that is because of high administrative costs: For every dollar of insurance premium collected, administrative costs amounted to $0.28 in Brazil, $0.54 in Costa Rica, $0.47 in Mexico and $1.80 in the Philippines.
Many people who live on less than a dollar a day have neither the ability to afford any insurance, nor any company offering them services.
Because blockchain systems are online and involve verification of transactions, they can deter (and expose) fraud, dramatically cutting costs for insurers.
Consuelo is a blockchain-based microinsurance service backed by Mexican mobile payments company Saldo.mx. Customers can pay small amounts for health and life insurance, with claims verified electronically and paid quickly.
Humanitarian aid
Blockchain technology can also improve humanitarian assistance. Fraud, corruption, discrimination and mismanagement block some money intended to reduce poverty and improve education and health care from actually helping people.
In early 2017, the UN World Food Program launched the first stage of what it calls “Building Block,” giving food and cash assistance to needy families in Pakistan’s Sindh province. An internet-connected smartphone authenticated and recorded payments from the UN agency to food vendors, ensuring the recipients got help, the merchants got paid and the agency didn’t lose track of its money.
The agency expects using a blockchain system will reduce its overhead costs from 3.5 percent to less than 1 percent. And it can speed aid to remote or disaster-struck areas, where ATMs may not exist or banks are not functioning normally. In urgent situations, blockchain currency can take the place of scarce local cash, allowing aid organizations, residents and merchants to exchange money electronically. /