Watch the recording of this webinar, recorded on December 15, 2022, on our YouTube channel.
After the success of M-Pesa in Kenya, mobile money leapt to the forefront of development conversations about financial access and inclusion. In the years since, digitalization has proliferated and diversified, from digital payments systems, to digital currencies backed by a central bank (CBDC), to cryptocurrencies. What does this mean for financial inclusion? Which uses of digital money can solve real access and inclusion problems, and which are techno-optimistic “solutions” in search of problems?
In this edition of the faiVLive, the Financial Access Initiative’s Tim Ogden and Jesse McWaters, the Global Head of Regulatory Advocacy at Mastercard, explored basic frameworks for understanding the differences between the rapidly growing types of digital currencies. They covered new and evolving digital means of exchange, how they interact, and what that means for pro-poor financial inclusion.
We talked about how payments systems are different from digital currencies and how digital currencies are different from cryptocurrencies. Do digital currencies fundamentally change the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion? What does crypto add (or subtract) from the story? What should you be paying attention to, what questions do you need to be asking, and what can you roll your eyes at? Throughout, we pulled in questions and perspectives from the audience.
