Did you know that there are nearly 5 times as many mobile phones in the world as bank accounts? While in developed countries, a vast majority will own both a mobile phone and bank accounts, the picture looks very different when you shift your gaze.
El Salvador, which prominently made news earlier this month by making Bitcoin legal tender, has stated that one of the initiative's aims is to help give those excluded from the financial system access to savings and a way to transact securely. Reasons for people staying unbanked vary. While it is a choice for some because they don’t trust banks, most don’t have the necessary paperwork to pass banks’ identification processes. Sometimes, they are simply not an attractive enough audience for banks to cater to.
Increased adoption of Bitcoin is clearly advantageous, but transaction fees can still be significant when using the actual layer-1, and confirmations can take some time. These days, consumers want to do send money quickly and cost-efficiently, especially when sending it across borders. And ideally, from the device, they hold in their hands: their smartphone.
This is what Telcoin is trying to provide.
What is Telcoin?
In 2017 Paul Neuner, who has more than a decade of experience in the telecommunications sector running a startup called Mobius, together with Claude Eugenia, founded Telcoin. Launched in Singapore, the team has now expanded to offices across the globe, helping increase easy access to remittances for all their users.
Instead of competing directly with mobile money providers, Telcoin chooses to heavily focus on partnering with telecommunications companies to help users avoid the friction that prevents people from getting banked, such as lack of reach and KYC.
The major focus of Telcoin are remittances. The team positions Telcoin as a bridge currency that makes it easy for users worldwide to transfer different fiat currencies across the globe. In a way, this is similar to Ripple, but Telcoin focuses on making their currency especially functional on mobile. Unlike Ripple, their partner of choice are Telecomms companies and not big banks.
How does it work?
Telcoin is an ERC-20 token, therefore compatible with all existing ERC-20 wallets. Unlike the Ethereum mainchain, Telcoin relies on a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm to ensure fast block times and scalability, crucial for a seamless user experience.
Additionally, Telcoin applies a Proof-of-Concept approach that verifies the real-world feasibility of every transaction.
The platform already supports numerous e-wallets and other mobile money platforms to make transfers easier, less frustrating, and reach a broader audience with contactless service.
A few notable features of Telcoin:
- Affordable: while the average remittance fee is around 7%, Telcoin has pledged to keep fees below 2%. Even then, the model will remain profitable to network providers.
- Fast: transfers are near-instantly
- Mobile-friendly: letting users manage their remittances and finances from their mobile phones. It also enables existing money platforms to start experimenting and eventually switching to a blockchain-based approach.
- API integration: with the Telcoin API merchants can start accepting Telcoin on eCommerce platforms, and devs can easily integrate it into their apps/services
- Security: built on Ethereum, Telcoin benefits from the security of the underlying blockchain. In addition to that, Telcoin has a multi-sig option that ensures that transactions can only be made when at least 2 private keys (or more) are activated. This can be adjusted by users as they see fit.
- Physical cash-out: until everything can be paid in crypto, we still need fiat money. Telcoin through its partnerships enables users to go to specific physical cash-out locations where they can withdraw physical money.
Despite remittances, use cases for Telcoin include secure access to crypto for mobile phone customers, network prepaid airtime top-ups, crypto-backed card payments, mobile game airdrops, and more.
Telcoin in 2021
Telcoin started the year trading at $0.00018, but reached 0.064 in May this year, marking an incredible rally.
A few things could have contributed to this incredible increase. Firstly, a bull market where more and more traders started looking into altcoins, and even those who never heard of crypto started pouring money in (Thanks, lockdowns). Another factor that more specifically contributed to Telcoin’s rise is that a Nebraska legislature legalized remittances between users with the help of crypto and blockchain.
Additionally, the Telcoin team worked continuously to add multiple remittance corridors over the last few months. They also partnered with the Philippines' most popular financial app GCash and opened up a remittance corridor between the Philippines and Canada.
In July 2021, Telcoin released its Version 3 that included, a release of its Rivendell network (an Ethereum sidechain where mobile network operators will act as authorized validators) and the Telxchange, a decentralized digital asset exchange functioning across 9 decentralized markets and running on 2 protocols: Quickswap and DFX.
They also launched the SMS network, which offers a staking portal for users to stake their Telcoin, and pay themselves whenever they send money home (or else across country borders). You can find out more about Ver3 here.
Telcoin is now trading on Bitcoin.com Exchange with BTC and ETH pairs.
