They want to bring cryptocoins to the ‘unbanked’

Claude Eguienta (left) with fellow co-founder Paul Neuner. Photo credit: Telcoin.

A few years ago when we were all first getting used to the idea of bitcoin, many of us were imagining that there’d be one digital currency to rule them all – a kind of borderless millennial moolah, a global groat for a global village.

But it’s not working out like that.

There were more than 900 cryptocurrencies floating around the planet midway through the year, with a jumble of serious and weird names (InsaneCoin. Cabbage. VGINA). And now here’s another one: Telcoin.

Why should anyone care? Will this be the last you ever hear of Telcoin?

Its creators, Claude Eguienta and Paul Neuner, think it’ll have staying power because it’s not just another cryptocoin get-rich-quick scheme for early buyers – it’s a genuinely useful thing that could be adopted by countless people, particularly those without bank accounts.

Helping people send money home is a good first step.

Their digital coin is starting out with a focus on online remittances, transfers, and payments – great for those who are just getting into the swing of online shopping but don’t have credit or debit cards, and for people who need to send part of their wages to family.

“Money transfers are a big market where the biggest players still control most of the market share because of their reach and branding. We see disrupting this state as a perfect application for a currency available worldwide,” says Claude Eguienta, Telcoin co-founder and CEO. “We also believe that if we want to solve financial inclusion, helping people to send money home is a good first step.”

A woman in front of an ad for Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile money system. Photo credit: WorldRemit Comms.

Around 2.5 billion of the world’s adults don’t use banks or microfinance institutions to save or borrow money, according to a McKinsey report. Nearly 1.5 billion of those are in Asia. And yet nearly 5 billion people have mobile phones.

Tapping the phone companies

To get Telcoin off the ground, the experienced duo – Eguienta’s last startup focused on the blockchain; Neuner has a background in telecoms, security, and fraud management software – is tapping into the huge reach of mobile network companies.

So they’re making the unusual move of distributing their global groat to telcos, who can then offer it to their subscribers for use in transfers and payments.

ICO on the horizon