It is so exciting to see Steem evolving more and more! Today, one of the most prominent international money transfer providers from Europe, Asia and Americas to Brazil (BlockChain Transfers AG) announced on their blog that they started using Steem for their worldwide remittances to Brazil.
For those who don't know, remittances became one of the first real use cases for cryptocurrencies. The average cost of sending money worldwide was around 7.5% in 2014, but it can easily top 20% in some countries.
Source: The World Bank
Reported figures show around $600 billion are transferred every year, especially from workers that migrate to developed countries in order to send money to their family in poor or developing countries. The true amount (accounted and unaccounted) may be over a trillion dollars. More than plain cold numbers, millions of lives depend on such finite resources. I believe we can be very proud if Steem can help such people send money home at a much lower cost, as every dollar counts for those people.
If Bitcoin already works for remittances, then what is the role of Steem?
The answer is massification. Aside of technological features, Steem has a unique feature among cryptocurrencies: its social network. Today, bitcoin is a tiny niche in humanity, and it is growth in the remittances market share is, therefore, insufficient. The problem is that few people know what bitcoin is or whether it can be used for remittances. Also, they do not have the ability to set up bitcoin wallets and perform bitcoin transfers themselves. Most remittances worldwide are still done by incumbents (Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria...) despite all technological advances. Facebook could be a real contender in this market, but it lacks some technological features (at least in the foreseeable future). Although it may take some years, I believe, once Steem can reach a sufficient level of notoriety, it will be in a good position (both socially and technologically speaking) to become a relevant, cost-efficient and valuable remittance tool for millions of families.
Remittances need to be solved one way or another, and the current payment processors just take an awful lot in fees. Steem Dollar on the other hand has no fees and it can be quickly and easily sent to people.
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I believe both have different properties, but who decides that is the market (i.e. people worldwide).