Paying For Connectivity With Stablecoins: A Practical Crypto On-Ramp
Advocates of cryptocurrency like to say it can be used for all kinds of weird and wonderful things, ranging from cashless transactions in the legalized cannabis industry to royalty payments for musicians and simplified trading of stocks and shares. They’re cool ideas for sure, but also highly speculative – for the reality is that crypto is yet to replace money in any of these things.
But that may be about to change in the boring old world of bill payments – specifically, phone bills. With the rise of decentralized telecommunications networks like World Mobile, we are witnessing the emergence of much more boring applications for crypto, and the impact could be profound, paving the way for stablecoins to become the standard way people pay to access essential services.
Paying your phone bill is an extremely tedious, yet also inevitable use case for stablecoins, and while it may not seem very interesting, it’s an extremely good thing. In the highly speculative and chaotic crypto world, such an unadventurous use case equates to more legitimacy, stability and compliance – just the things it needs for mass adoption to occur.
World Mobile: Trailblazing Crypto Connectivity
World Mobile is actively pioneering what is perhaps the dullest of all blockchain use cases, having created a viable telecom network that brings global connectivity to the masses with competitive pricing and a high degree of reliability. Unlike other wireless carriers, its network is built on a decentralized blockchain, ensuring secure transactions and strong user privacy.
The goal is to “connect the unconnected” through a community-owned network that spans more than 60 countries globally, utilizing an infrastructure based on “AirNodes” and unlicensed spectrum. AirNodes are special devices that provide both computing resources and storage, and can be purchased by anyone to help operate the network by powering its functions. They process all of its data, voice calls and so on, while providing encryption to protect user’s sensitive information.
World Mobile’s network is a hybrid one that utilizes unlicensed spectrum from a range of sources, enabling it to provide connectivity at much lower costs than traditional operators, who have to pay to license spectrum. Different kinds of AirNodes support various bands of spectrum. For instance, the Wi-Fi AirNodes provide coverage over short distances, while the CBRS AirNodes use mid-range radio signals that offers faster speeds, and the Band71 AirNodes operate on a lower-frequency spectrum that can provide coverage over much longer distances, delivering connectivity to remote locations.
As World Mobile’s network is a specialized blockchain, users are required to pay in stablecoins such as USDC and USDT to access its services, as opposed to traditional fiat.
The Advantage Of Paying Bills In Crypto
By offering a real world service that supports voice calls in the U.S. and wireless internet connectivity across the world, World Mobile has created a viable, non-speculative use case for crypto stablecoins, which are much more suitable for bill payments due to their non-volatile nature. Because users can now pay their phone bill in crypto, it’s no longer just a speculative investment, but a practical tool.
World Mobile’s crypto payment plans are advantageous, because users can pay up front and don’t need to sign a long-term contract. Such contracts are the bane of many, with their inflexible terms and conditions forcing users to make a long-term commitment they don’t always want.
The lack of contracts also means subscribers don’t have to worry about their wireless carrier automatically dedicating money from their bank accounts each month. Instead, they just pay upfront, when they can afford to do so. Moreover, they pay the same price no matter what country they live in, thanks to the borderless nature of stablecoin payments.
Crypto bill payments aren’t the only advantage here. What’s especially interesting is the way World Mobile’s crypto-based model provides incentives for its users. AirNode operators don’t provide their essential services for free. Rather, they automatically receive a share of the revenue generated by World Mobile, in the shape of WMTx tokens. They also gain the right to vote on network governance proposals.
The network incentivizes its regular users too, offering a number of loyalty programs that pay stablecoin rewards based on how many calls they make and the amount of data they use. Through these mechanisms, World Mobile offers additional value to its customers, increasing loyalty and motivating them to stick with it, rather than switch to a rival service.
Utility Bills: The Perfect Utility For Crypto?
Not only has World Mobile been successful, acquiring more than two million daily active users to date, but it has also established a rock-solid model for others in the crypto industry to follow. Its implementation of stablecoin payments illustrates a much wider opportunity for stablecoins in terms of utility bills.
Simply put, stablecoins are an excellent tool for paying bills for all kinds of services, including water bills, electricity, gas and other types of invoices. They address challenges such as the lack of access to banking services in many countries, and the obstacles presented by cross-border payments.
For instance, it’s very difficult to watch Netflix without a bank account and a credit card to pay for it. And if someone in Nigeria wants to access a U.S.-based service, they may only be able to do so by transferring money to America, incurring significant fees on that payment. That doesn’t happen with stablecoins, and that means they can provide a real lifeline, increasing access to essential services like the internet, which is increasingly viewed as a fundamental human right.
Crypto’s Future Is Boring, And That’s Brilliant
Blockchain visionaries who tout more intriguing use cases like fractional ownership of physical art and fraud-proof electoral systems may be disappointed, but the future of crypto is likely to be much more boring, at least for now.
The idea of crypto bill payments sounds pretty mundane, but this kind of less-imaginative use case might also be just what the industry needs to realize its potential. Boring old bill payments is a use case that can spread like wildfire, because after all, there’s barely a soul in the modern world who doesn’t have to pay for some kind of utility or service.
Stablecoin payments are practical and they have genuine benefits for consumers, with lower costs and transaction fees, faster processing, greater accessibility and more security. Moreover, the lack of long-term contracts will appeal to many users, too. So let’s embrace this boring application, which validates blockchain’s usefulness and brings us closer to a decentralized financial future, one phone bill at a time.
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