How Crypto-Powered Internet Has Empowered Users In Rural Areas By Providing Greater Accessibility And Opportunities
Internet: An indispensable tool for rural development
Internet connectivity is now as important as roads and bridges to the success and economic health of every community. The Internet of Things (IoT) represents one of the most exceptional disruptive technologies of this century. IoT is revamping a world of things into a world of data. The prime reason that this technology has had such a massive impact on almost all aspects of life is its ability to disperse information effortlessly from anywhere.
“Improved communication and information access are directly related to social and economic development” – World Bank, 1995
Expanding internet access for rural communities is a necessity. It means more rural entrepreneurs can access broader markets. Rural artisans in Morocco, some of whom are illiterate, have set up Anou, a web shop for their products that has attracted customers worldwide. Internet creates these markets. Internet connectivity is one of the first things businesses consider when deciding to establish themselves in a rural community.
Let us talk about lending credit to rural borrowers., The high cost of gathering information about poor borrowers is a major deterrent to lending by banks which ultimately leaves rural people to rely on informal moneylenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. But internet solves this problem while also alleviating rural poverty. Rural populations receive public services because governments can use digital IDs to verify their eligibility. These are all examples where internet, by overcoming information issues, contributes to greater inclusion.
Consequently, low-quality and high-cost internet can seriously hinder the economic development of rural regions.
Internet and perplexity of rural areas
Even though there has been significant progress in the world wide use of the internet, The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) in its 2018 report, says that more than half of the world’s population (3.9 billion) is now online. That is the good news. The bad news is that the other half is still not. Most of this other half is in rural areas.
The two critical factors that causes a backlash for rural community are:
1.Internet Availability: In the age of digital revolution, people in rural areas are facing distinct challenges that arose from their geography, climate, demographics and more. Rural areas often suffer from low speeds and limited options.
2.Internet Affordability: The rising costs of broadband providers prevents rural people from having a solid, steady internet access. One can’t expect poor and food-insecure residents of rural communities to list digital services as high priority items for improving their lives.
Crypto-powered internet to the rescue
Is decentralized internet the solution to these problems? That’s what Wicrypt Network believes. A crypto-powered internet can be used to build a decentralized peer-to-peer system for the IoT devices to communicate with each other. Successful decentralization also lies in being trustless: there is no need for participants to be trusted and no centralized, single point of failure.
Wicrypt Network, through the use of blockchain technology design, has created a decentralized community network that provides high-speed internet connectivity by strengthening anyone to become an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Anyone can share their bandwidth with others and also earn money in the process. A user gets the privilege of switching to another network if in case the current ISP suffers a failure.
This crypto-powered approach of decentralized data-sharing makes the internet cheaper than any other ISP available locally by allowing many people to make bulk purchases. This also helps to connect the farthest of the rural regions which might be facing some geographical disadvantage otherwise. This is not just an idea but an internet network already operational in Nigeria, which as we progress, will change how internet is distributed worldwide!
About Wicrypt Network
Wicrypt is a decentralized mobile internet sharing and monetization network. It is a service that allows its users to get paid while sharing their WiFi. Wifi can be shared via Wicrypt routers or via your mobile phone. With Wicrypt, users can have access to more affordable internet data while also giving them the power to make money from it.
More details on Wicrypt:
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