25 May VIDEO: Next Generation Payments for Africa

The payments system is antiquated and the way we transfer and distribute value has lots of room for improvement. 

Transferring value . .  quickly and cheaply  . . without a third party.  Just like we transfer data like emails or photos.

Payment blockchains are solving for currency volatility and settlement transaction times and cost. 

Current payments companies use a digital IOU that is sent in place of actual money.  With crypto the recipient gets the actual value immediately without third-party dependencies.  Cryptocurrencies are like cash in this way.

Unlike existing fee based where both parties need a bank account, payment blockchains don’t need a bank account, opening up financial services for Africa and the two billion-plus unbanked worldwide. 

More developed systems could also do with an upgrade and globalisation of payments.  A simple smooth user experience.  Instant transfer.  No authorities and fee-extracting intermediaries

Turning money into bits creates the opportunity for developers to program it and build all sorts of autonomous and value added services on top of it.  In the same way they have done so creatively with photos and text.

As they said, “Payment blockchains could end up doing to banks what email did to the post office   . . and what VoIP services did to landlines”.

With thanks to Andreessen Horowitz - a16z for their email on Next Generation Payments