Bitcoin [BTC] can still democratize finance, says Abra CEO Bill Barhydt

The cryptocurrency market has been affected by a series of sustained bear attacks that have resulted in the prices dipping beyond expectations. Even popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin [BTC], XRP and Ethereum [ETH] have not been spared by the bear, which supports falling on a consistent basis. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency on the planet, which was expected to shoot up in value is now trading just under $3500.

In an interview with Breaker, Bill Barhydt, the Chief Executive Officer of Abra spoke about how Bitcoin can still change the financial game and how it can overcome the slump it is undergoing right now. Barhydt touched upon how crypto remittances is not the focus right now even though a couple of ideas were in the pipeline. He said:

“We just want to build out services that take advantage of this synthetic-asset platform in order to get, literally, millions of users in the system. Then, eventually we’ll be able to provide services to more bottom-of-the-pyramid markets, where things like remittances or low-cost microloans are really going to move the needle.”

The CEO then went on to talk about the ways in which Bitcoin has not been able to take the market share away from companies like Western Union and MoneyGram. He claimed that there are three basic pillars to provide banking in developing markets.

This statement came in the wake of discussing Bitcoin’s initial aim to ‘bank the unbanked’. In Barhydt’s words:

“Nobody in Haiti says, “My problem is that I’m unbanked.” Most people in Haiti don’t know what the eff that word means. You go to Mexico, you go to the Philippines, you go to Indonesia—nobody says, “Oh, my God, if only I wasn’t unbanked.” Nobody cares about that, except maybe people with great intentions at NGOs.”

In his opinion, people were only concerned if they could send and receive money at low costs and if these transactions will occur safely and quickly. He even brought up the topics of Venezuela and Argentina where the failing economy was the main reason for people to turn to cryptocurrencies such as Petro. He went on to say:

“…if you can collateralize real-world assets using crypto, [without] introducing new third-party custodians, you’re onto something really interesting. Because now you can represent fiat currencies, stocks, bonds, commodities in a way that doesn’t require you to become a bank. That’s interesting. You’ve got a combination of hard money and regulatory arbitrage to solve real consumer problems. That’s what I think it’s going to take to break into developing markets.”