When people mention blockchains , they often paint visions of grandeur: Delivering instant payments to anyone in the world for free. Services for the 2bn unbanked in the world. Removing all the fake-branded clothing in the world by providing traceable clothing identities. Enabling self driving cars to be their own companies by allowing them to find riders in need, charge customers, pay for gas, and acquire insurance without any people or companies behind them. Some of these visions sound more like delusions. But some of these visions are starting to materialize in strange places and unexpected ways. Everyone from Brazilian software developers waiting for payrolls that never arrive to legal marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, blockchain solutions are in use today. When you think about international payments, you might think about guest workers sending a remittance home to a family member in Mexico, or payroll for call center employees in the Philippines, or perhaps a large invoice payment to a manufacturer in China. Those are all interesting scenarios, but Brazil turns out to be one that had some surprising obstacles. Paying developers there can cost 4% to 8% of the total pay, take up to fifteen days, and it isn’t unheard of for wire payments to simply vanish . How did a blockchain change this? Cheesecake Labs Front Page I sat down with a Brazilian development shop that works with US clients named Cheesecake Labs to learn more. Cassio Goulart, Cheesecake Labs’ CFO, said “We built Cheesecake Labs to leverage software development as a bridge to create new opportunities and reduce global inequalities. But there was one problem, payments. When we receive payments from our US clients no matter what, the payments were either too slow, too expensive or both. If we use a regular international wire transfer, the fee […]
