Are Cryptocurrencies the future of the remittance system?
By: Crypto Wizards
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Banking, Finance And Banking, Blockchain

The global market for digital remittances is set to touch 8590 million of USD in 2025 (source: https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/digital-remittance-market-2018-global-analysis-opportunities-and-forecast-to-2023-2018-07-10). Currently, this market moves money across the globe for about 1/6th the size of the forecasts above,which is already huge. We can easily say that getting shares of this market is of fundamental strategic importance for banks and other service providers. And this is testified by the number of new services which are released every year and by the solutions which are presented for future ones. Notwithstanding the advancements which have been made so far, the problems with current remittance services are well-known: some of them are slow, inefficient, expensive and rely of Swift. With a world in constant evolution, new emerging technologies and changes in our everyday lives, we need to ask ourselves if it’s time for those services to be disrupted.

The answer is simple: yes, it’s right about time! If we look back at 10 years ago we notice how banks and WesternUnion were the main medium for cross border transactions. Nowadays, we can count several services which do pretty much the same at lower fees, such as Transferwise, Revolut, CurrencyFair and others. I personally use, on a daily basis, Revolut and quite often CurrencyFair. I need to say I’m very satisfied with those products as I find them fast and also quite cheap. I was very thrilled when I realised Revolut allowed Cryptocurrencies too, but my expectations were trumped when I noticed you cannot actually send those tokens/coin to any other crypto address. It’s good to open the app to Crypto, as this expands the general accessibility to the public, but that’s about it. A wallet in which you can only trade for Fiat (at very high fees too) and not transfer currencies has no utility, at least for me.

In the crypto space then, there’re already some pretty good products for remittances, the king of which is, without any doubt is XRP: super fast, reliable, cheap and one of the best blochckains out there. But it’s a product mainly for Banks, not for everyday people like you and I. I mean, of course you can use it as a base trading pair for other crypto and fiat, but there’s still something missing. BTC was the first cryptocurrency to be identified as the ‘new world currency’ but, given its technological limitations, mining system, proof of work, expensive fees and speed it’s now more of a store of value coin, similar to how we invest in gold. There’re other alternatives out there.

If I put together the features of some of the products mentioned above, I end up with thinking we need a service combining the following:

traditional banking accounts for Fiat currencies which can be used to store money, send it abroad and also obtain credit (loans, mortgages and so on); cryptocurrencies, from storing them, to exchanging them for fiat, to trading them, send them to other crypto wallets and so on; remittances in fiat at low fees and high-speed; accessibility to new emerging markets like India.

This service already exist and its platform is due to be released soon, and it’s called Cashaa. It is a ‘global account to hold, receive & exchange various currencies and crypto assets’ for individual and businesses: a one stop shop account for traditional banking (fiat), innovative banking (cryptocurrencies) and finance (trading). It’s meant to transfer money almost instantly to 120+ countries, at low fees, thanks to the blockchain technology. But it’s not only that. Say you want to spend your fiat money in India or Canada or any other compatible country (please see website): you’ll have a card you can use to withdraw from ATMs and use for contact less payments, in local currencies. If Fiat isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll also be able to spend your BTC, ETH and others every-time and everywhere! It’s pretty much like Revolut on steroids.

This is probably one of the most important features of the platform: cryptocurrencies are still relatively hard to access to and, even more true, they’re hard to spend and use in our everyday life without some computer or technical knowledge. What this platform aims for is, in fact, making the use of crypto accessible to countless number of people, with a focus on the Indian market, which by potential numbers and opportunity is the best one to involve. Unless everyday people can use and spend crypto with ease there cannot be global adoption: this is part of the revolution we are all looking for.

A few other features are worth being mentioned. You need access to credit? You can use your cryptocurrency as collateral for loans, without the need to sell them: you can keep hodling your favourite coin and also get some money for your daily needs. What a blast! Additionally, you’ll be able to participate in ICOs from the convenience of your Cashaa account: one stop shop again for all your Fiat and crypto needs.

I’m very excited to put the platform to the test: as per Roadmap, though, we need to wait until November-December 2018 for it to be released, hoping that the technology behind it will already be mature enough to accommodate the envisaged functionalities. The team is working hard to make it happen. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to get some CAS tokens, which are the native currency of the platform. They’re currently trading around $0.02, so they’re a real bargain: they can be purchased for other cryptocurrencies on Cashaa exchange, on HitBTC, on Idex, Etherdelta and others. A few things which are worth mentioning about CAS is that its total supply is 1,000,000,000, of which 51% was reserved for the token sale, and only 20% was reserved for the team. Unsold tokens are now being distributed to ICO participants with PoS in a space of a year: this will be a good incentive for hodlers not to sell their coins and potentially bring the price up. More info on CAS tokens are available here https://cashaa.com/cas-token.php and I suggest you give this a thorough read.

I’m curious to know your thoughts about this, please feel free to comment, share and clap if you liked this article.

Thank you!

Disclaimer: this article does not constitute an invitation to purchase or sell securities in any jurisdiction or a solicitation or investment advice in Cashaa, CAS token or any other cryptocurrency, and is published for information purposes only. The reader undertakes to carry out appropriate research and in any case consult a professional before taking any decision regarding Cashaa or any other Cryptocurrency. The views expressed in this article are of personal nature, are not associated by any means with any Corporation, Cryptocurrency Exchange, do not constitute financial or legal advice. Use the Platform and other Exchanges at your own risk.