Topic: Bitcoin a possible tool for revolutionising financial inclusion (Read 208 times)

Have you come across any specific initiatives or organizations that are actively working to promote Bitcoin education in these communities? And do you think there are any potential drawbacks or obstacles to widespread adoption of Bitcoin for financial inclusion?

As we all know bitcoin is not free and to get it we need money , and what's happening is bitcoin is becoming and being recognized as an asset and not a currency.  So I wonder how people without bank accounts can own bitcoins and how can they use bitcoins as a means of payment instead of a bank account when there are no stores that accept them?
Bitcoin has potential, can become a valuable asset like gold, but if I say it becomes a tool to replace the role of banks , I really doubt it . As long as we live under government control , Fiat money and banks will remain the world's main currency and we will have to depend on it if we want to continue to survive .

This is the first time I have read about the unbanked population in a developed nation like the US. Before now I assumed that this set of people can be found only in third world countries. Current research in 2021 by the US Federal Reserve indicated that 13% of adults are underbanked as of 2021, meaning they have a bank account but regularly use alternative financial services, and 5% which is about 13 million people are unbanked meaning they have no bank account at all. According to the research, the major reasons for this is because of financial problems, disability, and illiteracy.

If the main reason why these people in the US are unbanked is a lack of financial support and illiteracy, I don't see Bitcoin helping them much. The periodic hike in transaction fees is a big impediment to adopting it for daily transactions. Anyone who cannot read and understand might not benefit much from Bitcoin. However, adopting Bitcoin will help people living with disabilities since they are not expected to visit any physical bank for them to use their wallets. However, people who are visually impaired are excluded from using Bitcoin since there are no provisions for them in wallet development.[/list]

There is a large amount of the population, which I would consider 7% pretty large of a figure for being unbanked in America, you can definitely increase that rate with Joe Biden's treason opening the flood gates wide open for anyone to just basically walk into the US. So that number here will definitely continue to rise for the foreseeable future lol. Seeing that the FDIC is posting this and documenting it online shows that they definitely will have an eye out for future regulations as this becomes even more prevalent over the years, which it of course will.  I think a lot of these main pointers are still only just begging to evolve, like the businesses who accept BTC as payment- I fully believe that there will be like complete bitcoin mastercards and visas soon that complete transactions using existing framework, but that is just a hypothesis. That tech is also used currently already.

And if they have the information to learn BTC. Most unbank I think are just the simplest people who work cooking street food and receive payment via cash. These individuals don't read investments but rather want to laugh at the viral pranks they find online.

But today, they gradually learn crypto since the online payment app we normally use these days now offers crypto investments. Though mostly memes, its the start.

Unbanked individuals are an interesting but complex topic. If they are unbanked because they don't meet certain requirements that banks can ask for, then Bitcoin can sometimes be a good option for them, but only if they have financial resources to buy some of it. Also, if they are unbanked, it might be hard for them to understand how digital wallets work, as they're likely to be unfamiliar with any kind of handling money apart from handling cash.
Finally, a fiat bank account can actually be something you can use on a daily basis to pay for all sorts of things everywhere, while Bitcoin isn't accepted in most places people regularly visit. Not to mention that in many countries, Bitcoin is taxed, which can be another challenge for unbanked people.

There are many causes of inflation in an economy, not just the government printing money indiscriminately, so I'm not sure using bitcoin as a legal tender will help that country solve the problem of inflation or not. But I'm pretty sure that country's economy will soon collapse if they use bitcoin as the sole currency in their country. Simply because of the volatility of bitcoin, have you ever thought of a scenario where bitcoin price drops more than 70% against USD like during the 2022 bear season, and how will that country's government face that?

Don't be so naive as to believe that just because bitcoin has a limited supply and simply adopting it will easily solve a country's inflation. If applied to individuals and organizations, it will be very effective, but with the macro economy, I don't think it will be effective.

I don't know about you but it's already been revolutionizing how we see finances, it's not limited with stocks, bonds, and fiat anymore. Bitcoin already changed that when it started to do it's transactions and promoting more privacy and anonymity to protect against oppressive authorities, no stock or bonds could ever do any of that, those are closely watched by the authorities and they know who owns this much stock, you can't do that with bitcoin though, that's why a lot of government around the world is on the hunt when it comes tools that will help bitcoin become more popular with the people, they know that when the people don't need them anymore, they lose control over those people, and that's probably the worst nightmare for any government out there, to lose control of their people.

Maybe for now that is the case however we do not know how would bitcoin progress moving forward. I think there may be some countries interested in using bitcoin as their legal tender. Which in that case it might be really help with one country’s inflationary crisis. I know for a fact that some countries are already looking into and studying how would they be able to do exactly just that.

Economic empowerment. No.

People can use bitcoins, can invest their money in Bitcoin and get richer with Bitcoin. It means they can get better individual finance with Bitcoin through investment.

But, you must know a big fact, Bitcoin is not here to change any national economic policy and is not designed fo fix any big economic issue from national to global scale.

Economic problems in Nigeria, Venezuela, ask Nigerian and Venezuelian governments and their central banks to fix.

That's already been the thing that bitcoin's been doing all this time so I don't get the reiteration of something that's already been done with bitcoin. I'm pretty sure too that bitcoin's not missing a beat doing those stuff that OP has mentioned. Bitcoin isn't a tool to help with the inflation though, if you're talking about using bitcoin to aid with the financial hardships that people face in the economy and the inflation then yes, bitcoin can help but other than that, it won't be helpful. Maybe if we see a country wide bitcoin adoption, we might see that it's possible that inflation or uncontrolled inflation would be decreased or even prevented but for a small scale/individual bitcoin adoption, it's hard to see how it can help with that problem.

Blockchain can help solve this problem, and some cryptocurrencies are cheaper and faster and can be used efficiently for daily payment solutions, especially if they are stable. However, in the case of Bitcoin, if it were globally alerted and used by everyone, the network would become either slow and with very high fees, or concentrated such that most transactions would be carried out outside the country. The network, and even with solutions like the Lightning Network, the use of Bitcoin by 10% of the world's population still represents a large number of transactions for a decentralized network.

Bitcoin can help in many aspects but global awareness is still in the early stages.

Well, in this case what you said is quite relevant where the creators of BTC themselves may have such thoughts at that time will cut it all and want to be easier, independent and decentralized in the future. We admit, indeed at this time it has not completely changed the totality The financial landscape is like the perspective of some people today in this moment.


Why still think and that's the fact, profits are high and also have inherent risk value.

maybe at the time of when satoshi first created bitcoin he had hoped for an actual alternative to banks. But following the events of this time we can see that it is extremely volatile as much as it is profitable. I still think that it is a better option compared to banks at least my money wouldn’t be losing its value although of course there’s some risk involved but that is risk I am willing to take. Besides transactions with banks from different countries are much more difficult compared to bitcoin.

If this is a report from 10 years ago, we can already judge that Bitcoin didn't become financial revolution. Instead it became a semi-mainstream investment that is still high risk/high return

People choose to stay unbanked for a varierty of reasons, and some of these reasons overlap with Bitcoin - for example unwillingness to use digital technologies, lack of Internet connectivity. And those few who would like to use it as a payment method are finding it to be challenging due to volatility and high fees.

It’s what I am most concerned about to be honest.

Many people do not want to use banks because of their killer fees. Banks are too expensive to hold your money in and your money will just lose value anyway. So people tend to lean towards crypto but now its fees aren’t that far off from banking fees. It’s such a headache to make transactions nowadays and we really need to solve this concern.

Not just in the US, but nationwide. There are certain regions in different countries where banking services don't cover due to several reasons. Regions like these are areas that look abandoned or undeveloped, also limiting access to the broader internet connectivity.

I solely agree that Bitcoin can be of great importance in such regions, but the entire Bitcoin community has always advised that proper knowledge and research should be carried out before anyone can make any use of it. In other words, those without ideas can't just wake up and start making transactions from a wallet without having proper knowledge.

What I think is that the inability to read and understand how Bitcoin works might be a limiting factor in such regions, especially regions where access to education is quite difficult.

Your idea is quite okay and might work for some regions, but due to digital illiteracy and the inability to read, we might also be experiencing some problems in these areas.

Every medium of transaction requires a fee to maintain its ecosystem i think you should revisit the line you quoted so you get the concept more clearer.

There is a fee attached to every bitcoin transaction, the fees vary depending on the size of the transaction. Miners select transactions with highest fees so if you want your transaction to be confirmed faster you have to pay a higher fee.

Maybe in countries like El Salvador and Central African Republic where bitcoin is legal tender, business owner will be able to accept bitcoin as payment. However bitcoin has not yet received much support from governments around the world instead it has been met with resistance from governments.

Despite the advancement of technology and the modern era we live in, there are still areas where people are either underbanked or unbanked. On a nationwide evaluation, millions of Americans are said to survive on an economic margin. Weighing the level of unbanked citizens in the US, it can be said that 10 million house holds (7.7 percent) are affected. It can be inferred that the neither have a checking or saving account. In a situation as this Bitcoin as a decentralised currency can become a powerful tool to liberate this inclusion challenge. Eliminating the challenge of banking system but still enhance easy transaction taking advantage of the p2p system Bitcoin ecosystem provides.

Here are a breakdown of how this can be achieved

• Global Reach

It only cost one internet connection to participate in the p2p transaction. No bank or third-party intermediary, no bank stamp, every single transaction is time stamped and appended on the blockchain open ledger. This can boast transaction within this regions which means there is no geographical limitation allowing Bitcoin transcend beyond continental boundaries.

• Remittances

With Bitcoin migrants can send money back home more swiftly and affordably. The cost of cross-border remittances can be overwhelming and cost inefficient. So Bitcoin been a borderless and intangible asset can perfectly cub this limitations

• Economic Empowerment

Inflation is eating deep into our society and we wake every morning to our currency devaluation. Let's take Africa, Nigeria as a case study where the cost of living keeps hitting hard on the citizens by the dawn of a new morning. Bitcoin can serve as cutting edge tool to pose an economic balance in the stabilising the economic challenge.

• Entrepreneurship

Most Business today accept Bitcoin as mode of payment just like Microsoft which started accepting Bitcoin as mode of payment in 2014. In this areas where people suffer financial restrains Bitcoin can become a promotion tool for financial inclusion. Bitcoin can serve as a payment option.

• Financial Education

The need to educate this underserved population about Bitcoin should be a point of concern. This can help them in making informed financial decisions and also take control of their economic futures.

The positive impact of Bitcoin of this sensitization can become a building stone in promoting financial inclusion
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Source: FDIC(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). 2014. 2013 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, Washington, DC: FDIC.

---.2012, 2011 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households. Washington, DC:FDIC