Cryptocurrency in the Western World
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated 2018 Median Household Income in the United States is $60,293.00. While the United States surely is not "on top of the world" where income is concerned, it is the perspective from which I write; however, I offer this information as a basis for further discussion. In much of the modern western world, livable wages are the norm - not the exception - and that is a very different story than what we find in much of the rest of the world.
To illustrate this, I ask you to consider that in India, for example, the average annual income is just $2020.00 (That's just $5.35 per day!). Even in Europe, at the east/west gateway, the average annual income in Ukraine is not much better at $2660.00.
I understand that at the lower end of the spectrum (perhaps even at the top end) cash and barter economies thrive and so the "whole" picture truly isn't known. It doesn't take into account exchange rates, local purchase power, or even locally acceptable living standards.
But it does, in my opinion, make a strong case for cryptocurrency adoption and even... dare I say it... warm wallets and faucets!
First, let's look at the viability of cryptocurrency adoption in the developing world, then we'll cover wallets and faucets.
Cryptocurrency in the Developing World
First I have to acknowledge the argument that the developing world doesn't have the same access to technology that the western world does. With that said, I'll turn my focus back to Ukraine and India as examples.
In Ukraine, according to Wikipedia, in 2016 52.5% of Ukrainians had access to the internet with WiFi widely available in most urban areas in the country. Even better, as of 2018, according to Interfax-Ukraine, some 85% of Ukrainians are smart phone users.
By contrast, in India, the overall picture is a little different with a 39% penetration - but that represents some 374 million people (the entire U.S. population is 328 million).
So I believe that taking those statistics into perspective, it debunks the technology access theorem.
With that said, worldwide there are only 42 million blockchain wallets, and that includes first world through developing nations. So it really is kind of a surprise that these numbers aren't greater, given the wide availability of low-to-no-cost warm wallets. I define "warm wallets" as software wallets that reside on smart phones where the end user maintains control of the keys.
Most warm wallets facilitate some direct means of transfer either through address transfer, QR code, etc. which somewhat addresses "unbanked" concerns, but does not necessarily address KYC (Know Your Customer) issues. Use of VPN's (Virtual Private Networks) also address some (definitely not all) regional concerns. Otherwise, statutory issues are the biggest obstacle, but most world governments are addressing this one way or another.
Faucets et al
I've decided to not get into a specific faucet, drip, or etc. for this particular article, but will discuss instead the validity of use of these types of sources for cryptocurrency for this discussion, without regards to a specific coin or mechanism.
In my personal experience it is very possible to generate $15-25+ per month with various "free" sources of faucets with minimal hardware requirements. The primary obstacle being accessibility to exchanges for conversion to local fiat; however, if in a situation where the average monthly income is $168.00 the additional $15-25+ per month should justify the time effort required in the "faucet sphere".
