Money as a vehicle for value transfer is a phenomenon that has only been outlived by time itself. Starting from its most primitive form in ages past, passing through several evolution stages until present day electronic money services, the money market, especially in aspects of remittance has continually experienced one form of disruption or the other.
Technological advancement which has necessitated the institution of cross-border payments and transactions is a fundamental need that has given rise to remittances.
Existing complexities in remittance
In its current state, the remittance industry is complex, full of intermediaries, with huge margins and complicated settlement problems. One of the most prominent vehicles for money transfer worldwide is Western Union. It is a system that enables moneys sent to be received within minutes. However, due to the several intermediaries and associated charges, the so called efficient mode of remittance is plagued with a high cost of service delivery. For instance, it could cost up to $76 to send $900 through Western Union. This same setback confronts other similar conventional remittance services that currently exists within the financial ecosystem.
The blockchain solution
The emergence of blockchain technology has given rise to an array of acclaimed more effective and efficient remittance options that deliver faster, cheaper and secure means for mostly peer-to-peer money transfers.
This began with the first ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin as transfers were instant and almost at to cost, until it encountered the blocksize and scalability issues. Several other blockchain products have been created since Bitcoin, a good number of them like Litecoin and Dash as forks of the original Bitcoin protocol, while the Ethereum blockchain has on its own provided a platform for several other blockchains to be build on top of it with their various specific solutions.
Despite these developments, one major obstacle that has confronted the entire industry is the limitation of spread and adoption. This is mainly due to the perceived complications, or the non-easy entry processes for newbies who may know absolutely nothing about the blockchain industry.
Access through familiar territory
Introducing a seamless system that rides on the platform of an existing and familiar technology that has become an intrinsic part of global development is an innovation that Telcoin brings as a major disruption to the remittance industry. Making remittance as easy as receiving an SMS through mobile technology is as easy as it gets in a market that will have the capacity of reaching over 5 Billion population of the world. This number covers about 5 times the population of bank account owners globally – 1.2 Billion.
Telcoin services are designed to function upon the existing backbone of national telecom systems. Therefore, the partnership between both parties would make for an effective service delivery unto an already existing marketplace. The need for special technical knowledge, trust and KYC compliance will hence become unnecessary, while reach and practical adoption is as good as already exists with mobile technology.