Getting mobile
Earlier this week, I went to a two day Tech In Ghana Conference. It was part of my continued reconnaissance into investment opportunities in Africa.
What struck me most on Day One of the event was the prominence of ‘mobile money’ in Ghana and in Africa general. In today's video I discuss my thoughts around this and the role/ gap Steem (and Steem Dollar in particular) can fill in this eco-system.
Mobile disruption
Although ‘mobile money’ is a relatively nascent industry, I feel it is one tailor-made for cryptocurrencies to disrupt. For me, the cryptocurrency that is able to corner the market and become "the" decentralised money network; enabling fast and effortless peer-to-peer transactions across the globe, will win the largest market share of the whole space.
This cryptocurrency network will undoubtedly need to be primarily a mobile one. People need to be able to whip about their phones and transact in seconds as mobile will (in my view) fast become the primary mode by which people across the globe will transfer value.
For example, mobile use in Ghana has 109% penetration (thanks largely to people needing to have more than one phone in order to get better network conference across the region). Also Mobile bank deposits in Ghana rose from 16bn in 2016 to 32bn in 2017.
While the uptake and adoption of cryptocurrency lives largely in the realm of speculation; mobile money (the ability to transact using a phone or portable device) is a phenomenon that exists in the here and now. It can't be ignored in any discussion around cryptocurrency adoption.
Steem development
In this regards I’m watching the development of the Steem mobile wallet more closely. I remember it featuring prominently during Steemfest 2 in November. If I remember rightly the mobile wallet was supposed to launch in December however it appears to be on the back burner as I haven’t heard much since.
This is a pity as I think a Steem mobile wallet along with a Steem Dollar that is pegged to the US dollar can be the ace in the hole for Steem. While the ability to mine cryptocurrency through engagement and social interaction, as well as the ability to post censorship resistant content are fantastic features of Steem; a US dollar pegged Steem Dollar could easily turn out to be it's chief tenant.
Short sighted bonanza
The spike in the Steem Dollar price has been nice for the contributors to Steem’s ‘proof-of-brain’ protocol. However this windfall should be looked at as a Pyrrhic victory. The Steem Dollar is effectively becoming just another token to speculate on… and the world needs another token like it needs a hole in the head!
What the world could use is a solid fiat pegged cryptocurrency asset. A convenient way, for anyone in the world, to store (say) dollar value, in their own wallet, and transact (any amount of that value) to anyone else in the world, in seconds, for little or no fee, is a huge game-changer.
With the uncertainty (and vulnerabilities) surrounding US Tether, there is a gap in the cryptocurrency market; the Steem Dollar had the potential to fill that void until it lost it's peg.
Pinning down the dollar
A relative straight-forward way to regain the dollar peg would be to allow a ‘reverse conversion’ (of Steem for Steem Dollar at the price of 1 dollar per Steem Dollar). I know the white paper talks about abuses that can arise from this however I do not see the logic in the argument made; but that’s a discussion for another day. (For more on this topic, see this brilliant post by @lukestokes).
Suffice to say, the stability a pegged Steem Dollar could bring to the cryptocurrency community and the mobile money eco-system is huge. Both contain populations that would benefit from the opportunity to store and transact dollar value on a blockchain. We should take time to consider whether that blockchain should be Steem.