We’re thrilled to announce a new collaboration with Alibre.io, a fintech company based in Tijuana, Mexico that shares Giveth’s vision for the future of altruism. For the last few years, they’ve been building incredible software that extends financial services to the base of the pyramid in Mexico, the unbanked and underserved.

Alibre.io (a.k.a. AhorroLibre) has already turned out some impressive projects. Their Tanda app allows users to establish digital rotating savings and credit associations, community-run organizations that offer banking-like services to members. Another impressive creation is the Koperacha app, which, among other things, allows users to support highly transparent crowdfunding campaigns.

All of Alibre.io’s apps will soon be accessible via a simple wallet app that’s already in end-user testing. The wallet will also allow users to save money, make P2P payments, and eventually buy and sell crypto (est. Q1 2020) all through a single easy-to-use interface.

From where we stand, however, Alibre.io’s most interesting project is their work on the holy grail of crypto charities: an easy way to exchange crypto for cold hard cash, often referred to as the last mile. Swapping cryptocurrencies for local currency is one of the most significant challenges in our field, and we applaud Alibre.io for coming up with a user-friendly solution that resonates with local people’s existing habits.

The solution involves connecting the Alibre.io wallet to Bity — a blockchain infrastructure provider from Switzerland, and Bitso — the best online exchange in Mexico. This will enable users to receive cryptocurrency and convert it to pesos, which they can deposit into a bank account created by Alibre.io or withdraw from an ATM at any of Mexico’s 17,000 Oxxo locations. This convenience store chain, which is ubiquitous in the country, already provides payment and money management solutions to many Mexicans, including those without bank accounts.

Having the option to plug into this system will be a major boon to our future projects in Mexico, and we’d like to eventually replicate it in other countries as well.

For Giveth’s joint project with Alibre.io, our teams will leverage this last mile solution in support of the amazing Fundación Castro Limón, an NGO that manages their own private hospital where they provide free care and treatment to underprivileged children with cancer. Hopefully, this collaboration will result in the Foundation taking in more funds in the form of a stream of cryptocurrency donations (they’ve been all-fiat up to this point) which can be easily converted to pesos thanks to Alibre.io’s enterprising solution. We’ll have more to say about the Castro Limón project very soon, so stay tuned for that!

Another exciting result of this partnership is that Alibre.io has been kind enough to share some of their beautiful office space with us. That means Giveth will now have physical hubs in Tijuana and Barcelona!

We’ve already made one hire at the office: Jorge, an Alibre.io team member who stayed with us in Prague during Devcon4. Jorge will help us fix bugs and add features to our DApp, including connecting our DApp to Alibre.io so that, for the first time, our platform will provide local currency to local people!

In addition, we’re looking to bring on more Tijuana-based devs to work for Giveth out of the Alibre.io office. If you know anyone who fits the bill, please tell them to reach out to us on Riot!

We recently celebrated our blossoming partnership with Alibre.io by taking part in a blockchain meetup they hosted, where Giveth co-founder Griff Green unveiled some of our future goals.

Stay tuned for more news on our work in Mexico and beyond!

Giveth

The Giveth DAC, the team of people working on the DApp and many other Galaxy projects, is funded through the DApp. We depend on Givers like you: individuals who want to help us to make the World a Better Place. If our mission speaks to you, go to donate.giveth.io or contact any of the Unicorns on Riot, and tell us how you’d like to contribute. ❤

To learn more about Alibre.io, visit their site or follow them on Medium, Facebook and Twitter

To see the DACs and Campaigns built on the Giveth DApp, visit: beta.giveth.io

Interested in joining Giveth? Talk to us on Riot about how you can help