Real World Stories: The Onchain Effect

San Francisco, CA, 8 August 2024 - The Stellar Development Foundation released “The Onchain Effect,” a documentary detailing the real world story of crypto and blockchain making a positive impact and giving people control of their everyday financial lives. Crypto and blockchain are about more than the ups and downs of speculative markets. “The Onchain Effect” takes us into the mountains of Colombia to tell one of those stories.

“The Onchain Effect” tells the story of Zac Borrowdale, an Australian who fell in love with San Francisco, Colombia, its people, and beauty. Zac started two small businesses in San Francisco that employ people in the small town. Almost no one in San Francisco has a bank account or access to basic financial services, so in order to pay his workers Zac had to travel to the city of Medellin to withdraw months worth of payroll in cash from ATMs across the city.

One day, while Zac was withdrawing cash from an ATM in Medellin for payroll, someone shot him and took all his cash. Zac nearly died, only waking up from a coma days after the attack. The lack of traditional financial infrastructure in San Francisco and the dangerous reality of carrying large amounts of cash in Colombia left Zac struggling for a solution to meet payroll.

That’s where Decaf and Stellar came in. Decaf is a non-custodial wallet that allows users to easily send money and designed for seamless entry into decentralized finance, enabling easy on and off-ramps between fiat and crypto in nearly 200 countries. Decaf allows Zac to pay his employees in USDC, a digital dollar. Zac’s employees can withdraw USDC in Colombian Pesos using Stellar crypto-to-fiat ramps via Moneygram Access, and a Moneygram agent in the village. With Stellar and Decaf, Zac no longer has to make the journey to Medellin's ATMs because he can pay his employees onchain.

The result is a small town in Colombia gaining access to basic financial services onchain and Zac’s employees getting the benefit of steady, secure and instant payments so they can take control of their own financial futures. This injection of new capital is creating the onchain effect, a ripple of increased economic activity and, consequently, further spending within the local economy, benefiting businesses and revitalizing the village.

Watch “The Onchain Effect” HERE.