Alleviating poverty through blockchain tech
The RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub has successfully secured over A$300k in grant funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation Inc to investigate how decentralised finance (‘DeFi’) can help alleviate poverty in the developing world.
Vy Nguyen, one of the Chief Investigators on the project and researcher at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub said “Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionise the way people interact with the financial system across the world”.
“By doing so they offer a substantial opportunity to enhance human flourishing,” she said.
However, there are substantial barriers to adopting DeFi in developing economies such as a lack of knowledge and understanding of the technology and its application to more complex barriers around cultural values.
The first part of the project will use experimental economics methods to conduct randomised control trials (RCT) in two developing economies, Guatemala and Vietnam.
Participants will be given differential access and education to see how individuals interact with DeFi. The second part will use the data collected by the experiments to calibrate agent-based models that simulate the interaction of financial literacy, financial access and wealth dynamics.
Imon Palit, also a Chief Investigator and researcher at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub said “by looking at how people in Vietnam and Guatemala interact with DeFi, we can estimate the benefits of decentralised finance adoption to global wellbeing.”
Professor Julie Cogin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Business and Law) and Vice-President RMIT University, said that “RMIT and The Blockchain Innovation Hub are globally recognised as leaders in the application of Blockchain Technology”.
“This project demonstrates the Hub’s ability to apply the technology to alleviating poverty, and aligns with the College of Business and Law’s commitment towards achieving positive social outcomes on a global scale”.
About the project
RMIT Research Centre the Blockchain Innovation Hub have been funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation Inc through grant TWCF0700 to conduct research into the impacts of decentralised finance (‘DeFi’) and the democratisation of finance in the developing world.
The Templeton World Charity Foundation Inc are a global philanthropy headquartered in Nassau, the Bahamas, with more than 200 projects in over 50 countries. Their mission is to support new scientific research on human flourishing and to translate these basic discoveries into practical tools.
Visit the Templeton World Charity Foundation site here for more info https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/projects-database/can-decentralised-finance-make-poverty-history