Re: article on identity & poverty reduction in the developing world

On 22 January 2015 at 16:54, Matt Morgan <matt@concretecomputing.com> wrote:

> On 01/22/2015 09:22 AM, Stephane Boyera wrote:
>
>> forgot the link of course: http://figshare.com/articles/
>> Distributed_crypto_identity_as_a_mechanism_for_legal_
>> empowerment_of_the_poor_and_stimulating_local_economic_
>> development/1292895
>>
>> Le 22/01/2015 15:19, Stephane Boyera a écrit :
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I wanted to share an interesting article a friend of mine just published
>>> about "Distributed crypto identity as a mechanism for legal empowerment
>>> of the poor and stimulating local economic development"
>>> There are interesting ideas from my perpective.
>>>
>>> comments welcome!
>>> Cheers
>>> steph
>>>
>>>
> It hit the top page of Hacker News today, so it's getting some interest.
>
> Also interesting that the 2015 Gates Letter, just released, highlights
> mobile banking as an important part of driving improvements for the poorest
> people:
>
> http://www.gatesnotes.com/2015-Annual-Letter
>

Thanks, both are worth reading.  Nothing excites me more than creating
technology that can help the poorest 3.5 billion in the world.

>From Gates' letter:

Instead, the poor use financial services that are extremely inefficient.
They save by hiding cash around the house or buying commodities that lose
value over time. When they send money to friends and relatives to help them
through tough times, they either take a day off and deliver the cash
themselves or trust someone else to do it for them. If they need to borrow
money for an emergency, they have to pay usurious interest rates to a
moneylender. Not having access to a range of cheap and easy financial
services makes it much more difficult to be poor.

But in the next 15 years, digital banking will give the poor more control
over their assets and help them transform their lives.

The key to this will be mobile phones. Already, in the developing countries
with the right regulatory framework, people are storing money digitally on
their phones and using their phones to make purchases, as if they were
debit cards. By 2030, 2 billion people who don't have a bank account today
will be storing money and making payment with their phones. And by then,
mobile money providers will be offering the full range of financial
services, from interest-bearing savings accounts to credit to insurance.



>
> --Matt
>
>
>