Bitcoin appears to be good solution for the unbanked
According to recent research from Arcane Research, undocumented immigrants are using Bitcoin to send money home. Many people leave their own country to work abroad, and need to send money back to the families they left behind. Regular banking channels are off limits, so they need to find ways to help the ones they care about.
Useful Tulip's Matt Ahlborg talked about the process,
"Immigrants in Western countries transfer value abroad via gift cards on Paxful. The gift cards are purchased by the immigrant at a local store...This gift card is then photographed, and the photo gets sent to friends and family abroad. They later sell those gift cards on Paxful for BTC. Then, they convert the BTC to local currency by selling the BTC to a buyer in the local market via one of the P2P-platforms."
Why it matters: There are billions of people in the world who can't access banking services, and cryptocurrencies are a good solution. For various reasons, the banking system can't be used by many people, most of them very poor. This means that they are limited to using expensive platforms, or being shut out of the system altogether. Clearly, this isn't acceptable, and it is shameful that there aren't systems in place to help the poorest people on earth. Crypto can do a lot to help people who simply have no other options, and need to send money to people in distant places. As more people discover how useful cryptos are, their use by the unbanked is almost certain to grow.
