A few decades ago, the idea of giving money to poor people instead of food packages and healthcare was almost scandalous. Free money? With no strings attached? Surely, this was aid gone wrong – a desperate attempt to do things differently that was bound to fail. Today, the evidence for cash transfers as an effective form of aid has changed the way we think about giving money to the poor, as well as the methods we use to fight poverty. In December 2018, a number of UN agencies

We can't print enough paper notes for everyone who needs them. But nearly everyone has a phone (without internet). In order to reach a larger group of people across Kenya, Grassroots Economics has enabled feature phones with no internet, to have access to, trade and convert their blockchain-based tokens (Liquid Community Currencies (LCCs)) using the Bancor Protocol. Community currencies came about as an integrative medium of exchange that would promote revitalization of the

On October 25th Will Ruddick along with Galia Bernartzi from Bancor addressed the UN regarding the potential impacts of blockchain technolog

Africa’s 2nd largest Social Entrepreneurship Conference was held at Tangaza University College in Nairobi. The two day conference Established in 2017, aimed to redefine the future of social enterprises in Kenya and Africa at large. Grassroots Team at AACOSE in Tangaza University. Themed Contextualizing and shaping social entrepreneurship in Africa, this conference attracted over 700 participants who included social entrepreneurs practitioners, policy makers, investors, comm

Caption: Mama Evelin (right) in Bangladesh, Mombasa learns to trade her Bangla-Pesa using the Bancor Wallet; taught by Ruth Ngau of Grassroots Economics (left). Thanks to Bancor, blockchain is finally becoming a tool we can use to fight poverty. Yesterday we had an amazing day in Mombasa field-testing the Bancor Wallet on POA network to enable zero-transaction fees and fast payments for local transactions. As tomatoes and chapati changed hands, local shop owners and their cus

Grassroots Economics Director, Caroline Dama, visited the White House on Wednesday as a finalist in the WomensConnect USAID program Our aim is to empower women to take charge of their economic future through the creation of community currencies. Grassroots Economics seeks to provide stable markets to Women’s groups in Kenya through women owned and operated community currency systems, which will connect thousands of female small scale business traders in rural and peri-urban a