Bitcoin Microfinance Can ‘Reach Anyone with a Cell Phone Who Wants a Friggin’ Loan’

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Advocates say that Bitcoin could democratize finance. Case in point, the founder of peer-to-peer lending service ProudSource Joe McKinney is building a company that aims to connect underbanked populations to capital so that they can build businesses or fund an education. The attitude can be summed up as so: Why should only the wealthy fulfill their business dreams? McKinney said over Skype: “If you add microfinancing, you are reaching anyone with a [friggin’] cell phone who wants a [friggin’] loan.”

McKinney explained how bitcoin — or other cryptocurrencies — along with microfinancing, and mobile technology could form a new platform that would make it easier to dole out loans and charity.

Today more than 10,000 microfinancing institutions hand out loans to the disadvantaged. Lenders can browse websites like Kiva and choose who to fund a woman looking to launch a business or a farmer facing a rough patch.

Bitcoin advocates that the cryptocurrency is a new way to approach the classic idea. So while services like Kivaact as an intermediary with agents on the ground who manage loans, bitcoin allows for peer-to-peer lending. In doing so, Bitcoin slashes the typical transactions costs. Lenders and borrowers can connect peer-to-peer, like over the ProudSource platform. And it can all be done by phone.

Source: Coin Telegraph (link opens in a new window)

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lending, microfinance