NewTech Friday: Unbanked – a liberating mix of legacy financial technology and blockchain

Ian Kane is the Co-Founder and CEO of Unbanked, a global fintech platform built on blockchain. Predicated on the ethos that people should be in control of their own money, Unbanked connects traditional enterprise, fintech, and banking systems with blockchain infrastructure.


What led to the creation of Unbanked?

At Unbanked, we believe financial access and control is a fundamental human right.  New technologies like blockchain are a better, faster, and cheaper protocol to transact on, and mobile phones have enabled anyone to set up a digital wallet store or transact in digital currencies like Bitcoin or the Digital Dollar. However, no one has made the blockchain protocol interact seamlessly with the financial products that people already understand like bank accounts and debit cards.   That’s where we saw an opportunity.

Unbanked empowers residents all over the world to get a bank account on their mobile phone that enables them to store funds in cash or instantly convert them to digital currencies to send anywhere. We also provide debit cards (physical and virtual) that give people the ability to spend the value of their cash or digital currency, wherever major debit cards are accepted. A merchant doesn’t need to accept digital currency like Bitcoin in order for the cardholder to be able to spend it. Most importantly, they can do it all from the palm of their hand. 

By mixing legacy financial products with new technology we can significantly reduce cost while democratizing access for everyone - while still adhering to all local regulations.