This One Image Shows Why There's A Massive Opportunity To Revolutionize The Financial System
This week we wrote about how there's a huge fortune to be made if you can solve the problem of cheap payments. We listed payments as one of 10 big problems that are crying out for a solution (others include cheap battery storage, water desalination, and a pill that makes you lose weight).
One company that's trying to revolutionize the payments game is Ripple, which is essentially a hybrid of PayPal and Bitcoin.
On their company blog this week, they posted a fascinating piece titled: 5 Crazy Payment Practices We Accept as Totally Normal.
The post describes all the things we do in the financial system which really should be ancient history. Included in the post was this image, which has been floating around for awhile, but which is funny and true. It shows when banks are open vs. when you have time to go to the bank.
Maybe it's a slight exaggeration, and maybe you don't have to go to the bank that much anymore. But tons of people still go to banks every day, and find it to be a pain in the ass to schedule those trips.
Also tons of people are still using checks for things. And as Ripple notes in their post, there are still a ridiculous amount of paper receipts floating around too.
Bottom line is that the payment and banking system remains ridiculously antiquated, and a fortune can obviously still be made by bringing it up to speed.