Problems and needs

Blockchain for tracking is a rapidly developing field, but its benefits have only been reaped by huge market players. Small farmers and manufacturers in emerging markets don’t have access to secure and reliable certification of shipment and provenance, which in turn makes it harder to access financing to improve their product.

40% of SMEs have an unmet financing need of $5.2 trillion every year, which is equivalent to 1.4 times the current level of the global MSME lending. Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa regions, in particular, have the highest proportion of finance gap compared to potential demand, measured at 87%.

Retail customers in emerging markets have trouble with trusting sellers, especially over the internet: e-commerce is still often perceived as having less guarantees than in-person shopping, much like it was in the western world some fifteen years ago. Furthermore, in sectors such as the pharmaceutical one, the risk of buying counterfeit products is ever present, and buyers often do not have the tools to know if a label is authentic or not.

In addition, another problem that plagues manufacturers and customers alike is the reliability of product reviews; in fact, web 2.0 review systems are often unreliable and tamperable. Review bombing and fake reviews are very common on every marketplace, and can erode the trust that users have in the platform.

Payments over the internet are also made difficult by the banking system's underdevelopment. In the meantime, fintech and crypto payment providers are quickly gaining ground.