Blockchain Revolution

Ending the Remittance Rip-off
Just about every report, article, or book reviewing the benefits of cryptocurrencies
discusses the opportunity of remittances. And for good reason. The largest flow of
funds into the developing world is not foreign aid or direct foreign investment. Rather,
it is remittance money repatriated to poor countries from their diasporas living abroad.
The process takes time, patience, and sometimes courage to travel each week to the
same wire transfer office’s seedy neighborhood, fill out the same paperwork each
time, and pay the same 7 percent fee. There is a better way.
Abra and other companies are building payment networks using the blockchain.
Abra’s goal is to turn every one of its users into a teller. The whole process—from the
funds leaving one country to their arriving in another—takes an hour rather than a
week and costs 2 percent versus 7 percent or higher. Abra wants its payment network
to outnumber all physical ATMs in the world. It took Western Union 150 years to get
to 500,000 agents worldwide. Abra will have that many tellers in its first year.