By On 12th August, Richard Ells, the founder and CEO of electroneum, took to an interview with BlockTV. The main topic of discussion was electroneum’s mission and goals concerning the crypto mass adoption in developing regions.
Set up in 2017, electroneum’s main aim is to involve the unbanked, underbanked, and poverty-stricken in the global digital economy. The idea of electroneum is to decipher cryptocurrency and blockchain into a much simpler language for everyone to understand. Through electroneum’s app, everyone can get involved or use electroneum for free.
Richard Ells said it’s possible to make cryptocurrency accessible to anyone with a smartphone by simplifying cryptocurrency. It is common to find developing countries having better coverage on their networks than the developed countries, making these nations ideal market targets.
The Reality of the Unbanked in the Developing Countries
According to Ells, the idea that the unbanked in developing regions cannot be banked is a common misconception. The reality is that many people in poverty-stricken areas do not need banking services. Employees earn and spend the local fiat currency, dispensing the need for banking services.
Additionally, it costs people to have a bank account, yet the banks do not give them anything of benefit in return. You find that people do not want to be banked. Electroneum is trying to give people who do not bank or are underbanked the opportunity to get involved in the global digital economy.
Earlier this year, electroneum partnered with a small mobile virtual network company in South Africa. Through this partnership, electroneum dripped a little of crypto of up to 3 dollars’ worth of electroneum to each user’s account.
The exchange has also made it possible to top-up airtime using ETN, their in-house coin, in Brazil. Richard believes that this helps people in realizing that crypto is allowing them to gain confidence in the virtual currency. The truth is that the fear of crypto being too good to be true is still prevalent, and that’s what should be discarded. The next step in their business model is to have people earn the crypto instead of being given using the gig economy platform.
The Gig Economy Platform by Electroneum
A gig economy platform will be set up later this year. Through the platform can buy the gigs using fiat currencies and get paid in crypto. Therefore, you can buy a 3-dollar gig and get paid from anywhere in the world. The banking system may not be an efficient way to transfer such funds, but with this system, payments can be made efficiently eliminating the many small transactions.
Comments