Financial inclusion

...[H]onestly, it'd be great if everything under the most important sectors were a bit more interconnected...I mean, especially after living in Singapore for a while, you start to realize what you've been missing out as a Filipino when it comes to their systems and stuff like that...So, for example, [things] like finance [and] transportation, they definitely go like hand in hand. As well as things like entertainment and shopping, and then health and wellness and education come together. So...for all of these, the number one [thing] is interconnectedness: how easy is it for all of these to be accessible for each person.

Before the Internet was a thing, the only way that you could really get news around the world was either newspapers or TV, and that included some pretty massive costs. Because the only people who could broadcast in TV signal were massive news corporations. The only people who could publish and deliver...newspapers across the country were kind of these very large news organizations. So that means that information is basic controlled by handful of these kind of consortiums. But the Internet kind of made it so that anyone can communicate now, and that changed the way information is disseminated, but I guess it also kind of changed the way that information is verified...You grew up in a world where news organizations were no longer powerful...But those channels were powerful [back then]...They were basically the Facebooks of their time or the Twitters of their time. So now all of that stuff has kind of shifted over. But the difference, I think, with Facebook and Twitter, is that everyone has a voice you can say on Facebook and Twitter. It's not just the celebrities, it's not just the news anchors, it's not just...the show hosts or whatever...The power of information has been redistributed. So I guess what I'm kind of hoping for with crypto is that wealth will also be redistributed kind of in the same way, where...you don't have just like this 1% of 1%, where most of the money is kind of sitting there, and then everyone else has nothing. What we're trying to do is kind of take some of that, and kind of make it trickle down a little bit further down the pyramid. And I continue to be hopeful that that is going to be the case. But yeah, it's the Internet, really, that that kind of changed everything.

[Thanks to fintech startups,] SMEs have easy access to banking needs that they need...regardless of how small the business is. Even if they're just a sari-sari store, [they] have access to adequate banking that can help [them] facilitate your store and your business.

I guess for finances...[in an] optimistic [scenario]...everyone has a bank account, or everyone has a way to have a digital form of money available for them because the world will have become much more digitalized.

Another related thing would be [that fintech] would become more accessible for everyone...Right now, there are still a a lot of people who are not familiar with GCash, the elderly, those in provinces, and although What we're doing with finance and integrating it with technology right now, is it necessarily the best way? Like banks, and still a lot of the traditional methods work. I hope that they do become open to these idea and see that there may be potential benefits to it. I did have a research project before on financial inclusion, and by that I mean having people having bank accounts or in any financial institution. We figured out that a lot of the traditional methods may seem problematic. For instance, uutang -- will loan from some person, and then they will not get paid. And then there's so technical writing for that, legal writing, so can't be settled in court. So stuff like that, they could technically be avoided whenever, if people have the opportunity, let's say, to loan from banks made with ease of use while still being secured.

...[I]deally for finance, [since] there are a lot of unbanked people...the people in the farthest regions...[should] have the means...to do all the financial transactions. So yeah, that means, like Internet all the way there, cell phones all the way there....[T]hey're able to use cell phones that can let them do that.

[T]he main thing that I'm interested in with cryptocurrency is that it removes some of the power from the state and kind of redistributes it to society. So the idea...currently...the way that...our structures work is...our money, we earn it when we have jobs, we deposit in it in banks, [then] those banks have to answer to the central bank. The central bank has to answer to the Philippine government. And, generally speaking, the Philippine Government [technically] has to answer back to us, which is kind of how the ideal society is supposed to work, wherein the government serves the people. But that's not really how it works, I guess, in real life; it's actually a lot more messy than that. And it does feel like we're not really getting the service that we are hoping for. So one of the ways that crypto that I think is superior is that it removes the need for us to entrust our money with these institutions...There's this very important concept in crypto called self-sovereignty, meaning that you yourself are holding your funds. You're the only person that has control over it; BPI or BDO cannot like use your account because they don't [have ownership]. And if you were someone like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange...like whistleblower types, they wouldn't be able to cut you off from the rest of society by freezing your Paypal account. If your money is in your Metamask or your Phantom wallet...they wouldn't be able to completely shut you off. And that's good for things like whistleblowers. It's not so great for people who are terrorists...Because...you know how every technology has a positive and negative; this is one of the negatives, unfortunately. So yeah, if you're someone who exists outside of the norms of society, crypto is definitely for you, and that includes people who are bad, as well as people who are good...

...I'll just focus on one answer [for an optimistic future of finance,] and I think that would be visibility. So, visibility in the sense that there would be transparency in the flow of money to the extent that that helps the people. So for one financial, like financial usage of public institutions like government, for example. That's one thing. And then, but also visibility in the sense that visibility of low socioeconomic status areas geographically. I think there are a lot of projects that were that, that touch on that certain people, areas, demographics are in more need of attention, more like, more need of like financial aid rather than others. I think that would be important so visibility is a key factor in finance.

...[T]hat's [the] sort of the dilemma right now in finance and banks...How can I make a financial institution that is secure, while also not so hard to use to attract users. There are cons to that, let's say, BPI, BDO,, these banks are secure, but they are rather difficult to get into. You're gonna need a couple of documents. You're gonna have to have a visit, stuff like that. On the other hand, GCash is very easy to do. You just need to provide to an ID. I don't know if they have checking, but that could be fake. But they are on the opposite ends. BPI is safe, banks are safe and secure, but are hard to get into. Mobile wallets are not so safe, but are easy to get into, so I hope they can converge into something in the future where your date, your data is safe, your privacy is safe, your you won't get scammed. But in the meantime it's it's still very easy to use, and it can be inclusive of everyone that may be able to benefit.