In Northwest Syria, a critical network of hospitals faces a unique challenge: how do you pay medical staff and fund healthcare when your country is completely cut off from the global financial system?

Due to economic sanctions and a fractured banking infrastructure following over a decade of civil war, humanitarian organizations like the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) have struggled to safely distribute funds.

Previously, hospital employees had to embark on grueling, risky journeys to the Turkish border, waiting in long lines for hours just to collect their salaries in physical cash.

In this episode, we take a firsthand look at how the evolution of cross-border payments is impacting real lives on the ground.

UOSSM is sending bulk payments to its employees on the blockchain, who receive their salaries in their digital wallets, and then use informal Hawala networks to off-ramp the digital dollars into cash.

In this episode of Money Trails, presented by‪ Stellar Development Foundation‬ we're joined by Ibrahim Abdulhuseyin, CEO & Co-founder & CEO of DigiBank, Tori Samples, the Director of Product, Stellar, and Younes Al-Haj Saleh, from UOSSM's Financial Operations.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

00:00 - Intro
01:27 - How employees used to get paid
02:38 - Civil war and sanctions
03:47 - UOSSM's payment struggles
05:58 - Stablecoin payments
06:49 - How Digibank built Syria's cash-out network
08:38 - Bulk payments with SDP
10:30 - Aid orgs are crypto adopters

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Drive through cities in Africa and you’re likely to see a waste problem. In the streets, the sewage, in the waterways…540 million tons of waste goes uncollected every year across sub-Saharan Africa.

It's a $16 billion opportunity. But much of the infrastructure is still missing. What would it actually take to build it at scale?

In Nigeria, a company called Scrapays is paying people to collect it. In Kenya, Plas-tech is turning the same plastic into cooking gas.

00:00 - Where does your waste go?
01:25 - In Lagos, Scrapay’s Boluwatife Arewa is empowering informal waste pickers
05:44 - In Mombosa, Plas-tech’s Robin Kariuki is turning waste into cooking gas
09:13 - The multi-billion dollar opportunity in waste

This episode was produced as part of our series on climate action in Africa, The Greenprint, in partnership with Catalyst Fund and FSD Africa, with the help of UK aid.

Watch more episodes of The Greenprint here.

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In Lagos' Computer Village, Nigeria's largest electronics market, everything is imported from China. But how merchants access dollars and pay their suppliers is a challenge.

Nigeria imports $20 billion from China every year, yet dollar access problems and legacy banking systems create friction for those doing global trade.

So how do countries like Nigeria and China trade with each other?

In this episode, we head to Lagos, Nigeria, to see it firsthand - how money moves, and how new technologies like stablecoins are facilitating global trade.

In this episode of Money Trails, presented by Stellar Development Foundation.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

00:00 - Inside Computer Village
01:22 - Everything is imported from China
02:32 - The Nigerian Economy
03:56 - Importing phones with WeChat and Alipay
05:18 - No one uses the banks for FX
06:17 - Naira volatility, explained
09:10 - Informal and parallel economies
09:38 OTC Traders Fill the Gap
11:21 - Are stablecoins the future of global trade?
14:43 - Next stop: Syria

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If you're a freelancer or a remote worker from the global south, you likely have a harder time getting paid and participating in the global economy.

Maybe a global payments company doesn't operate in your country. Maybe they banned your account or froze your funds.

Remote workers and freelancers from emerging markets often have to jump through hoops to get paid, incurring additional costs along the way.

Meanwhile, more people than ever are working online, and more of these workers are coming from the developing world. Yet the global payments system is often failing the very people who rely on it the most.

Are stablecoins the solution?

This episode of Money Trails is presented by Stellar Development Foundation.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

00:00 - The global payments system is broken
01:34 - Freelancing and remote work payment issues
03:38 - Why does this happen? De-risking
04:29 - 1.2 billion people are reaching working age in emerging markets
05:15 - Stablecoins to the rescue?
07:09 - There is a tax on the global south
09:03 - Next episode, we head to Lagos, Nigeria

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💻 Website - https://theflip.africa

Bolivia is facing a severe economic crisis. The country is literally running out of dollars. Their foreign reserves have collapsed from $15 billion a decade ago to just $50 million today.

In June 2024, Bolivia legalized cryptocurrencies, and digital asset transaction volume exploded - growing over 500 percent in the past year.

To participate in the global economy, businesses are turning to stablecoins for access to dollar assets.

From Binance peer-to-peer trading to stablecoin-powered credit cards, we explore how people survive when their country runs out of dollars, and how stablecoins are being used for global spending.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

00:00 - Bolivia ran out of dollars
02:06 - Stablecoins to the rescue
03:25 - How did Bolivia get here?
04:11 - Bolivia's parallel economy
06:24 - Meru
09:55 - What happens when a country runs out of dollars

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Argentina's decades-long economic crises and hyperinflation has a major impact on how Argentine's participate in the economy.

The recent story that's been told about Argentina is that people are adopting stablecoins to protect against inflation and currency devaluation. But that's only part of the story...

The real story involves long-standing distrust of government and the banks, and overbearing taxes that drive Argentinians to the informal economy.

While stablecoin volumes in Argentina surpass $90 billion, Argentina still has over $200 billion in cash circulating in the country, and hidden under mattresses. It's the second-largest holder of US Dollar cash, behind the US itself.

In this episode of Money Trails, presented by @StellarDevelopmentFoundation , we explore why Argentines keep their money outside of the formal system, and why they are increasingly adopting stablecoins.

In this episode, we’re joined by Manuel Beaudroit, the Co-founder & CEO of Belo.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

00:00 - Argentina's economic crisis
01:45 - Arbolitos on Calle Florida
02:48 - The Blue Dollar
04:01 - Distrust and taxes
07:20 - Why Argentines keep their money outside the formal economy
09:50 - Why Argentina's parallel economy still thrives
10:43 - Cuevas, Argentina's informal exchange houses
13:21 - Why Argentines are adopting stablecoins
15:43 - Subscribe!

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This year, $160 billion in remittance payments will be sent from the US to Latin America. $65 billion will be sent from the US to Mexico, the world's largest remittance corridor.

Yet, the majority of payments will be sent via brick-and-mortar stores like Western Union or Moneygram.

The future of payments is already here, yet most people are queuing in line, paying in cash, taking a photo of their receipt, and sending it to their families on WhatsApp for collection in their home country.

If we can send receipts over WhatsApp, why can’t we send money too?

That same question was the motivation for Félix, an AI-powered chatbot that replicates the trusted agent experience om WhatsApp.

It’s a user experience made possible by stablecoins.

In this episode of Money Trails, presented by Stellar Development Foundation, our user-centric series on global stablecoin adoption, we explore how immigrants send money back home.

This episode of Money Trails is sponsored by Rain Cards.

In this episode, we’re joined by

Manuel Godoy - Co-founder & CEO, Felix
Farooq Malik - Co-founder & CEO, Rain

00:00 - Intro
01:06 - Sending money in Jackson Heights
03:22 - Félix CEO Manuel Godoy
04:54 - How Félix works
06:20 - Stablecoin-powered remittance payments
08:49 - Spending money in Mexico
11:38 - Subscribe!

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Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qoA105xnIpU

Khaman Maluach was just drafted 10th overall in the NBA Draft. He’s a South Sudanese refugee who grew up in Uganda and only started playing basketball when he was 13 years old.

After first playing the game at Luol Deng’s basketball camp, Maluach played at the NBA Academy in Senegal, and played three seasons in NBA Africa’s Basketball Africa League, before signing with Duke University.

He’s the first player from the BAL to be drafted into the NBA. And as we continue to invest in talent on the African continent, there will be more players like Khaman Maluach playing in the league in the future.

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