DeFi meets real world impact: how blockchain is expanding financial access with Zach Marks

In this talk, I will showcase how blockchain technology is transforming financial access in emerging markets – a foil to the narrative that crypto has yet to find its killer real-world application. I will share with the ETHDenver community how blockchain enables a new approach to providing affordable financing to microenterprises and small businesses, from medical clinics in Kenya to local bakeries in the Philippines. First, I will provide a high-level overview of the fascinating history of microfinance and previous approaches to expand financial access in emerging markets – from what worked in traditional community finance (“Microfinance 1.0” - where borrowers share ownership) to fintech lending (“Microfinance 2.0” - which enabled scale, but lost the community ownership element), and how the blockchain has enabled a new wave of financial inclusion initiatives (“Microfinance 3.0” - which unlocks a new wave of affordable financing for emerging markets and puts borrowers on a path to building wealth & prosperity by allowing the traditional means of community ownership to scale globally). The presentation will be peppered with fun personal anecdotes from my time working on initiatives across each of these phases. We’ll all learn, laugh and get inspired to build for impact! In addition to this presentation, I’ve been speaking with several of our investors (BlockTower Capital, Flori Ventures/Tomer Bariach, TCG Crypto, Packy McCormick, Anand Iyer) about putting together a panel on Real World Assets (RWA) moving on chain, and DeFi 2.0: real-world credit applications. As a Web3 builder based in Nairobi, I’d love to share more about other innovative use cases of blockchain technology I have seen in Kenya on the “Blockchain meets Impact” theme – from ecology preservation to improving government accountability and service delivery to unlocking economic growth by bringing land rights on chain. I gave a similar presentation and spoke on several panels at ETH Safari, Africa’s first ETH conference – sort of like ETH Denver but much smaller and on the Kenyan coast. I haven’t been able to track down video footage, but you can read more about the panels I spoke on at https://ethsafari.xyz/agenda: 1. DeFi for the People – the Building Blocks of Financial Inclusion 2. Creating a Regenerative Economy through DeFi in Africa 3. Tokenization 101 – a new tool for startups to bootstrap and provide community ownership Zach Marks Co-Founder & CEO Jia Zach Marks is co-founder and CEO of Jia, a DeFi platform connecting investors directly with small businesses in emerging markets. Prior to Jia, Zach led business development at Tala, an emerging markets fintech lender, and worked on financial inclusion initiatives as a McKinsey management consultant. He began his career as an English teacher in India, Brazil and Ethiopia, and has been a Fulbright fellow, a journalist and a prep cook. https://twitter.com/zmarks215