Adoption of crypto is on the rise. Regardless of what metric you look at, whether it’s number of wallets (estimated at 76.6 million, up from 54.5 million last year), volume of transactions (estimated at a 7-day average of about 400 million USD at the time of writing this, up from around 100 million this time last year), or Bitcoin’s price (almost five times what it was a year ago), or…
You name it.
Any stat you can think up will show that 2021 was a massive year for adoption. But we are here to make the argument that a lot more is necessary, and that actual crypto adoption by a majority of people around the world is the way forward for all of us.
Crypto must become what it always was meant to be: money.
Money to be used by all of us in our day-to-day lives. Money to pay for rent, utilities, groceries. Money to save. Money to use.
This series will focus on several specific aspects of our daily lives in which a mainstream usage of crypto can make a real measurable difference to people’s lives.
Banks are letting us ALL down
Even if you are doing quite well, and making a decent living, banks have decided to make it their business to curtail and hamstring your entire financial life. There are literally dozens of different fees that banks will charge you just because they can.
They will charge you for using an out-of-network ATM. They will charge you to transfer money. They will charge you even more if you transfer it abroad. They will charge you if you do too much (excessive transaction fees) and if you do too little (inactivity fees). They will charge you for opening an account (account opening fees) and they will charge you for closing it (account closing fees). They will charge you just for having an account, in fact (maintenance fees).
But they are VICIOUS to the underserved
But the worst part is when you don’t have that much money to begin with. Banks will know that those people with less are also the same people who will have more trouble changing their situation.
They will let you spend more money than you have, then stick you with an overdraft fee. What, you think they should just stop you from going below zero? They will charge you for that too, it’s an overdraft protection fee. And they will also charge you if you make a mistake and try making a purchase above your limit, even if the bank stops it. That’s called an insufficient funds fee.
It is no surprise at all that there’s a massive number of people in the western world that quite simply can’t afford to have a bank account. The European Union, one of the richest regions on the planet, has close to 40 million people completely excluded from access to the financial system. In the US? Almost 6% of the population, or 14 million people. If you widen the net to those who are underbanked (meaning they do have an account, but they still needed to use alternative financial methods), that net widens to 63 million people in the US alone.
The World Bank estimates that a whole ONE-THIRD of the planet is being left behind by traditional banking.
Being unbanked (or underbanked) is no joke
The reason why banks go to such lengths without any real consequence is that it’s almost impossible to get out of poverty without them.
The way we have built our society means that being banked costs you a lot of money, but being unbanked can cost even more. This creates a vicious circle in which people can’t afford to open and maintain a bank account, but they can’t save enough money to change that either. Alternative financial systems, such as check cashers, pawnshops, and payday lenders, as a rule, are even more expensive than banking. Most of them are predatory, taking advantage of people who are down on their luck.
Crypto can change this.
If you have a mobile, you can use crypto
Access to mobile phone technology is skyrocketing much faster than banks ever could. It’s estimated that 81% of people in the world have one as of now. That number will continue to grow. According to the World Economic Forum, two-thirds of the people who are unbanked already have a mobile phone.
That means they already have everything they need to make payments, receive payments for their work, pay their bills, and set some money aside as savings.
The Nigerian case
Countries where the political and financial situation is relatively unstable, provide excellent practical use-cases for the idea that crypto can decisively help those who are unbanked and underbanked. Nigeria is exactly one of those cases.
The political situation in Nigeria isn’t (and never has been since they’ve become independent) particularly stable. This has consequences. Nigeria is facing its second recession in four years, and if you are living there, your net worth will have dropped to half since 2016. A large number of Nigerians feel they can’t trust their banking institutions. So what did they do?
They turned to crypto instead.
The adoption rates in Nigeria are stunning, with 32% of people already using it a whopping third of the entire population. And they aren’t just using it as a store of value either. They are using it to make purchases and lead their financial lives outside of the scope of a mainstream that isn’t helping them progress.
In fact, if you look at adoption rates, you will see that the countries that are leading the pack are not developed nations in Europe or America. The Philippines, Vietnam, Turkey and Peru are the nations behind Nigeria, all of them with adoption rates in the double digits.
In fact, adoption rates for Nigerians are so high (including for those that want to send and receive money to and from their families abroad, thus escaping the massive banking fees) that the government was forced to act. The e-naira is coming.
A better world is possible
We have created the technology that will allow us to have a real alternative to a traditional financial system that is excluding almost one out of every three people.
We have created the technology that will free all of us from being exploited by it.
By making use of this alternative, and showing everyone how powerful it can be, we will also force traditional actors to reform and change their ways.
We are going to do it, too.
Next time, we will talk about BORDERS. Don’t miss it.
Cheers 👏
