Although we live in an increasingly globalised world, regional idiosyncrasies continue to play a major part in economic and social development. For example, modern banking has found it difficult to secure a proper foothold in much of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is due to both the underdeveloped state of their financial infrastructure and the deeply-rooted opposition to many forms of finance among Muslims.
This large underbanked population may seem like an obvious target audience for blockchain technology offering a new and easily adapted means of payment. However, there are obstacles to its implementation, not least of which is the skepticism of many religious scholars towards the blockchain. MenaPay hopes to overcome this skepticism by designing a cryptocurrency that would satisfy both religious requirements and practical needs of the region. In so doing, it could corner a large and so far untapped market.
How will you pay with MenaPay?
The MenaPay offering consists of a desktop or mobile app and APIs and SDKs offered to merchants to help them start accepting payments through its system. The app will enable transactions and provide information and management options through a simple dashboard. The currency used for payments will be MenaCash, 1 of which will always be equal in value to 1 US dollar. Merchants will be able to convert MenaCash to dollars taken from MenaPay Foundation's reserves at any point.
Users will be able to purchase MenaCash on the platform with many different fiat and cryptocurrencies. 75% of the revenues from those purchases and various platform fees will be placed into the platform's “Green Mining” reserve in the form of externally tradeable MPAY tokens. Tokens from this pool will be used to reward all MPAY holders for every transaction on the network. Eventually MenaPay plans to add such features as a facial recognition system, parental control on family accounts and P2P lending and installment payments. The latter two will be enhanced with the help of a proprietary AI engine.
What gives MenaPay a competitive edge?
MenaCash is designed to be a stable currency, which not only contrasts favourably with the volatility of most existing cryptocurrencies, but should also help it become accepted as a means of payment in the region. Islamic law disapproves of speculation as much as it does of interest. As an alternative to both traditional banks and unstable cryptocurrencies, MenaCash could be said to be maximally Sharia-compliant. As the example of Stellar shows, such a thing is not at all impossible.
However, MenaPay is more narrowly focused than Stellar. It concentrates on being as easy to integrate as possible from the start. In addition to providing everything necessary for merchants to accept it, this manifests in its user-friendly design philosophy and Arabic language support. Later it intends to add other regional languages as well. The MenaPay team includes experienced and high-ranking businesspeople from around the world. Several prominent Turkish financial and IT firms have agreed to act as its partners.
ICO details
The start date for the MPAY ICO has not yet been announced, though it is expected to begin in November 2018.
An alternative to Islamic banking
Though Islamic finance is quite popular in theory, in practice its implementation has been rather lacking. Critics complain that much of it has become a pretense, with interest and other denounced features being reintroduced indirectly or under different names. Many of its institutions have lost credibility as a result. Also, even with the spread of Islamic banks, most people in MENA countries are still effectively unbanked and therefore shut out of many parts of the modern economy.
MenaPay has a unique opportunity in this market. With its transparency and accessibility, and careful attention to local conditions, it stands a chance of succeeding where the existing Islamic finance model has largely failed. The platform's plans for incorporating hundreds of merchants do not seem that unrealistic. However, its engagement efforts seem rather haphazard so far, and the information provided on the MenaPay site is rather limited. It would do well to remedy this if it is not to miss its chance.
Links:
Website: https://www.menapay.io/
WhitePaper: https://www.menapay.io/onepager.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/MenaPay
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menapayio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/menapayio
Medium: https://medium.com/menapay
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4884588.0
Author: purwanto tegal
Bitcointalk Profil: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1917456
ETH Address: 0x995f7A64a03DF772ECb3d2EE7e00e73b33597E90
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