One of the realities of living in poverty is that income can be irregular and undependable. People living in poverty need to access a wide range of financial products and services that are tailored to their circumstances. Financial services can help people build assets through savings or financing income-generating activities, and can make it easier for them to manage shocks, such as medical emergencies, death, theft, or natural disasters. Research captured in Portfolios of the Poor shows that, despite many hurdles, even people surviving on $2 a day strive to save, get credit, take out insurance, and make payments and transfers using whatever means they can.
The problem remains that low-income people pay high costs and sometimes rely on insecure, unpredictable, and unscrupulous options to access basic financial products and services, which is why the financial inclusion movement is striving to encourage the delivery of a full range of financial products at fair prices and without the risks poor people face today.
AssetStream is a platform that provides loans to individuals, businesses, and organization that lack access to the financial tools of a bank, effectively reaching the unbanked population. The AssetStream initiative is been set up to combat poverty among the unbanked people by creating a peer-to-peer microfinance platform which will make lending easy and convenient to do.
To achieve this, blockchain technology is been relied on to create a transparent and easy platform that will give ease to lenders and borrowers, effectively eliminating third-party institutions, resulting in borrower-friendly interest rates and faster loan processing.
FEATURES OF THE ASSETSTREAM PLATFORM
A Credit rating and badge system: The AssetStream platform rates the behaviors of borrowers by the use of the badge system. Borrowers are given a badge according to their attitude in terms of loan obtaining and repayment. A user who is well known for timely payment of their acquired loan is given a good behavior badge while a user who is known for defaulting will be given a bad behavior badge. This great feature made it easy for lenders to know the behavioral attitude of borrowers beforehand.
Immutable credit history:
The platform made it impossible for borrowers to wipe or delete their credit history due to the decentralized and immutable nature of the blockchain.
Lower transaction cost:
With the platform ability to function with existing infrastructure, this will make a transaction so easy for users in rural settlements. Due to this, the cost of the transaction will relatively be reduced.
Transparency:
AssetStream’s smart contract operates in real time and expected obligations are transparent to all involved parties.
AssetStream, unlike most microfinancing platforms employing blockchain technology, provides lenders with the option of choosing how they are matched with borrowers. The two available options are discussed below:
Handpicking:
The decision to know which borrower to give the loan to is taken by the lender and it is done in accordance with borrower’s criteria.
Automatic matching: This occurs in the platform when the desired criteria set is been matched with that of the borrower, automatic matching will be done by the platform.
**Conclusion **
Assetstream will bridge that gap, bringing financial services to people who otherwise wouldn't have them.
Website: https://www.assetstream.co/
Whitepaper: https://www.assetstream.co/AssetStream-Whitepaper.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/AssetStreamBlockchain
Published by Zalixo
Bitcointalk profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2110265;sa=summary