Are cryptocurrencies a haven for developing economies?
Interview with Marcos Benítez, Chief Business Development Officer of LAPO Blockchain
He spent a large portion of his early years reading books and watching series such as Cosmos by Carl Sagan, as well as reading scientific magazines. Although he would have liked to continue into the software engineering area, he studied law to understand the primary roots of social inequality, for him laws are what maintain the status quo. The Uruguayan professional has been into the finance and banking area for over eight years, being involved in many areas of the Finance Industry, from having a small forex company in LATAM to being a financial crimes senior advisor for a Big Four company.
Thanks to his childlike curiosity, he got involved in Blockchain as a trader, amateur blogger on Steemit and then co-founded an Association in the heart of the Swiss Crypto Valley. A naturally outgoing person, Marcos finds that creating strong links with other people is the way to make a difference in every aspect of life. With that vision, he joined the LAPO team to expand the adoption of Blockchain in developing countries with the hope of bringing financial inclusion and decentralization to those who need it most.
When did you first get into Blockchain?
It was quite recently, compared to the pioneers back in 2008, but it has been more than two years. I started sneaking into it from a speculative and investing interest, due to my banking and forex trader background. I never got scared about it, on the contrary, while I was investing, I realized that there was so much more, and in the longer term, than just to get an extra income through trade.
However, I did not get the wrong idea, I did not have enough to buy a Lambo (laughs).
How did it become a professional activity?
Once I immersed myself deeply in the foundations of Blockchain, I could not resist thinking about the innumerable possibilities on use cases and applications. I was blogging for Steemit for quite some time and I met many excellent people whit similar thoughts and motivated me to turn a hobby into a profession. Thanks to the community there, I assumed some functions of community manager, to end up a few months later working with a large Swiss start-up company that had a successful ICO.
In addition, I realized that the ecosystem in Switzerland needed a smaller Association, open to any interested party, and not only to large corporations. That is how, together with some colleagues, I founded the Crypto World Zug Association.
Thanks to the association, I got in touch with the LAPO team. They presented the LAPO project during our big conference in the Crypto Valley and the excellent chemistry was there naturally from the beginning. I also did my due diligence about the project and got drawn into it.
Why LAPO and no other project or your own?
I asked myself the same question many times, even during the bear market. LAPO has many ingredients that struck me. It has the potential to help solve many problems that developing countries face such as financial exclusion and hyperinflation. Born in Uruguay, I know first-hand the need for a stable crypto-payment solution for our region.
I had similar ideas on my own, but it is not easy to find the right team that is willing to thrive on the same goal. When you have a mission as hungry as we have, you know there is no place to give up easily. It is not just about having a company, it is about doing something I love and, at the same time, knowing that I am doing it for the right reasons, with a strong ethos behind it.
What differentiates LAPO from other Stablecoins?
I prefer to use the term less-volatile coin. We are both attractive to traders, who want to see long-term returns, and to those who need a digital haven to avoid becoming a victim of the swings of the market. When you have lived most of your life in a developing country where inflation reaches two digits per year, you can see the value of a hybrid idea.
How can you promise to be in a continuous upward trend?
In addition to the AI trading algorithm, we see that LAPO will gain value through our eFinance platform that will provide different financial solutions to our users. Among them are the multi-currency wallet, instant and low-fee transactions, and much more.
I see in the near future a normal family sharing our wallet for the weekly spending, a merchant online as the average neighborhood kiosk accepting crypto-payments, governments running social security through the blockchain, etc. So, I see that there LAPO and our ecosystem will also play a significant role.
The way we have designed LAPO creates enormous value. At LAPO we have a great team ready to bring the perfect mix of Swiss Banking and Financial experience together with our different worldwide experience.
What is the LAPO’s greatest use case?
The developing countries are the ones that need it the most. I believe many different projects cover Asia well enough; therefore, South America and Africa are those that are still forgotten in relation to investments in Blockchain solutions for the financially marginalized, those are not only people who do not have access to financial services but also those who suffer due to high inflation and the lack of options due to exchange restrictions and many other tools used by corrupt governments to block the assets of people in a particular region.
Furthermore, I believe that our future lending platform is one of the most critical parts. Where I come from, it is normal to take consumer credits that go up to 48 months to buy some electronic devices. People end up paying double the cost of LED TVs (or a scooter to go to work) due to interest rates, just because they do not have better options. Frequently, banks do not charge as much, but they are quite strict when analyzing your credit record and providing credit. I believe that LAPO can relieve the customers of this burden through intelligent credit analysis and the use of smart contracts that will lower the average arrears numbers in low-income places.
You started as a Strategist Advisor, and now you are the CBDO, what will be your main contributions with this new position?
From this role, I will focus on the expansion through a selected network of business partners in South America and the African region. Coming from Latin America is an excellent advantage for me since I know the market and the needs of the ecosystem quite well.
We already have many followers in Uruguay and people who invested in our token as well as in mining equipment. We need to expand interest and adoption to those who are not so aware of what is happening in the crypto-space. It is an immense task to educate people and, at the same time, to make the business sustainable, but our confidence in our product and the future of blockchain keeps us focused on our goal.
We are not in any way another white paper, we have a working platform, with thousands of fast daily transactions and an active community that grows every day. Recently, we were named among the top 50 Blockchain companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Seeing our project among Unicorns like Ethereum, Cardano, and Tezos, makes me even more optimistic, confident and committed to LAPO. I am looking forward to going back to Uruguay to visit my family and go shopping for our traditional “asado” (grilled meat) and paying with my LAPO debit card. That is my mission, to make LAX a cryptocurrency for everyone.
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