The Status Quo
In America and elsewhere in the Western world, we take day to day banking services for granted. We are regular customers of banking products. We take advantage of them on a day to day basis.
But have you ever stopped and thought: "are other people around the world having these sort of rights as well?"
The blatant answer is: NO.
In Indonesia, over 80% of the people are unbanked. In China, a third is unbanked. In the Middle East, more than half the population are unbanked.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 12% of the population are banked.
THIS MEANS THAT LESS THAN 1 IN EVERY 8 PEOPLE LACK ACCESS TO EVEN BASIC BANKING TOOLS.
What makes those people not deserve basic banking tools? They've done nothing wrong. They are all hardworking people. They deserve to have a place to put their savings in, get a good amount of interest, and transfer money without huge fees like Western Union.
They deserve to have an online banking system, and not having to walk kilometres just to make a bank transfer.
But the problem is either because of lack of access, because of the fees attached(annual fees of maintaining an account, transfer fees, etc.), because of cultural traditions that disallows women to have private properties to themselves - although the right to private property has been long acknowledged by in 1948 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
And Steem can turn this unbanked crisis happening all over the world on its head. Fast and efficiently.
Why do we have to act? And why Steem?
Don't you think that people everywhere should deserve a better future, instead of a life in slums? Think about the endless possibilities if unbanked people for decades finally gets access to a banking system - it would turn their life around. It would literally be life changing. They can save up, get a decent interest on their savings, and invest.
For these women who are forced by their culture to not keep private belongings, we as global citizens have the responsibility to change that. Governments won't do jackshit about it. It's all up to us to protect their very basic human rights.
You might ask, why not bitcoin? Why not Ethereum? Why not Paypal? Why not just build more banks?
The reality is first of all, banks doesn't equal banking. You're going to make these people's lives worse by introducing them to a pretty much blatant scam(fractional reserve) that can collapse anytime from a bank run. "Banking is necessary, banks are not." Also, you can't just force corporations to build banks where there will be literally one or two customers every week. That would be unprofitable. Moreover, the fees banks charge are ridiculous. It doesn't apply to day to day living for these unbanked people at all, who usually are living with a low socioeconomic status.
Paypal, again, has lots of hidden fees. And the verification process is ridiculous. And based on my experience, they require a bank account to link to for you to be eligible to send funds. But where do these unbanked people have a bank account? Nowhere. Also, do paypal pay interest? Probably not.
Let's now look at existing cryptocurrencies. Bitcoins and Ethereum are way too hard for an African who has barely any idea how to surf the web, let alone manage his own private keys, understand how to sign a message, how to receive money, etc. etc. And of course, their value is way too volatile. They can crash up to 30% in a day, or even more.
This is why Steem is the perfect platform for these unbanked people.
Steemit, Steem's main GUI, has a easily understood interface. Way simpler than blockchain.info, which is probably the simplest of all bitcoin wallets.
Steemdollars acts as a saving protocol for these unbanked people. Steemdollars are very stable, as it is pegged to $1 worth of Steem. It also gives you a decent interest, 10% per annum, which is considerably more than all of the banks. And considering that instead of using a fractional reserve model, Steemdollars are always fully backed by Steem, which creates an extra layer of security.
If these unbanked people would like to access investments, they can easily do so through the form of Steempower. This is basically buying shares in Steem, and it could yield them lots for the future.
Having a platform where they can share their opinion without any form of political censorship, or cultural censorship will be eye opening with these people. They can get educated on world affairs. The opportunities are endless with Steem.
And finally, and most importantly:
No transaction fees!
Nothing. Nope. Nada.
Think about what we can do to all these people on planet Earth.
Where to start?
I suggest that we start with China. Internet coverage is already widespread, although we can still help that 33% or so people who don't have access to banking tools. This could be an experimental phase.
After the experimental phase, we can promote Steem as a method to help the unbanked globally. To Africa, the Middle East, and all over the world.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Steem is the perfect platform for the unbanked population of the world to save their money, invest their money, as well as managing their money. They can also through the help of Steem escape censorship, as well as violations of human rights such as right to private property. This means that the oppressed women have the opportunity to start a new life with the money they save, instead of obeying their husbands, and essentially being slaves.
People have already launched technology which already has helped the unbanked with bitcoin, however, I believe Steem can take it too a new level, and truly revolutionize banking.