[basseq]

This is a big thing in emerging markets—in some countries, even the people who don't have food, power, or water infrastructure have cheap Chinese smartphone and ubiquitous 3G/LTE data. In there market's in particular, there's a pending shift for small businesses to move away from cash and to electronic payments, which opens up a whole 'nother world in terms of relationships with financial institutions, access to credit, etc.

[jarek]

Speaking of remittances and mobile, you can top up a Chinese mobile account from London. No idea how the fees are though.

[stephengillie]

On the other side of that whole 'nother world is a blockchain waiting to replace all of those relationships.

[basseq]

Not really. The underlying currency—be it bitcoin, USD, yen, rand, or rupees—still requires lenders, payment systems, institutional agreements, and general technical enablement. At that point it's all 1s and 0s anyway.