Nearly six out of ten Americans cannot cover a surprise expense of $500 or $1000. One out of every four Americans have zero in savings, and these numbers are very representative of the financial economy driving blockchain, something that might pave the path that leads away from traditional banking institutions, at least with the current service offerings.

The relationship we have with our money, perhaps due to a trickle down effect that is both institutional and generational, lacks transparency, something the women we are going to talk about in this article, are working to change… and they’re doing it by harnessing the new and somewhat unknown blockchain technology.

Application Is the Market Tipping Point

While the platforms and processes to get, move, and store cryptocurrency is not streamlined or easy, this lack of ability to implement is the barrier wall holding the flood of innovation. Application and market use is popping up everywhere all at once it seems. Take Long Game for example, an independent secure savings platform that uses cash and tokenized prizes as motivators.  Before starting Long Game, Lindsay Holden co-founded the Applicant Auction, the primary auction for Top Level Domain names which held over five hundred million in auctions and over one billion dollars in escrow before being acquired. She also co-founded an online personalized health platform which she also sold. Holden’s successes were neither safe, nor mainstream when she took those routes, and this latest venture, with Long Game, is no different, but she wants to make a difference.

People Need Help Saving

Holden and her partner, Ashby Monk, understand the struggle that takes place with personal finance, and also see the massive need for more streamlined, easy, and incentivized ways to save, especially for younger generations.

• Long Game is a mobile savings app that uses games with cash prizes and  free crypto to help users get on the right financial path.
• It’s an FDIC-insured, interest-bearing savings account held in partnership with Blue Ridge Bank of Virginia.
• Users achieve personalized financial missions- like reaching a savings goal- and are rewarded with tokens to play games in the app.

Long Game is a perfect case study of need meets innovation for social good, something we are going to be seeing a lot more of in the next few months to a year.

Did I Mention Personal Finance Being A Problem Area?

When my daughter called me from college to thank me for teaching her a few simple banking skills, I got a glimpse into a world Tricia Martinez lived in, explored, researched, and is now attempting to fix. A lot of people turn a blind eye to their financial situations, not because they are dumb or lazy, but because they feel hopeless, have minimal options (if any), and they aren’t sure where to turn without feeling like a failure. There’s a lot of people in the blockchain and alternative currency space right now, wondering how they are gonna get rich quick… and then there are people like Lindsay Holden and Tricia Martinez, who are trying to enrich the lives of others.

Wala + Dala: The Dynamic Duo

Tricia Martinez’s calling came when she realized that the people who most need access to financial services, are often the people who don’t have that access. So Wala, a zero-fee money app, on the Dala network, a decentralized financial system, shows us how we can change the financial world in ways that make sense for everyone. Not having access to financial services keep poor people poor, and working class people paying fees they can’t afford. When you don’t have accounts and systems, you can’t invest in your health, or business, community, or education.

Social Good Through Blockchain

These entrepreneurs and social engineers are showing us how blockchain can be used to solve a problem and how the smartest business strategy to prove out concepts may mean you have to go to where the need is greatest and the barriers lowest.