Many insightful and intelligent people have spoken on this topic, but for now I am bringing this subject in up in reference to this post predominantly: https://steemit.com/steem/@donkeypong/screwing-the-world-s-poor-for-usd16-billion-steem-and-sd-can-cut-the-cost-of-money-transfers-and-take-down-the-predatory

Sure, in theory we can all 'save the world' with cryptocurrency--but what about practical application, for average people in their day-to-day lives?

I travel a lot, less for tourism and more to seek out adventure, which often happens in some sort of integration with local communities. Most recently, I was teaching music in a village in Jamaica, and before that I was helping with grassroots relief after the Nepal earthquake. In both cases, I think there are ripe opportunities for helping local communities make some money using cryptocurrency.

In Nepal, I'd scoped out opportunities to get local people to find value in something like a cryptocurrency. In the end, as long as they could see real cash flow that affected their everyday lives, they were down for anything--but a sale was not a sale if they didn't have cash in hand.

This meant that BTC, being difficult to convert without Western bank accounts, was not a viable option for them. Not yet. (Not to mention, it's also not easy for local artisans and merchants to ship out product because of export taxes--often the taxes cost more than their asking cost.)

Discussion Question: Could a person in Nepal, limited by the banking situation there, be able to sell a product with Steem and end up seeing the $$ from it? How exactly?

This first example is a matter of selling something because this I think could be a key ingredient of showcasing how powerful Steem/cryptos can be in the world. Bypassing remittance fees and even local banks with monopolies on currency (and in some cases, trade) would start some version of a revolution. Get third-world products to first world hands with no middle man, pure & simple, and everyone wins.

What if it there was a 'remittance' app that connected nearby travelers with locals, to exchange money/goods, all completely regulated by its blockchain?

Like, you earned tokens by delivering something. Or collecting something. And meanwhile your location is monitored with GPS, and you're rewarded/penalized for doing/not doing what you said you would do.

My own idea is to inspire kids to create their own content

Meanwhile, in Jamaica, I'm involved with a very talented group of children that I think would do very well on a platform like Steemit. The songs they write (we already recorded one album to help fund their music program and stories they tell could be upvoted by Steemers and quite literally create an income for their community. How cool would that be? The kids could make money for their families just by exercising their creative muscles. This creates an awesome incentive for an otherwise unmotivated student, and as well develops skills for their future careers and local economies.

So, what do you think? What's a real-life application that us travelers could help implement as we integrate with people around the world? We're waiting to make a difference, so let's do it!