Why the world needs Bitcoin!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Bitcoin is everywhere. There isn’t a media outlet that has not covered Bitcoin.

For many the jury is still out on Bitcoins. Early adopters are pursuing and pushing adoption of it. Speculators can’t get enough of it. Legislators are scratching their heads how to control and legislate it. Some bankers are dismissing it as a fad, others are losing sleep over it (though they don’t admit it). Money Transfer Operators are divided, Freelancers love it. Merchants want to adopt it. Consumers are confused. Most of the world doesn’t even know about it.

Suffice to say, Bitcoin is gaining momentum, whether we like it or not.

At present Bitcoin is not as prevalent in society as the proponents would like it to be. Almost everyone that I personally know who owns Bitcoins, is saving them (in the hopes of making ridiculous amounts of money) should the prices rise as steeply as the Winklevoss twins would like you to believe. My friends and family are not using Bitcoins to make purchases or to transfer money. The reason? The need is not so much there (….yet!)

There is however a market segment I would very much like to touch upon. That of Money Transfers. I’m not going to cite numbers of how big the money transfer market is (suffice to say its huge), or how Bitcoin will disrupt the market, etc. I want to talk about the sheer demand for sending across small payments and the inability to do so.

Consider this: there are millions of people who are working or living overseas. They may be classified as expats, diaspora, migrant workers, etc. nomenclature notwithstanding, almost everyone knows of someone working across-the-border.

Every now and then, there is a need to send across a small sum of money. Sub $100 payments.

  • A father may want to send his daughter $50 to buy a dress.
  • A brother may want to spot his younger brother $25 for a date,
  • A relative may want to send you $15 so you can have some cash.
  • A working parent abroad may have children who want to buy something and you want to send them $20
  • A bread-earner abroad may need to send his spouse some grocery money like $60

The use-cases are endless.

For migrant workers (mostly blue collar workers and even for white collar workers), sending such small amounts is just not economically viable. They have to either send a larger amount or they will pool their transfers with someone else.

In the absence of both, they will use gray channels to send the money across, i.e. HundiHawalaFei Qian, etc.

Try sending US$ 50 from US to Nepal. It might just cost you US$ 50 just in fees alone. Same case of sending GBP 100 from London to Kenya, almost GBP 20 in fees. So much so, many money transfer companies will simply not process transfer amounts below US$ 200. Why? Because it is not economically viable for them.

Even the World Bank Remittance Cost Calculator shows the minimum transferable amount (on which data has been collected) as US$ 200. (See:https://remittanceprices.worldba…)

There is literally no hope. The Western Unions and MoneyGrams of the world have a grip on transfer-fees. The MTOs who are in this game, care less. They want to make more and more money, by milking their fellow countrymen.

The governments in most cases are myopic when it comes to the financial freedom and trading freedom Bitcoin brings. For the hardworking migrant worker… the gloom hangs around.

Bitcoin is changing that. Forever.

For the first time in history, sending across sub-$100 payments is very easy. One of the strong points of Bitcoin is that it is able to send across very minuscule amounts across. Theoretically you can send a penny across, provided you find someone to pay you out in one.

Social entrepreneurs are sprouting up like wild mushrooms in cities all over the world (developed and under-developed). They are accepting Bitcoins into their wallets sent from overseas diaspora and exchanging them into the native currencies for local payouts.

Friends and family are now able to send across money from one part of the world to another, instantly, almost for free. The interchange fees are relatively very low and because of competition from others who enter into this space, will continue to be low.

These social entrepreneurs are then tying up with Bitcoin exchanges to then sell off their bitcoins for fiat conversions and repeat the cycle all over again.

This may or may not sound very disruptive to those working on Sand Hill Road, but ask the 10,000s of people who are now conducting transactions using bitcoins for cross-border money transfer, the solution is nothing short of a miracle.

The money for the 21st Century and beyond, has finally arrived.

No more delays. No more high-fees. No more excuses. No more disappointment.

3/5th of the world’s population (if not more) resides in what is termed as Third World Countries. Financial inclusion for them has been relatively restricted to the geographical boundaries of their country. Suddenly, the floodgates of opportunities have opened up for them.

In pale comparison, think of your existing world without mobile payments or mobile wallets. Think of a world without Visa/Mastercard, or without PayPal. You’d feel pretty left out, knowing the rest of the world has it. The very same analogy can be applied here. Now a person sitting in Timbuktu can pay anyone, anywhere, provided they accept Bitcoins.

This is the very same vision that CoinX Founder & CEO Megan Burton shares. The ability to empower people on a grassroots level for payments is where thereal-difference would be made.

In closing, to give you some food for thought take a few minutes out and see the wonderful video Jacob Hansen (See: https://twitter.com/ejacobhansen) of Bitcoin Films (See: http://bitcoinfilm.org/) has put together.

It is an eye-opening short-film on how a very small transfer on Bitcoins can change the lives of someone near and dear to us, yet far away.

This page was last updated on January 13, 2025.