Can Crypto Facilitate Economic Growth in the World’s Poorest Regions?

The continued struggles of world’s poorest regions to obtain proper medical care, education, and material support can be attributed to an array of causes. Exploitation, apathy, and ignorance are all threads in the fabric that separates the first from the third world.

An additional factor that contributes to the cycle of poverty and oppression is isolation–many of the world’s poorest regions are out-of-reach to educational, medical, and financial institutions. As cryptocurrency gains footholds in mainstream North American and European economies, it is likewise gaining popularity as an easy-access option for building and storing wealth in these remote regions. 

The resources necessary to build and maintain brick-and-mortar banks and financial institutions simply don’t exist, and even if they did, such institutions would be very impractical for many regions. Up until recent history, the options for storing wealth and transacting with financial institutions have been extremely limited and cumbersome, at best.

A recent report from CoinTelegraph accurately depicted banking in Africa as an alien tool of colonialism; the traditional European banking system that was forcibly introduced to Africa is awkward and inefficient on a continent that is by-and-large sparsely populated with few options for public transportation.

A telling comparison can be made with landline phones. Like physical banks, they were expensive to install and difficult to maintain in rural areas. However, when mobile phones became affordable and widely accessible, they were a much better option for people living in these remote areas, and were quickly adopted for widespread use.

Enter cryptocurrency. For people living in these isolated regions, cryptocurrency is an easily accessible option for storing and investing money.

Omise Leading the Way

Omise, creator of the rising-star OmiseGO (OMG) token, is one of the first crypto companies to openly embrace the idea of serving underbanked regions. Their particular focus is on Southeast Asia. OMG and cryptocurrencies like it will offer users a sort of mobile “banking” solution that will allow them to send and receive money in addition to providing cash-out options.

OMG’s upcoming eWallet platform and sweeping integration with virtually all digital and fiat currencies will, among other things, allow users to send “remittances across borders”. Omise Lead Developer Wendell Davis even cited the example of migrant workers sending money back home to their families as a possible central function of OMG.

African adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is on the rise. In addition to recent upticks in crypto usage in Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria, the South African Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, was quoted as saying that the “A balanced approach is being taken,” in the country, “which is supportive of the objectives of enhanced innovation, competition and financial inclusion in the financial sector, while also reviewing risks related to financial customer protection, money laundering and financial stability.”

This adoption is being echoed in India, where a series of Bitcoin regulations that would legitimize the use of cryptocurrency in the country are passing through the government for legalisation as these words are being written.

The cryptocurrency community at-large is (or should be) excited about the opportunities that crypto offers to further the global economy and empower these remote regions. Indeed, the Ethereum foundation’s DEVgrants program, backed by Omise, provides smaller developers with funding for projects that will make the larger vision of a globally-used decentralized currency a reality.

In addition to the economic empowerment of the underserved and underbanked people that live in these remote regions, further adoption of cryptocurrency on a global scale will only increase the value of crypto in general. At this point in the cryptocurrency journey, what’s good for one is good for all.