Forget Bitcoin: There’s A Better Model For Mobile Money

From ReadWrite

“It's called M-Pesa, and it's also spreading around the world.

Bitcoin has all the buzz right now. But there's another financial innovation that could have a far more meaningful impact on the lives of billion of people without bank accounts across the world.

In 2007, two years before the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the original proposal for Bitcoin, Safaricom, a Kenyan telecommunications company effectively controlled by Vodafone, launched M-Pesa, a service that let anyone with an active cell-phone line send and receive money instantly.

“Pesa” means money in Swahili, and M-Pesa, short for mobile money, has become synonymous with money in Kenya. M-Pesa transactions accounts for 40 percent of the gross domestic product. It has spread beyond Kenya’s borders to South Africa, Afghanistan, India, and most recently Romania. It doesn't require smartphones; it works on the very basic so-called “feature” phones that are common in the developing world. If you can send a text message, you can bank with M-Pesa. “

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