BLOCKCHAIN AND THE CHALLENGE OF ILLITERACY –
CAN YOU RUN A BUSINESS IF YOU CAN’T READ?
by Alan Goodman
Attempts to raise the living standard and financial opportunities for impoverished people around the world have often butted up against a barrier that appears impenetrable: How do you bring business prospects to people who can’t read?
Blockchain — and payment apps that permit QR scanning — may be the technology that finally helps fight this obstacle.
While great strides have been made in spreading literacy globally — today, more than 86% of the world’s adults can read, versus 42% in 1960 — there are individuals and societies that are among the most remote, underserved, and impervious to advancement. Poverty almost always walks hand in hand with the inability to read and write, as people afflicted with this handicap can’t join the increasingly knowledge-based world of today.
But even more devastating is the fact that they can’t participate in basic commerce beyond the simplest transactions. How can you build a retail business if you can’t read a catalog and order an inventory of products to sell at retail?
“It’s another instance of how urgently underdeveloped countries need blockchain technology and digital currencies,” said Nicholus Andrews,
CEO of Aeryus.
A Solution — Smart Phone Apps and Digital Payments
The Aeryus ChainPayments app is built partly to address the problem of under-banked populations. In regions of Africa, where banks could be hundreds of miles away but virtually everyone owns a phone, Aeryus ChainPayments will allow citizens to make peer-to-peer payments, plus purchases on the web and at retail, in any digital currency. With countries throughout the African continent exploring digital currencies as a relief from problems plaguing their monetary systems, the app could play an important role in allowing stipends paid to residents to reach them in digital currency, and for those residents to use the funds immediately.
But the technology goes even further in allowing individuals to stockpile supplies, manage an inventory, and create retail opportunities for themselves, even if they are unable to read, write, or even sign their names.
“The key to it is the app’s integration with QR scanning technology,” said Andrews.
QR Codes in Banking
In the developed world, QR codes are already an important part of ecommerce, and increasingly part of the brick-and-mortar store experience as well. The system, thought dead or dying just a few years ago, has come roaring back because of the growth of mobile phone use. QR codes have the ability to bring potential customers vital information on their smart phones almost instantly. Already at least 1/3 of all mobile payments in China include use of the QR code. Since a vast majority of consumers use their phones during a shopping trip — more than 80%, in fact — retailers are providing codes at displays that can instantly link a shopper to more information and data about a desired purchase.
But they are even more helpful where reading isn’t an option.
“I don’t have to read to point my phone’s camera at a picture of the item I want to buy and sell in my store,” said Aeryus’ Andrews. “The way Aeryus is built, I don’t even have to sign my name because the blockchain recognizes me from my phone. After I take possession of the items, the blockchain keeps track of my inventory, and in the future can even reorder based on AI that learns my needs for product and the rate at which I sell it.”
As for the receipt for the transaction? “It could be a picture of the shop owner’s children smiling that tells him or her the transaction has been verified,” said Andrews.
People around the world have always been able to buy and sell, regardless of their ability to read. After all, in 1820 only 12% of the world was literate. But with an increasing reliance on technology, people without this basic skill at least have a fighting chance of creating something for themselves without depending on governments or aid organizations to do it for them, with digital currency and a payment system on their mobile devices.
Telegram news channel. https://t.me/aeryusone
Check out our website: https://aeryus.com
Looking for token info? https://aeryus.com/token
Follow us on twitter at: https://twitter.com/aeryus_one
Aeryus is currently listed on IDEX. https://idex.market/eth/aer
Find out more about Aeryus: www.aeryus.com
