10 sats \ 1 reply \ @KenyaCoin 11 Mar 2022 \ on: Cryptocurrency payments key to lowering cross-border remittance charges and boosting microwork uptake in Africa, study shows | TechCrunch bitcoin
Another article for this study:
How Kenyan Micro-Task Workers Are Using Stablecoins To Make Affordable Cross-Border Payments
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rufaskamau/2022/03/10/how-kenyan-micro-task-workers-are-using-stablecoins-to-make-affordable-cross-border-payments
https://archive.ph/yl6kK <-- Archive, with no subscription requirement, no paywall, no ads
This pilot succeedeed not because a stablecoin was used, but because the transfer and conversion fees were small, permitting payment to be received immediately upon completion at the end of each day.
Most workers converted their stablecoins into KSh immediately upon receiving them.
They could have used bitcoin on Lighting network even on a volatile day for bitcoin like today was, as if you are only holding the cryptocurrency for a mere matter of minutes, there's little volatility within such a short period of time (although there are times some volatility in minutes does happen).
The study was performed using a fiat gateway (Kotani) that is affiliated with CELO (participated in a CELO hackathon and received a grant, or investment funding from CELO, I think it was?) which issues the cUSD stablecoin that was used in the study.
KotaniPay charges a 2% off-ramp fee when it performs the USD -> KES conversion.
Selling the cUSD using LocalCoinSwap's P2P platform, the worker could find a buyer willing to pay global USDKES spot rate or higher. If the worker received the pay using Lightning network ⚡, selling through Paxful (which permits LN for deposits and withdrawals) would likely them earn a nice, several-percent premium even.
reply