区块链对汇款市场的影响,,en,近期跨境资金转移大幅增加,,en, - 增加了近,,en,人们跨境流动的结果是国际汇款增加,,en,超过美国,,en,是由来自世界各地的移民送来的,,en,周围增加,,en,虽然海外汇款行业曾经是银行和一些高端外汇经纪商的领域,,en,由于一些支持得当的金融科技玩家的到来，它见证了相当大的破坏,,en,区块链似乎正在侵入这个领域,,en,波纹创造的不仅仅是波纹,,en,布拉德加林豪斯,,en,Ripple的首席执行官,,en,1月宣布,,en,三家全球领先的国际汇款服务提供商将开始测试xRapid,,en
介绍
Cross-border fund transfers have increased significantly in recent times, and not without reason. According to statistics released by the United Nations, the number of migrants around the world has increased from 173 million in 2000, to 258 million in 2017 – an increase of nearly 50%. A result of this movement of people across borders is an increase in international remittances. More than U.S. $570 was sent by migrants from different parts of the world in 2016, an increase of around 300% since 2000.
While the overseas money transfer industry was once the domain of banks and a few high street forex brokers, it witnessed considerable disruption with the arrival of some well-backed Fintech players. 现在, blockchain appears to be making inroads in this field.
Is Ripple Creating More Than a Ripple?
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, announced in January, 2018 that three of the world’s leading international remittance service providers would start testing xRapid, 该公司的按需流动性产品依赖于Ripple,,en,XRP,,en,支付流量,,en,速汇金,,en,这是一家经营良好的美国境外汇款公司,,en,是第一个将该技术应用于测试的公司,,en,接下来是西联汇款,,en,另一匹老马,,en,顺便,,en,使用区块链作为桥梁资金的手段并不限于波纹,,en,IBM与南太平洋的一组银行进行了区块链转移安排,,en,使用名为Stellar的加密货币,,en,银行是否需要留意,,en,在埃森哲进行的一项调查中,,en,九出,,en,与会者表示他们的银行正在考虑寻找区块链必须提供的东西,,en,这项技术很可能被用来建立一个实时的全球网络,,en,法国农业信贷银行,,fr,一家领先的法国银行,,en (XRP) for payment flows. MoneyGram, a well-established U.S.-based overseas money transfer company, was the first to put the technology to the test, and next in line was Western Union, another old horse.
Incidentally, using blockchain as a means of bridge funding does not limit to Ripple. 在 2017, IBM made a blockchain transfer arrangement with a group of banks in the South Pacific, using a cryptocurrency called Stellar.
Are Banks Paying Heed?
In a survey carried out by Accenture, nine out of 10 participants said that their banks were considering looking at what blockchain has to offer. 随着时间的推移, the technology may well be used to build a real-time global network.
Crédit Agricole, a leading French bank, 已经在测试Ripple的技术以简化跨境资金转账,,en,在测试阶段,,en,它将从瑞士边境转运的转运时间从三天减少到几分钟,,en,拉丁美洲最大的银行按市值计算,,en,Itau Unibanco Holding SA,,tl,将很快将Ripple的技术应用于测试,,en,印度的IndusInd Bank也是如此,,en,我们现在的立场在哪里,,en,海外汇款行业仍然由三家公司 - 西联汇款控制,,en,和Ria--它们的市场份额总和不止于此,,en,一些金融科技公司在激烈的竞争中幸存下来并成功地打下了一个标志,,en,与TransferWise,,en,WorldFirst,,en,和OFX就是很好的例子,,en. During the test phase, it has reduced the turnaround time for transfers carried from the Swiss border from three days to just a few minutes. Latin America’s largest bank by market value, Itau Unibanco Holding SA, will be putting Ripple’s technology to the test soon, as will India’s IndusInd Bank.
Where Do We Stand Now?
The overseas money transfer industry is still dominated by three companies – Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria – with their combined market share standing at more than 25%. 但, a number of Fintech companies have survived stiff competition and managed to make a mark, with TransferWise, WorldFirst, and OFX serving as great examples. TransferWise是一家英国独角兽，在开始运营后的六年内开始创造利润,,en,其月收入约为800万英镑,,en,成本因素,,en,进行海外汇款需要您支付某种费用,,en,直接,,en,或作为汇率标记,,en,世界银行公布的数据显示，海外转账的平均成本为,,en,据其他数据,,en,而使用在线服务提供商的服务的平均费用在附近,,en,它增加到左右,,en,如果你转向银行,,en,这表明专业汇款公司在这方面比银行更好,,en,前者使用后者的服务来促进两端的转移,,en. 在 2018, its monthly revenue stood at around £8 million.
The Cost Factor
Making an overseas money transfer requires that you pay some kind of a fee, either directly, or as an exchange rate markup. Data released by the World Bank shows that the average cost of an overseas fund transfer stands at 7.09%. According to other data, while the average fee for using the services of an online service provider is around 5.3%, it increases to around 11% if you turn to a bank. This goes to show that specialist money transfer companies fare better than banks on this front. Only, the former use the latter’s services to facilitate their transfers at both ends.
区块链拥有彻底消除银行背景的潜力,,en,这将导致进一步降低成本，通过几乎没有费用和货币转换费用,,en,外展,,en,十亿美元汇款给第三世界国家,,en,南美部分地区仍然存在问题,,en,非洲,,en,而亚洲则有相当多的人没有银行存款,,en,有人从海外收钱可能甚至没有银行账户,,en,手机渗透要深得多,,en,这些地区的大多数人都可以使用手机,,en,加密货币钱包的到来使拥有智能手机的人能够轻松地进行海外资金转移,,en,无法使用传统形式的银行业务的人可以简单地使用手机发送和接收金钱,,en. This will lead to further reduction in costs through little to no fees and currency conversion charges.
The Outreach
More than U.S. $425 billion was sent in remittances to third-world countries in 2016. A problem that continues to exist in parts of South America, Africa, and Asia is that a significant number of people remain unbanked. Consequently, someone receiving money from overseas might not even have a bank account. Fortunately, mobile phone penetration is much deeper, with most people in these areas having access to mobile phones.
The arrival of cryptocurrency wallets gives people who own smartphones the ability to carry out overseas fund transfers easily. As a result, people without access to traditional forms of banking can simply use their phones to send and receive money.
Going forward, 电信服务提供商与正在探索利用区块链技术促进跨境转移的公司之间的合作非常重要,,en,一旦发生,,en,进行跨境转账不需要发送或接收简单的文本消息,,en,就安全性而言，区块链对银行和传统汇款公司进行评分,,en,这主要是因为银行和国际汇款公司集中运作,,en,这使得他们很容易受到网络攻击,,en,区块链本质上是完全分散的，所以黑客并不是真正的问题,,en,每笔交易都由数字分类帐中的一个独特条目标记，该条目不能被欺骗,,en,直到现在，区块链还是遇到了一些问题,,en. Once this happens, making a cross-border transfer will require no more effort than sending or receiving a simple text message.
Security
Blockchain scores over banks and traditional money transfer companies when it comes to security. This is mainly because banks and international remittance companies operate in a centralized manner, and this makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Blockchain in completely decentralized in nature so hacking is not really a concern. Besides, each transaction is marked by a unique entry in a digital ledger that cannot be fudged. While blockchain has experienced some problems until now, 它们一直是用户生成的并且已经足够快地被解决了,,en,重新构想KYC,,en,区块链可以为汇款公司提供改进认识你的客户的能力,,en,KYC,,sq,通过更快地交换数据来进行处理,,en,通过使用不同的验证手段,,en,并降低加工成本,,en,印度国家银行,,en,印度最大的银行,,en,11月宣布,,en,它将开始使用区块链启用的智能合约，并且还将该技术用于其KYC流程,,en,是否有任何缺点,,en,区块链技术具有很大的承诺,,en,目前有一些缺点,,en,正确,,en,对于不习惯使用加密货币的人,,en,进行跨境转移可能需要一些学习,,en.
Reimagining KYC
Blockchain can give money transfer companies the ability to improve their Know Your Customer (KYC) process by making the exchange of data much quicker, by using different means of verification, and by bringing down processing costs. The State Bank of India, India’s largest bank, announced in November 2017 that it would start using blockchain-enabled smart contracts and also use the technology for its KYC process.
Are There Any Drawbacks?
While blockchain technology holds a lot of promise, there are a few drawbacks as of now.
- Getting it Right. For someone who is not accustomed to using cryptocurrency, carrying out a cross-border transfer might require some learning. For example, 您可能想要使用汇款公司的服务将您的本币兑换为另一个国家的汇率币,,en,虽然自己承担转移是可能的,,en,它需要一点点学习,,en,但是您可以使该流程更具成本效益,,en,货币转换,,en,货币暴露有两次风险,,en,如果发件人和收件人不是转移加密货币的频繁用户，就会发生这种情况,,en,考虑这个例子 - 你想把钱从美国转移到印度,,en,你使用美国,,en,美元购买加密货币,,en,收件人需要出售加密货币来接收印度卢比,,en,在使用密码货币变得司空见惯时将不再是一个问题,,en,处理时间,,en. While carrying the transfer on your own is possible, it requires a little learning, but you can make the process more cost-efficient.
- Currency conversion. There is a risk to currency exposure twice, and this happens if the sender and the recipient are not frequent users of the transferred cryptocurrency. Consider this example – you want to transfer money from the United States to India. First, you use U.S. dollars to buy a cryptocurrency. Then, the recipient needs to sell the cryptocurrency to receive Indian rupees. This, though, will cease to be a problem when the use of crypt currencies becomes commonplace.
- Processing time. 加密货币跨境转移可以近实时进行,,en,取决于您选择的服务提供商,,en,法定货币进入图片时出现问题,,en,在这种情况下,,en,银行仍然需要处理交易,,en,从而增加整个处理时间,,en,基于区块链的初创公司,,en,虽然年长的球员如,,en,MoneyGram和西联汇款,,en,正在醒来，闻着咖啡,,en,一些早期的鸟已经出来希望得到蠕虫,,en,新进入者并未将区块链纳入现有框架,,en,但完全依靠它,,en,阿布拉,,en,一家美国创业公司,,en,吸引了几位大投资者的关注,,en,它是世界上第一个点对点数字现金转移网络,,en,用户使用其数字钱包应用程序进行交易,,en,货币,,en,包括比特币,,en, depending on the service provider you choose. The problem arises when fiat currencies enter the picture. In such scenario, banks are still required to process transactions, thereby adding to the overall processing time.
Blockchain-Based Startups
While older players such as MoneyGram and Western Union are waking up and smelling the coffee now, a few early birds are already out hoping to get the worms. The new entrants are not incorporating blockchain into existing frameworks, but relying on it completely.
- Abra, a U.S.-based startup, has attracted the attention of several big investors. It is the world’s first peer-to-peer digital cash transfer network. Users use its digital wallet app to transact in more than 50 currencies, including bitcoin. 跨境资金转移不会吸引任何费用，并几乎立即发生,,en,总部位于肯尼亚的BitPesa作为一个在线平台，依靠区块链技术使撒哈拉以南地区内部和内部的支付更快，更具成本效益,,en,主要由于M-Pesa在该地区的普及，它已经成功开始了良好的开局,,en,提供的功能与Abra很相似,,en,Coins.ph,,en,总部设在菲律宾,,en,Coins.ph用作比特币钱包应用程序,,en,用户可以使用比特币进行买卖,,en,它也有助于转移到欧洲和印度,,en,往返肯尼亚,,en,加纳,,en,和尼日利亚,,en,你可能喜欢阅读,,en,Blockchain的世界,,en,你也可能喜欢这个,,en,区块链和加密货币,,en.
- Kenya-based BitPesa serves as an online platform that relies on blockchain technology to make payments from and within the sub-Saharan region quicker and more cost-effective. It has managed to get to a good start mainly because of the popularity of M-Pesa in the region. Features on offer are largely similar to those of Abra.
- Coins.ph. Headquartered in the Philippines, Coins.ph functions as a bitcoin wallet app. While users can use to buy and sell bitcoin, it also facilitates transfers to Europe and India, and to and from Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.
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结论
区块链拥有改变海外汇款业的潜力,,en,都,,en,在个人和组织层面,,en,尽管一些海外汇款公司和银行已经在研究这项技术提供的技术,,en,是否会得到更广泛的接受是我们需要拭目以待的,,en,Jon是一位技术作家和热情的博主,,en,他喜欢写技术趋势和最新消息,,en, both, at personal and organizational levels. While some overseas money transfer companies and banks are already looking at what the technology has to offer, whether it will be more widely accepted is something we need to wait and see.
Author Bio: Jon is a technical writer and passionate blogger. He loves to write on technology trends and latest news.
