The prepaid airtime’s three main problems include inefficiency and fraud, reliance on physical stores, and non-transferable credits. With the help of blockchain technology, these problems will cease to exist.
Blockchain has created a way for digital money to move around the world securely. It uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to keep a decentralized record of data. That data can be cryptocurrency, digital assets, records, anything that can be encoded and distributed. Since the ledger is public, all transactions are transparent and verifiable, reducing the chance of fraud.
The blockchain is built for microtransactions, which is crucial to prepaid airtime purchasing habits in low to middle-income countries. A micropayment (under US$5) can be difficult to do in traditional systems because of centralized transaction fees. Having a decentralized blockchain lets users send cryptocurrency without going through a third party. For example, South African startup Wala uses the blockchain to facilitate over 6 thousand microtransactions daily across Africa — with each transaction less than US$1.
Blockchain is particularly useful for users who are unbanked, the majority of whom live in low to middle-income countries. Financial inclusion (giving access to financial services, especially digital ones) can help reduce poverty, manage financial risk, help people save, and lower costs of remittances. In recent years, organizations such as Airdrop Venezuela and eatBCH use blockchain technology to send aid to countries such as Venezuela and South Sudan. And blockchain adoption is rising: since Bitcoin was created in 2009, the number of blockchain wallets has steadily increased, with the number of users reaching nearly 35 million as of March 2019.
The XLD Token Team plans to combine blockchain technology with the existing XLOAD Platform to address prepaid airtime’s main problems:
- Reduce physical inefficiencies and fraud by using an all-digital global network, decreasing the need to pad prices for the consumer. Any transactions made on the blockchain are transparent and verifiable
- Remove barriers by enabling on-demand consumption; users will no longer need to go to physical locations (or even be banked) to make transactions. The blockchain is borderless and accessible by everyone
- Transform non-transferable airtime credits with a single universal token. Imagine being able to buy airtime for any mobile phone regardless of mobile operator, anywhere in the world
The end result: universal prepaid airtime for billions of users.
Sources:
- 2 Barton, James. (2019, February 13). Juvo and Strategy Analytics highlight prepaid churn in new report
- Bicheno, Scott. (2019, February 13). Prepaid market is an operator blind spot – research
- Spilka, Dmytro. (2019, August 13). A glimpse into the future of mobile crypto microtransactions
- (2017). The Global Findex Database
- Spilka, Dmytro. (2019, August 13). A glimpse into the future of mobile crypto microtransactions
- Kapilkov, Michael. (2020, July 29). Ethereum’s Adoption Rate After 5 Years Far Exceeds Bitcoin’s
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