The author is ignoring the fact that there are no refunds with bitcoin.<p>He talks about predatory banking, but the finality of bitcoin transactions and lack of competitive insurance makes it even easier to scam the &quot;unbanked&quot;.  Bitcoin is also only pseudo-anonymous, and is more complicated to use than cash.<p>The Bill &amp; Linda Gates backed M-Pesa fits most of the criteria laid down in the article, much more than bitcoin, but seeing as that is a competitor of Freemit (the author is the CEO), I don&#x27;t think they&#x27;re going to go into it.