Building a Blockchain Marketplace for Fintech Apps
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Blockchain, Telco, Financial Inclusion

Africa has always been tough for investors to access from the outside-in. Continent-wide, fraud and corruption have been rampant along the mainstream financial rails. Many regions lack formal banking infrastructure, which has resulted in populations being excluded from global economic opportunity.

We’re navigating this market opportunity by developing a blockchain-based marketplace that works in harmony with local practices and provides immense value to the community.

What We’re Building

We’re excited to share our work in building a self-managed and self-governing decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that bridges financial services into Africa.

Through blockchain, a decentralized banking system emulates economic patterns in local communities. Decentralized banking solutions make it possible for overseas investors, of all types, to contribute liquidity to financial products for Africans.

These include dApps for p2p mobile money sending, loans, and ecommerce. Developer teams are incentivized to solve problems at the community level. Decentralized banking, as a concept, is about building upon existing human infrastructure.

We have designed a tokenomics model, identified the core pieces of technology necessary to make our system work, and are seeking to break ground on an MVP for this blockchain-based vision.

Our Tokenomics Model

Before building this blockchain-based solution, the team behind Access launched a financial service app called Atlas. Over a period of two years, Atlas grew to a user base of 30,000 weekly active users and 500 banking agents.

The Atlas Agent App

The Vision We’re Bringing to Life

Centralized banking systems haven’t worked in Africa.

That’s because these models are based on Western methods, ported into a society that manages their money in a different way. The end result has been fraud due to middlemen, corruption, and a financial system that fails to deliver on its promise. For this reason, Africa as a region has been shut off to investment from the rest of the world. Banks have struggled to set up networks in rural towns. Economic pathways are broken, and financial institutions have struggled to manage their customers’ money.

Access is creating a bridge between the rest of the world and Africa, by combining local community banking and public blockchains. The model incorporates standards for voting and allocating resources for projects. Using this pathway, institutions of all types can fund fintech projects in Africa.

Why this Will Work

The Access marketplace builds upon existing economic activity. Our team has spent months working with on-the-ground populations in Africa across numerous visits. We have learned that people manage their money in the same way that consensus protocols and ledgers function on the blockchain. We chose technology that adapts to existing community needs rather than the clunkiness of the other way around.

Atlas Agent transacting with Atlas Client

In the following 50 second clip from a talk that he gave at the 2018 Concordia Summit, as part of the U.N. General Assembly, our co-founder Mickey Costa explains this concept:

TLDR:

Communities in Ghana already maintain decentralized ledgers. Blockchain technology taps into already-existing, on-the-ground activity.

Community Leader Aida Sharing The Story Behind The Ledgers

Cryptocurrency adoption is rapidly growing in the African continent. Throughout the region, there is already a familiarity with mobile banking. Blockchain technology is a natural fit for the region’s decentralized banking needs.

Access Is an Ecosystem

Any financial institution or mobile network operator can integrate with this ecosystem. This system creates trust-based constraints that outsmart fraud in the centralized banking system. Atlas will be the pilot app on this blockchain, which our team has tested in non-blockchain based settings. In addition to the described user growth metrics, our pilot has achieved the following metrics:

100% payback rate on $500,000 in microloans

100% KYC and AML

Close to 0% fraud in 30,000 banking marketplace

The Atlas Platform will be the on-the-ground launch partner for the Access Network. You can read about Atlas’s growth path to 30,000 weekly unique visitors, here.

The Atlas Network that has been integral in Access’ growth

How Communities Pick dApps

Access has built its DAO with trust, transparency, and integrity. All users and entities, on all sides of the platform, pass background and compliance checks. The tokenomics model is driven by a delegated voting system, in which ACX token-holders decide what new tools they want:

Token holders unlock tokens from the Access Development DAO (“Dev DAO”)

Developers submit proposals to earn the reward

Users stake tokens until a voting cycle finishes

How to Get Involved

Interested in partnering with or building your app on Access? Email info@joinaccess.com.

Join Our Journey

We’re spearheading a financial revolution, with key backers and partners. Become a part of the movement today:

Website: http://joinaccess.com

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/acx_network/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ACXnetwork/

Twitter: @ACX_Network

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acxnetwork/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accessnetwork/

Contributors Statement

This work was a collaboration between the entire Access Network team, ranging from the CEO to CTO, COO, Chief of Staff, and other members of leadership. Emily Burchill, Shannon Wu, Ritika Puri, and Karissa Domondon created this story.

Disclosure

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and are no guarantee of the future performance of any Access Network fund or service. This material has been prepared for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice. Access Network is currently unlaunched and has not announced a token generation event. Blog posts are intended to provide education about the business model and its path to development, only.