Almost five years ago, I was publishing on Steemit.com a short essay arguing that blockchain and cryptocurrencies were about to disrupt the grip on power of the incumbent financial system, by making available pluralistic, alternative "monies" and credit lines outside of its remit.
Not many understood this (and that's alas still the case today), so a few month later I elaborated in somewhat longer and more complex essay titled "Why Blockchain Is a Revolution", in which I was writing:
For the first time in history, thanks to blockchain technology, we can organize ourselves and interact with others along the whole human spectrum in a "nation agnostic" way, at both finer and coarser levels than those of a Country. These applications, these meaningful human interactions on both the social and economic dimensions were not possible or not sustainable before the advent of blockchain technology.
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People in places such as Venezuela, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia and others can afford a better dress or an additional meal on the family table because they found in the steem blockchain ecosystem a means to express themselves in a way that someone, somewhere, found valuable and rewarded.
Without having to pull out their credit card. With no need to surrender personal data and be assaulted by ads. With no one having the power to arbitrarily change the rules of the system overnight. With no one "taking a cut" in the process.
I believe that is nothing short of a revolution.
I've always considered that steem and hive have several unique advantages over other blockchain systems, among which the three most important are:
- the ability to earn cryptocurrency with no capital outlay, unlike most classical blockchains where one has to buy "mining equipment" before being able to earn.
- the absence of transaction fees, which removes any barriers that might hamper social interactions
- the "human friendly" adresses ("@sorin.cristescu" rather than "0x7f2a502d2c6713Ab791d29f2B3B94d0f9241908b"), which foster community building
However I assumed that "people in places such as Venezuela, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia ..." would be able to contribute to the steem and/or hive communities, that they would avail themselves of an adequate device connected to the Internet. Yet the places on the globe that most need help are places where even that basic premise is called into question.
I learned that when approached by John Kahwa, alias @juliasjohn, a Luo farmer from Kenya who proved computer-literate enough to create an account on the XBTS exchange (based on bitShares), and install Ecency and Telegram on his old phone.
John asked a few questions in the Ecency Telegram group and I answered. We started chatting. Unlike 90% of the accounts trying to interact with me on Telegram, John appeared like a honest guy trying to improve his lot. He explained that he'd like to post better articles on Hive about Kenya and his life as a farmer, but his old phone made this too painful and he first needed a better phone.
John explained that, if he had 500 HIVE, he could use XBTS to exchange those into about $250 (in Kenyan shillings) and use those to buy a better smartphone (shown in the picture above).
I asked John to write and post a "Loan request" on the blockchain, which acts here as a "borderless notary". Hive has registered in its block 69,428,536 the transaction 4026c9463df7c5c17d902ec12c9ee077d0015bca signed by @juliasjohn, in whose body the author says that he hopes @sorin.cristescu will transfer to the @kwh50 user on @xbtsio the sum of 500 HIVE to be used for the acquisition of a new smartphone and to be repaid in November 2024, two years from now.
I have obliged in the transaction c5cf40b75a02a789af922817fb8b0fea1f54a593 which I signed and which was included in the block 69 434 621. As per John's request, 500 HIVE went to the kwh50 user of xbtsio, the Hive blockchain acting again as global notary.
This is an unsecured loan and there is no formal enforcement mechanism - the only thing binding John now is his word. As a financial process, that part could be improved, but I'd like to invite the readers to focus not on what's missing, but on what incredible thing Hive has achieved here:
A random guy from Europe, who's never travelled to Africa (even less so to Kenya) has momentarily taken the role of a credit institution and extended credit to a guy he never met, and might never meet in real life. In a few seconds, with basically no fees, and no "legal entity" acting as an intermediary. Possibly changing the life of the recipient.
Imagine how difficult (if at all possible) that would have been if fiat money had been the only possible lending medium! I probably wouldn't have even considered it!
The revolution is afoot. John, over to you now. Show us your new smartphone, and do the hive community proud!