Cryptocurrencies can help developing economies bridge the digital divide and boost financial inclusion, billionaire blockchain technology pioneer Brock Pierce said.
Citing El Salvador, which became the first economy to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender last month, Mr Pierce said more than half the Central American nation’s population downloaded the Bitcoin Wallet in a month.
“Results are unbelievable … they managed to achieve what was my highest expectation. The data shows the courageous move has worked … the latest technologies or innovations can address the global problem of under- or unbanked population,” Mr Pierce told a panel at a future-of-finance event hosted by the Middle East Futures forum this week.
“The level of interest in digital currencies in the developing world is unbelievable … how can you expect prosperity if you don’t have the essential financial tools? El Salvador has proved that this idea works to create financial inclusion,” he added.
Globally, about 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked with no account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider, a World Bank report released in 2017 showed.
Nearly half of them live in seven developing economies — Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan — and almost 56 per cent of all unbanked adults are women.
However, financial access rates have increased since 2011, when the Bank Group began documenting them through the Global Findex database.
The share of adults who own a bank account rose globally from 51 per cent in 2011 to 69 per cent in 2017 — an additional 515 million people, World Bank data show.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Finance World staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
