Mobile Money Versus Bitcoin
A central conceit of Bitcoin evangelists is that the cryptocurrency could be most useful to "the global unbanked."
These are the 575 million individuals in mostly emerging markets who lack access to basic financial services, even a bank account.
In principal, the advocates are correct. The time it takes to process a bitcoin transaction — about 10 minutes — is far faster than the three days it would take in the regular banking system. It's also usually cheaper.
But a new survey from trade association GSM shows that even the most promising emerging-market electronic payments technology, mobile money, has only just begun to break out, meaning it could take years to unseat cash as the payment method of choice in the developing world.
Mobile money can be used for just about anything. You can buy stuff at a grocery store. You can send and receive money to and from friends and relatives. You can pay and tip your taxi driver. And you can buy phone minutes. To upload or withdraw cash, you need only walk to a mobile money agent.
The granddaddy of mobile money is a service called M-Pesa. Launched in Kenya in 2007, the service was an overnight sensation, and is now used by much the adult population there. Its success is chalked up to close collaboration between the Kenyan government and Safaricom — the unit of Vodafone that operates M-Pesa — that allowed the service to spread. It also began life as a pilot program for microlending, which allowed developers to realize users were tapping the service to send and receive payments instead. After this, there was a huge marketing push.
Keep reading Mobile Money Versus Bitcoin – Business Insider.
