Sarafu Network
After 6 months testing and deploying community currencies across various urban and rural areas in Kenya, with 9 village-level live and thousands of weekly transactions, we have identified specific regions in Kenya that are adopting the currencies at a rapid rate, with upwards of 70% penetration in certain target villages.
These communities are teaching us how can be used as a means of exchange as they continue to grow and show extremely promising usage patterns. In early March, Sarafu Network surpassed , and today, just a few weeks later, more than 600 new wallets have been added to the network!
Much of the success is a direct result of on-the-ground growth strategies & technical developments including:
- Anchor Businesses — Grassroots “airdrops” tokens on anchor businesses within a community — such as a maize mill or school — funding capital improvements and incentivizing new users who receive discounts at the business when using Sarafu tokens. This generates trust in the system and forms monetary links from a central source of commercial activity.
- Demurrage — Village level token systems include a “demurrage” tax on users who hold their tokens, preventing wealth from accumulating in the hands of a few sellers and increasing the circulation of currencies flowing through the network. Tokens generated from demurrage are deposited into a fund that is regularly dispersed to the community. Voting systems to disburse the community fund as a basic income and other social services are being piloted.
- Auto Conversion — A user can receive payments from other villages in their own village-level token thanks to automated conversion between village-level tokens powered by Bancor Protocol.
- Directory — Users on any phone (feature or smartphone without internet) can now advertise on and access a simple directory for community currency users in their area. Space is limited using SMS so marketing on the Directory is prioritized based on how much the business trades within the network, further incentivizing local participation. ()
- Rewards & Gamification — Sarafu is creating virality among target populations through gamification & incentives which reward usage of the currencies and the on-boarding of new users (e.g., “trade with at least 6 different users a week” or “invite friends to Sarafu” and get free tokens.)
In the next few months, the and Bancor teams are focused on technical developments, in target villages and organic expansion to new village clusters, as well as continued partnership talks with NGOs, humanitarian aid organizations, governments, private corporations, projects, as well as existing and potential community currency operators.
Ultimately, the vision for the Sarafu Network and Bancor is to create a common infrastructure for local commerce — a decentralized, public good which requires no fees, no central authority, and can be seamlessly and affordably operated and accessed by any community in the world — to turn scarcity into prosperity.
Published at Mon, 01 Apr 2019 19:06:03 +0000
