A Practical Use Case for Blockchain Technology in Remittances

We sat down with Judah Hirsch, CEO and Founder of Salarium, to talk about their Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the Salarium Group. This couldn’t come at a better time with the hundreds of companies now doing ICOs all over the world. We took it as an opportunity to get a better understanding of how ICOs work as well as “due diligence” on the company that we were planning to invest our money on for our first ICO experience.

A Real Use Case for Blockchain Technology to Solve a Filipino Problem

Salarium aims to raise funds via an ICO so they can create an exchange that will facilitate cheaper rates for remittances for businesses and overseas workers looking to send money back to the Philippines (as low as 1%). They’ll use the funds raised to create the exchanges in select markets (Australia, US, Philippines) so that they can start trading their new cryptocurrency token which will be called SAL Tokens. They’re targeting to raise $7M USD minimum and $20M USD maximum. As of this writing they’re almost at $3.7M. In effect they’re kinda “crowdfunding” their product development and marketing.

They have a ready base already of users as there are over 500 companies and 10,000 employees using their current payroll and employee tracking system. By building the exchanges, they can start remitting money directly from other markets (right now they need to be paid in the PH). This product has massive potential with the number of BPOs and call centers looking to pay their employees here in the Philippines. There’s also over 10M-14M overseas Filipino workers sending money back to their families almost daily. That 1% remittance fee can generate much needed savings for companies and overseas Filipinos alike.

Sending money via cryptocurrency applications is not new. In fact the central bank of the Philippines recently shared that they’re tracking over Php300M remittances monthly via this channel.

So What’s in it for Investors?

So what’s the point of investing in an ICO? Like what I mentioned earlier, the value of the SAL Token goes up as the business grows. There’s massive potential for Salarium and SAL Pay given the volumes of remittances that we’re seeing in the Philippines.

It’s a bet on the company being able to deliver the solution they promised and at the same time believing in their vision and leadership team. It’s really no different than the criteria you use when investing in stocks of publicly listed companies. The problem with ICOs is that there are hundreds out there that are unregulated and can be scams. After visiting their office, meeting their CEO, and listening to their plans, I can at least rest assured that Salarium is real and that they’re a company on a mission to solve a real problem. In short, this one is legit.

Again don’t just take my word for it, you can read more about them and their white paper here.

Read our previous Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency articles below:

How to Buy Bitcoin in the Philippines
Supporting my First ICO: Salarium
P300M Monthly Remittances to the Philippines go Through Cryptocurrencies