Have you ever considered donating money to a charity – but then you didn’t? Because you
were afraid your money would be wasted or not really helping people in need? There is a
problem of trust and transparency.
This is where Blockchain comes in. Blockchain is not only about “Bitcoins” – it is a
technology that creates full transparency of money flows. It helps us actually see where
our money goes and what impact it creates for people in need. Blockchain technology can
help us create the change we wish to see in the world – at the tip of a finger. Nearly 1 billion people in the world have no access to electricity. Rebecca’s mission is to end energy poverty and improve lives in emerging markets by unlocking the potential of clean energy and digitalisation while contributing to 14 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
She is co-founder and CMO of PineBerry, a German-Kenyan social business providing an “Everything-as-a-Service” platform for scaling energy access in emerging markets. Rebecca is also President and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors at the Alliance for Rural Electrification in Belgium, promoting a sustainable decentralised renewable energy industry for the 21st century.
With her background in Strategic Marketing, Corporate Communications and IT Management, Rebecca entered the rural electrification space in 2016. In the past years, she deepened her digitalisation and off-grid expertise mostly from an entrepreneurial point of view but also on an institutional level as a researcher at the University of Neu-Ulm in Germany. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Have you ever considered donating money to a charity for helping people in need when you see those stereotypical shocking pictures of skinny people working hard on the dry cracked land somewhere in Africa and this is the moment you feel like you should give them something but you don’t you scroll down or swp
Away why is that because you’re afraid your money will be wasted or lost or not really helping the people you feel guilty and bad but still you scroll down or swep away money is Central to Bridging the Gap between wealth and poverty so it won’t work without money we need
Money to make a change now how could we solve this conflict imagine what if we knew where our money goes if we had a guarantee if we could see its actual impact well the good news is we can we can make a change in the world because there is something new called blockchain
Technology don’t worry I won’t go into technical details here I am not a software engineer but I spent the past six years of my professional life at the magic interface of green energy digitalization and Innovation now before we take a closer look at blockchain technology I would
Like to tell you a little story of how I got in there when I met a young African woman called Ruth it was my first trip to rural can back in November 20177 I was picked up in Nairobi by Maya a passionate electrical engineer focusing on solar
Energy our first stop was a little village in mua the top rice farming area in Kenya and getting there I spotted a cute little girl she came running towards me arms stretched wide and eyes full of joy just like my little sister stood back in childhood and then behind her there was
Her mother Ruth Ruth was 32 years old that’s two years older than I am now but her life was and still is quite different than mine she has three kids left alone without a father she works as a farmer from 700 a.m. to 700 p.m. and she has no
Electricity at home and I thought to myself what does it mean living without electricity so Ruth explained to me when she gets up in the morning at 6:00 a.m. it is still completely dark so she lights up her kerosene lamp you know kerosene the fuel for airplanes so Ruth and her kids breathe
The toxic fumes that airplanes imit in their home then Ruth prepares food on Open Fire again toxic smoke in their home then Ruth starts to work on the Farmland there is no water pump to irrigate the fields so no rain means no growth if a season goes well she
Harvests the crops but without electricity for refrigeration 40% of her Harvest just spoils so there is a continuous vicious cycle according to the World Bank 600 million Africans face the same issues as Ruth does because they have no access to electricity and Africa is growing it has the highest population growth in the
World at around 2.5% growth in 2021 according to the World Bank now if more and more people burn kerosene then carbon emissions keep Rising this in turn fuels global warming and drought which affects vulnerable communities like ruths the most if living conditions get worse and worse more more people leave their homes
And take the risky journey to Europe which in turn causes many problems again so there is a global vicious cycle that affects all of us we are in this together and we should think about Solutions today for what otherwise will become a problem tomorrow wouldn’t it be great if each of
Us could really do something how can we stop this vicious cycle and make a meaningful change well change requires money so here we are again with a charity we are reluctant to give money because we don’t know we don’t know where our money goes we don’t know if it
Really helps the people in need and now is the right time to dive deeper into blockchain technology I know those buzzwords buzzing around and probably many of your minds right now blockchain oh Bitcoin risk uncertainty better not touch but blockchain is not Bitcoin it is much more than that Bitcoin is just
An example based on blockchain technology essentially blockchain is a technology that creates here it comes full transparency of money flows so we should reframe the term blockchain with transparency and now let’s think about the charity again what if we knew where our money goes if we had a guarantee and
If we could see its actual impact it’s a matter of trust and transparency and now this closes the circle to blockchain so what would such a transparent trustworthy blockchain solution look like imagine you give a loan of $100 to Ruth for a clear purpose that solves a
Problem let’s say a solar home system that provides clean energy from the sun such a system can cost hundreds of dollars so let’s keep it simple and assume Ruth gets a small one for $100 now as soon as you click the button send money you can see exactly where
Each dollar flows it’s like when you’re preparing dinner for your family or friends and spreading food on each of their plates just that the blockchain tool does the job automatically now the following happens with your $100 you can see $70 flow into the solar product $20 flow into the delivery to
Ruth and $10 flow to the local Canyon sales agent John who trains Ruth how to properly use the system and now it’s Ruth’s turn to repay your loan Ruth is so happy about the solar product she doesn’t have $100 to pay for it though but she does have
$15 so she pays back $15 every month $13 flow back to you and $2 flow to the local Canyon sales agent John who makes sure the product is working well but what happens if Ruth does not pay the solar product is blocked it is virtually connected to the
Blockchain platform and can be remoted toally controlled it’s like when you turn off the TV pressing the red power off button on your remote just that the blockchain tool does the job automatically and also it notifies John to have a look and help Ruth so there is
A system of checks and balances in place after nine months Ruth has finished paying the solar product now belongs to her and she enjoys free electricity from the Sun she has now power for lighting cooking and cooling her Harvest to feed her kids so you stopped the Vicious Cycle
Ruth was stuck in and you turned it into a virtuous cycle and you can actually see it because blockchain tools can calculate the impact you created so for instance you saved half a ton of CO2 just by repl replacing Ruth’s kerosene lamp with solar energy or you saved nine tons of
Perishable food thanks to solar refrigeration and so on and so on and so on and so on one of my major guidelines in life comes from Mahatma Gandhi’s wise words be the change that you wish to see in the world blockchain technology can help us
Be this change in the world and it makes this change transparent those revolutionary fully transparent blockchain Solutions are still in the early stages first impact investment platforms for Africa are being launched right now and more will follow in the coming years so you will definitely come across some stay tuned
And then I have three wishes for you number one please don’t be scared of the term blockchain number two please replace the negative buzzwords with positive ones so instead of Bitcoins risk uncertainty put opportunity guarantee transparency and number three please don’t scroll down or swipe away like you’ve done with a charity but
Take a look because you might be able to change a person’s life at the tip of a finger thank [Applause] you