IDT - Tori Samples: The Elevator Of Aid - Blockchain's Role In Humanitarian Payments | Benzinga
Tori Samples, Senior Product Manager at Stellar Development Foundation will be speaking at the upcoming Benzinga's Future Of Digital Assets. Mark Nov. 14 on your calendar for the must-attend gathering in the industry!
The views expressed belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organizations they represent.
When I started pitching my blockchain-based startup in 2018, I included a sobering statistic to indicate the size of the total addressable market: 68 million people around the world were forcibly displaced at the time. Most of them were under and unbanked, with few financial services available to them. Five years later, that number is almost double. Over 108 million people are displaced; their financial options remain alarmingly similar. One area of substantial change has been in blockchain-enabled services. Digital wallets provide much-needed access to the formal financial system as the cost of remittances remains stubbornly high, bank de-risking plagues financial inclusion efforts, devaluation of local currency erodes savings, and local identity requirements exclude many immigrants from accessing bank accounts. Users benefit from the global nature of blockchain-based products, with portability of funds and easier preservation of value when crossing borders. For people on the move, this combination of traits is rare. Even for those not at risk of being displaced, economic instability has created a predictable cycle of crisis across the world. Digital wallets allow people in emerging economies to access global currencies through fiat-backed stablecoins. This mitigates the impact of local currency devaluation in environments in which every peso, kwacha, franc, or shilling matters.
I’ve seen firsthand the impact these products make for marginalized populations. I built a digital wallet for refugees and migrants in Africa, Boss Money, that was acquired by IDT (NYSE: IDT) in 2022. As we scaled across the continent, we witnessed how cross-border, blockchain-enabled services could benefit not just refugees but small traders, families, and travelers. Rather than sending money in an envelope on a bus, a user could cash into Boss Money digitally from their Ugandan mobile money ...