ABSTRACT

This study considers the idea of Blockchain technology (BCT) as an instrument to solve the problem of financial inclusion in emerging countries. We analyzed the history of Wala, a blockchain (BC) startup born in Africa to build a new financial ecosystem designed to meet the specific needs of low socioeconomic status (SES) individuals. Despite its early success, Wala was forced to retire from the market in 2019, providing a unique case study to analyze the barriers that prevent BCT from deploying its full potential in emerging countries. Our findings show the presence of a mismatch between BCT features and low SES needs, highlighting the need for immediate efforts to solve the digital divide problem and to nudge for the adoption of the new digital technologies in place of the pre-existing informal mechanisms.

摘要

本研究将区块链技术 (BCT) 的想法视为解决新兴国家金融包容性问题的工具。我们分析了 Wala 的历史，Wala 是一家诞生于非洲的区块链 (BC) 初创公司，旨在构建新的金融生态系统，旨在满足低社会经济地位 (SES) 个人的特定需求。尽管早期取得了成功，但 Wala 于 2019 年被迫退出市场，提供了一个独特的案例研究来分析阻止 BCT 在新兴国家充分发挥其潜力的障碍。我们的研究结果表明 BCT 功能与低 SES 需求之间存在不匹配，突出表明需要立即努力解决数字鸿沟问题，并推动采用新的数字技术来代替先前存在的非正式机制。