Microfinance (MF) has been considered a powerful instrument of Development and improvement of the quality of life for many poor communities worldwide. However, on account of several developments over the last decade (over-lending, competition within MF organizations, natural resource constraints, and organizational failures...which may become worse on account of COVID-19), there appears to have been a reduction in the efficiency of MF in addressing poverty.
At the same time, there are still large communities that are unbanked or under-banked, and thus still excluded from financial services. It would be a worthwhile effort to take DeFi to these grassroots communities. However, in doing so, several important challenges need to be first addressed, including, but not limited to:
- Lack of policy support for crypto (for instance, India, which has many millions of excluded citizens, is not receptive to crypto at this time, and may required policy advocacy to achieve it)
- The Digital Divide (device limitations, bandwidth limitations, low educational levels of users)
- Lack of institutional mechanisms at the grassroots (ie., community groups, savings-credit-groups, co-ops) that can viably handle microdefi
- Cybersecurity and related areas (given that many participants would be first-generation technology users)
- The need for locally-relatable currencies/tokens (since many countries do not have Central Bank Digital Currencies or locally-relevant stablecoins)
As a professional working with socially-marginalized communities for over three decades, as an IT professional, and as a crypto enthusiast who's been involved with it from 2013, I'd like to ask if there is any interest in the community in working together to solve this problem. Any comments or questions are welcome. Pls contact me directly if required.
Thanks and best regards
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via DeFi https://www.reddit.com/r/defi/comments/i0hji4/microdefi_taking_defi_to_the_worlds_most_needy/
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