Most detailed and interesting answers belong to these experts:

Alakanani Itireleng

Director at Satoshicentre of Botswana

I think for now the best to be used is Ethereum (both its token and private blockchain). Ethereum is still affordable, and if there are enough education resources for the ways Ethereum can be used as a token of value, it can be the currency of choice in Africa. Bitcoin will not be widely distributed there, because Africa on the whole came late to Bitcoin adoption. Structures can be built and opportunities created for Ethereum to be used in Africa (just like Humaniq gives access to credit through using Ethereum). Ethereum smart contracts can reduce the number of “real estate” disputes, land registration etc., which are common problems in Africa. The use of Bitcoin blockchain is very limited, despite its good quality. Many banks in South Africa are already trying the Ethereum private blockchain, and companies such as IBM already have Ethereum blockchain user cases functioning in Africa. For me, Ethereum has better chances in Africa. I believe the UN is right with saying that the globe and the network will be even more interconnected in the future, and technology is playing a huge role in this possibility. This connectivity will only matter if countries are willing to share knowledge, resources and expertise in various areas of life. There won’t be any difference if we are connected but still not using our various knowledge to deal with the global crises coming out of poverty, drought, diseases etc.

Derin Cag

Founder of Richtopia

In my opinion, most advanced for aforementioned countries would be Stellar, Bitcoin and Ripple. I don’t agree with the UN, because 30% of the world’s population are elderly and children, so I may say the number will be more like 70%. Millions of people in the world are still doing bartering because they don’t have access to banking! Just imagine: a farmer in a distant African village will be able to sell his carrots to anyone in the world and get paid directly. Rather than working for some Chinese agriculture company that invested in Africa, he will work for himself, cutting out all the middlemen and increasing the actual value. This system will reduce modern slavery, and its transparency will force institutions like banks to avoid inappropriate risks and take more appropriate ones.

Davala David Otieno

Senior Consultant at Findley Davies

Bitcoin with its substantial demand, increasing services and its millions of followers is the most advanced cryptocurrency in the world. As a consequence, it is the best platform for expansion to Africa, Asia, South America and Micronesia. Yes, I agree that 95% of population will be network-connected by 2020. By proper coordination and sufficient financial allocation to backward areas, I believe we can get to this point by that time. I believe that financial instruments will help to direct the flow of savings and investments in an appropriate way to facilitate the accumulation of capital and the production of goods and services. The combination of well-developed financial markets and institutions, as well as a diverse array of financial products and instruments, should suit the needs of borrowers and lenders and overall economy.

Emin Gün Sirer

Associate Professor at Cornell University

Sadly, none of current crop of cryptocurrencies is suitable for tackling the needs of large populations, nor for using it in everyday life. The scalability demand even inside a small country is beyond the capability of most, if not all, existing cryptocurrencies. Luckily, we have developed both on-chain and off-chain techniques for addressing demanding needs of such deployments, but it will take some time to bring them out of research labs into practice. I’m not sure about the percentage, but my anecdotal observation is that we’re living in an increasingly connected world, where smart phones and always-on-connectivity are becoming ubiquitous. This creates a perfect foundation for cryptocurrency adoption. Macroeconomic crises are quite complex, and it’d be a folly to think that cryptocurrency can address such challenges that require global coordination among actors with conflicting interests. That said, cryptocurrencies can help to address many sins of governments, reining in their natural tendency to inflate their currencies, capping money issuance, as well as providing sound mechanisms for obtaining economic measurements that, in a cash economy, would be impossible to carry out. They are, thus, empowering for individuals and governments alike.

Itumeleng Isaac Lejone

Co-founder and COO at 4goodpeople.com

Bitcoin is the most advanced platform that can expand in the aforementioned countries and can easily be adopted there. I totally agree with UN experts about the fact that by 2020, 95% of the world’s population will be network connected. Just look at the rates of digital community growth! I believe, the connection of 2.5 billion individuals will boost the global economy and help alleviate the current financial crisis. Though, credit systems should be highly regulated as it can lead to financial disaster.

John Gentry

Co-Founder of ExploreTraveler.com

Currently, I think Bitcoin has the likelihood of becoming more accepted within international trade. There are people in South America now using bitcoin to preserve their financial savings due to out-of-control inflation, and it is an example of a natural opportunity for Bitcoin to be used. In addition, I think the new blockchain cryptocurrency, STEEM, offers a unique way for people from countries mentioned above, to participate in the knowledge economy. The possibility of earning from sharing one’s knowledge presents an additional opportunity to educate the masses through blockchain technology, and how it can be used in conjunction with bitcoin. We are very active here, and have been testing the possibilities with people from the Philippines, and so far it has gone very well. This number within the context of an individual would not be possible yet, due to the need of using mobile technologies. However indirectly it is very possible for a single person in a village to have a mobile phone that is used by the leadership or members within a group. It is the reason why I am very positive on the use of mobile technology, and the costs of android-based technology appear to be going down. An example is our current experiment with a small group of people within one church in Tacloban City, Philippines. They are currently working together to understand and even generate financial earnings with the use of cryptocurrencies. We are guiding them through our website and helping to promote their work. It is my belief that government regulations and control of economic policy is what leads to most of the economic crises. So if 2.5 Billion people become educated and start using cryptocurrencies, they will come to the conclusion that there are perceived values in it, and all the rest would also join this flow. Currently, only blockchain technology can help those who were put aside from the world economic model.

Matt McKibbin

Chief Decentralization Officer

Bitcoin with the condition of having additional protocols (with the help of the Lightning network) to help microtransactions. Yes, I think the expansion of wireless internet connections via meshnets, drones, balloons and satellites will connect 95% of the population by 2020. It will happen faster than we realize. I think the connection of 2.5B people to the new financial infrastructure built on blockchains will be one of the greatest booms to the world financial system in history. However the legacy central banking system, built on 0 interest rates and debt, will need to collapse in on itself, as the alternative system becomes the main way people exchange.

Bruce Fenton

Founder of Satoshi Roundtable Private Blockchain Retreat

In my opinion, the most advanced platform is the one with the strongest blockchain and that is clearly Bitcoin. Ethereum is a great technical achievement as well. Agree. The key is not just connecting, but in individuals taking control of their own money and working to have free markets, with no central planning, dictating the details of the global economy. Right now we are in a prolonged financial crisis, because the money used by most of the world is inflated. It would help a lot if we moved towards a more sound form of money, based on real principles.

Jameson Lopp

Software Engineer at BitGo, Inc.

If we’re talking about usage as money, Bitcoin is unrivaled — it has the network effect behind it. It will require improvements in order to scale and handle significant user adoption, but many smart people are working on solving these engineering challenges. The proliferation of mobile phone coverage and price deflation for smartphones is causing a surge in Internet-connected users. We’re even seeing huge Internet based companies realize that it may be profitable for them to expend significant resources in expanding Internet access just so that they can increase their user base. See Google’s Loon project and Facebook’s drone-based project for examples. While I’m not sure what the exact numbers will be in 2020, it’s quite likely that Internet adoption will accelerate over the coming years. I’m not so sure that you can steer the global economy out of crisis by connecting more people to it. If anything, I think the rise in cryptocurrencies will offer a new safe haven for savvy individuals to weather the storm of economic crises in the traditional financial system. Unfortunately, a lot of people will still suffer from those crises.

Adam Ficsor

Pentavox Co.

Let’s look at the big picture: Bitcoin cannot handle with 1GB blocks even an MRT system’s volume. No other crypto has solved this. However second layer solutions, like TumbleBit, Lightning and sidechains do. And Bitcoin’s value is the most stable. So I would pick Bitcoin. I think it is out of context. There are some properties of Good Money. But crypto still has to improve in fungibility, transportability and unit of value. I am not sure we will be able to solve problems of the crisis without making those attributes acceptable.

Jordan Tuwiner

Founder & CEO at Buy Bitcoin Worldwide

Bitcoin is ready to help people in all of the countries mentioned above. It works today and many people in these countries are already using the Bitcoin system to save, store, and spend money. Despite the fact that other cryptocurrencies have some cool and unique features too, Bitcoin is the only one with enough liquidity and stable enough to help people around the world today. Lately, it has had a better store of value than most currencies, and it can be used to send money anywhere in the world in a few seconds as well. -||- Digital money with sound monetary policy may do more good for the world than the internet. Online, peer-to-peer financial tools, including Bitcoin, are able to eliminate many of the barriers that limit the global economy today. They can unite the world and give people from developing countries an access to the same financial tools we have in more developed countries.

John Lilic

Director of Enterprise Operations at ConsenSys

Ethereum- here’s a good explanation why: http://reason.com/reasontv/2016/03/18/ethereum-blockchain-lubin-consensys I do not believe anything the UN says. The more we can empower the individual to participate in the private sector economy — the better. I believe, decentralized technologies like Ethereum, Bitcoin and IPFS will empower micro-enterprise and will lead the growth of SME (micro, small, medium enterprise), because these systems increase transparency, resiliency and can bring us to a zero marginal cost- all good for economic development and growth.

Haseeb Awan

Bitcoiner

I think Bitcoin is still light years ahead of other cryptocurrencies. Ethereum project, however, has also found its niche market and will continue to grow. I am also looking forward to ADA release. I highly doubt this statement. I think more likely there would be around 85% of people having a cellphone, which is the most adopted form of communication in the world. Absolutely. Currently, less than 1 billion people are connected to the global economy. Changing that to 2.5 Billion will uplift the entire world economy massively.

So how did the answers stack up?

Of course, opinions differ, but most of our interviewees (76%) consider Bitcoin to be the most complete solution, and 30% — Ethereum to be the most anticipated. As for the statistics, such a possibility exists and we can see its tendency towards growth. Being active users or representatives of the cryptocurrency industry, most experts believe the solution to the world financial crisis will be found in connecting to network decentralized technologies.

On the whole, each talk was a great experience for us, and we believe the world will pay more attention to these leaders of the crypto-world in the future.

Good Luck and Enjoy crypto-world together with us!