Millions of people in the world have little or no internet access. They are also frequently unbanked and dependent on inflation plagued fiat currencies. For them the promises of cryptocurrency as a deflationary store of value was unobtainable until now. Because one technology more prevalent then the internet is the cellular phone and text messaging. I think that potentially the next big thing in financial technology, that may makes it possible for people without reliable internet to adopt cryptocurrency may be wallets and transactions which don’t depend on the internet. Instead they depend only on cell phones and text messages.
An SMS Text wallet allows you to send and receive funds if you can access a mobile phone network. This means you don’t need an internet connection. It also means your phone number is your wallet address to the people sending you cryptocurrency! This means people who have signed up for a SMS text wallet with a SMS text wallet provider can text cryptocurrency to other people who have signed up with that same SMS Text wallet provider. This means if you are a blogger with a following you can monetize that following with SMS Text messaging. Your followers who don’t have Steemit accounts can literally read your articles on Steemit and then send you cryptocurrency to support your page by texting you cryptocurrency. No mass signups and explaining cryptocurrency to the masses in complicated lectures.
This also has other wide reaching ramifications for mass adoption. Consider that Smartphones can access the internet and download applications, but they are expensive and require both cellular service fees and internet phones. Basic cellular phones can’t access the internet, but can send and receive cryptocurrency via text messages. This means that when electrical power outages have made transferring cryptocurrency impossible due to no internet you can still use your mobile phone to send and receive Dash. This means in countries where citizens have limited access to the internet they can still send and receive cryptocurrency via text messages.
How does it work?
Let’s look at Dash text as an example of how this works. I will use Dash SMS Text Wallet set-up as an example of how easy it is to utilize this vehicle. This how you create an account on dash text using your basic cellular phone with no internet capabilities.
The first step to use Dash Text service is to create a wallet. In order to do so we must ;
A. Send a text message to 3457 or 9910 from Venezuela with the word “CREATE”
Or send to 899979 in Columbia or 607-307-DASH from the USA. This creates your DASH wallet address.
B. Using this DASH WALLET address you will be able to send and receive DASH through SMS with no internet needed.
C. To receive funds we give our phone number to another DASH TEXT USER or the address of our Dash Wallet so other users can send us funds.
D. To send funds we must have the phone number of a Dash Text user or the Wallet address of the recipient.
E. To consult the balance of DASH in your wallet or to check the price of DASH in your currency you text the same numbers you used to create your dash wallet the word BALANCE or the word PRICE
More about Dash Text for background on SMS Text
Dash Text is a SMS wallet that allows people to send and receive Dash just by texting. It is available in 5 countries and also via Telegram. USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Spain.
An SMS Text wallet allows you to send and receive funds if you can access a mobile phone network. This means that when electrical power outages have made transferring cryptocurrency impossible due to no internet you can still use your mobile phone to send and receive Dash. The co-creator of Fais Lorenzo Rey
Summary
As you can see from the above example, aSMS Text wallet makes it easy as to send a payment as it is to send a Text Message. If you introduction to cryptocurrency is through a SMS Text Wallet, there are no hard-to-memorize addresses or specific apps to do it, you can send cryptocurrency just by just typing the phone number of the recipient and the amount of cryptocurrency to be sent in order to make the transaction. Dash a Text is not the first SMS Text program, Coin-Text is another company that started out using only a Bitcoin Cash and now supports Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dash. They added these coins due to demand from the communities. So they could also add Steem.
The Steem Community Exists all over the world in many communities where basic cellphones without internet capabilities outnumber smartphones with such capabilities. This could create another use case for Steem as it is traded on exchanges for dollars USD, and people can bring their basic phones to money exchangers who can sell there Steem and give them dollars. Additional use cases are the lifeblood of cryptocurrency.
The future of financial technology may have been right under our nose all this time. Think outside the box and stay informed.
✍️ Shortsegments.
“The Hustle never sleeps”
Picture by @shortsegments
Wow, an SMS wallet is convenient for people without an internet connection. First time I heard about this service available with DASH.
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I learned of it recently. I plan to write Justin Sun to see if he can get Coin-Text to list Steem, so more South Americans could use it!
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!ENGAGE20
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Cierto, aquí en Venezuela la criptomoneda DASH ha dominado el mercado y también posee la plataforma de la mensajería de texto, yo lo uso.
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Me alegra saber que funciona muy bien.
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!ENGAGE10
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