The Farmer that Could!

The Great Divide: What Americans don't understand about Crypto

From the convenience of a developed economy, the global appeal of cryptocurrency can seem abstract to many Americans. The misunderstanding is rooted in a profound experiential gap. To bridge it, consider the hypothetical story of Abebe, an unbanked farmer in rural Ethiopia. His daily financial reality, and how crypto can solve it, illuminates what a stable, banked society takes for granted.

Abebe needs fertilizer for his crops, a purchase essential for his family's livelihood. The most affordable supplier is in another region and requires payment before shipping. However, Abebe faces several hurdles. He is one of the 1.4 billion adults globally without a bank account, so a bank transfer is impossible. The local currency, the Ethiopian Birr, is highly inflationary, meaning the cash he saves for the fertilizer loses purchasing power each week. Furthermore, his most reliable source of extra income is his sister, who works as a nurse in Minnesota.

In a traditional system, his sister would wire money via a remittance service. This process would involve her paying a fee of 6-10%, and Abebe would have to travel hours to the nearest city to a pickup location, hoping they have enough cash on hand. The entire process is slow, expensive, and strips value from the hard-earned funds.

Here, cryptocurrency offers a lifeline. His sister can buy a stablecoin like USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) and send $200 worth directly to a self-custody wallet on Abebe's basic smartphone. The transaction costs pennies and arrives in minutes. Abebe is now protected from his local currency's inflation because he holds digital dollars. He has become his own bank.

With the USDC in his digital wallet, Abebe can now pay the agricultural supplier, who has also adopted crypto to facilitate business across regions with unstable currencies. Abebe sends the payment directly from his phone. The transaction is instant and secure. He has bypassed the need for a bank, circumvented exorbitant remittance fees, and preserved the value of his money to purchase the fertilizer critical to his farm's success.

This entire scenario is foreign to the average American. Their perception of crypto is shaped by a domestic narrative of speculative investment. It's seen as a high-risk digital asset for wealth accumulation, dominated by headlines of price volatility and "meme coins." The fundamental utility Abebe leverages—as a payment rail, a store of value against hyperinflation, and a tool for financial inclusion—is completely overlooked because the problems it solves do not exist for most Americans.

For someone in the US, buying fertilizer involves a debit card, a credit card, or a check—all seamless and mundane. The idea that a global, decentralized monetary network is needed for such a basic transaction is difficult to grasp. Therefore, when they hear about crypto, they think of want: the desire to get rich. They struggle to see it from Abebe's perspective, where it represents a fundamental need: the ability to simply and affordably participate in the economy. Until this experiential divide is recognized, the true global appeal of crypto will remain a mystery to many in the Western world.

This is precisely why Bitcoin and other “store of value” crypto currencies will continue to flourish. Software never gets worse, it only gets better. If you have FOMO (fear of missing out) and you want to take part in this great world wide movement, learn more about how this all works! Start with the classes at The Crypto Codger College!