Consensus Pitchfest 2023: Finance for the Unbanked

For all the noise surrounding cryptocurrency markets, crypto has always offered something fundamental to human progress: an open, democratic financial system. Despite all the meme coins and joke products, there are still many testing the power of crypto to provide easy access to resources to the world’s 1.4 billion unbanked people.

Gane, a freemium mobile provider, is one such company that confirms our belief in this technology. Co-founded by Henry Biaz, Gane aims to make mobile services accessible to everyone by providing free mobile phone services using Web3 wallets. (It’s a contender in CoinDesk’s Pitchfest, happening next week at the Consensus Festival.)

Through the service, customers can interact, learn skills and earn tokens that can eventually be exchanged for free voice, text and data. “Today, with just two minutes a day on Gane [app]can you get 2 gigs [of data] a month,” Baiz said in a CoinDesk interview.

As of now, Gane is the first free mobile operator in Latin America, with the goal of expanding in the US, where many people still use prepaid mobile services. The services can also be used for easy and fast transfers globally.

“One out of every five weeks [prepaid] the user has no outgoing service, they only have Wi-Fi and incoming calls. Isn’t that sad?” Biaz added, affirming the need for more accessible service options in the world.

Representatives from Gane are coming to CoinDesk’s Pitchfest to talk more about the future. There, the company will have an opportunity to show how innovation in crypto can make the world a more financially inclusive space.

Speaking of financial inclusion innovation, Stable, a consumer app that offers global transfers and peer-to-peer payments, is also pitching at Pitchfest. Using Stable, customers can send money globally using the company’s stable token and withdraw it in a fiat currency. One does not have to worry about the volatility of crypto using it.

“The whole cost of a stable is risk diversification and to a selected basket of stablecoins, so people don’t buy and hold a specific stablecoin, but they have a stable token imposed on our ecosystem,” co-founder Alvaro Jose Mosquera, said in a CoinDesk- interview.

Today, the firm is focused on establishing trust and transparency in the market while safeguarding its customers’ most important resource – their money.

“We’re bringing back trust in a way that’s verifiable,” Mosquera said, explaining that every dollar in Stable’s reserve is backed by a mix of digital and fiat currencies, making it a reliable service for its customers.

As Stable continues to grow, its presence at CoinDesk’s Pitchfest will allow many to witness the firm’s game-changing plan to make global transfers easy, secure and non-intimidating for the average customer.

Financial inclusion is not the only challenge the participants in the Pitchfest take on. Boto, a no-code platform for creating and sharing bots that automate decentralized finance (DeFi) activities, is on a mission to increase technical transparency for its users.

Boto allows users to build automation by simply picking and dragging blocks that use machine-readable information. One can find several “recipes” on the platform that help you perform Web3-related tasks, including tracking NFT sales and mints, without the need to code.

Alongside Boto, Magic Square, a discovery and Web3 platform, will also be presented at Consensus Pitchfest. This company provides accessibility to Web3, making it easy for users to find new applications and games on it. Think of it as the Apple Store of Web3.

Magic Square’s user-friendly interface allows users to explore without compromising privacy and security. In addition, the company has over 300 listed apps and offers dynamic incentives to users.

At Pitchfest 2023, these firms are bringing their game-changing innovations to show the world that crypto is more than a technological revolution, it’s a tool of empowerment that creates a safe, inclusive and accessible society.