“Piggy-banking” is the practice of teaching children financial responsibility via the transfer of small amounts of physical money, as a reward for hard work, in recurring allowances or one off gift. It’s about the pig, the coin, the crack. You know the drill. But there’s more to learning about money than stuffing your pig with coins and smashing it when you need them.

Across the world, from Europe to Asia to the United States, children’s allowances vary, but one thing is clear. Financial education is something all children need, and in early years it happens a few cents at a time, pocket change goes a long way when educating your little ones, and in a world where every conceivable service has been digitised, and families are increasingly globalised, why are digital piggy banks so damn expensive, slow, and geographically constrained?

Cross-border trade has grown to over 30% global GDP, families too have become increasingly international and distributed, with relatives spread all over the world. At Pigzbe we think of these globalised families as small micro-financing networks in need of empowerment over the distance they cover, and believe they should have the right to transfer funds across borders, and quickly, no matter how big or small the sum.

The status quo simply makes this impossible, and for some solid evidence look no further than incumbent digital piggy-bank apps, their fees, speeds and geographies. The table below shows data from GoHenry, Osper, and Rooster (which doesn’t actually send any real money whatsoever), which are currently the best services in class. The last line in the chart shows you what Pigzbe can offer by comparison.

So there you have it. Mutton dressed as lamb. Clunky, expensive and slow, with ongoing fees charged monthly just to save your own money! These piggy-bank apps and cards simply don’t reflect the reality of micro-financing between families, especially in a globalised environment as mobility increases and family members are increasingly more spread across the world.

After more than a decade of designing products that reached millions of people for brands like Apple, Google, Nike, Primo and Kano, the Pigzbe team united under a single banner and mission: reinventing the humble piggy-bank for a world where physical money is on its way out, and a global token economy is on its way in, and we think we’ve succeeded.

Pigzbe is made up of 4 elements: 1) Wollo (WLO), a utility token that enables saving, learning, playing and spending. 2) A wallet, app and game for families and children that lets you manage your Wollo. 3) Pigzbe, a tangible controller and cold storage device that interacts with the app and game. 4) The Wollo Card, a payment card that allows families to spend Wollo in multiple currencies.

We think we’ve created a fun, effective and unique product, with an exciting business model, sensitive to the needs of our customers. A product that emboldens and supports the natural micro-financing habits of families globally as opposed to taking advantage of them the way incumbent digital piggy-banks do, and we think you’re going to love it.

We would love to tell you more about our unique business model and token economy in the lead-up to the Pigzbe ICO. Over the coming weeks the team ad I will have the chance to cover both technical, economic and commercial matters surrounding what we think has the potential to become a new global standard in family centered micro-financing and 21st century financial education.

Follow Pigzbe and the Pigzbe ICO & Wollo token sale, by heading over to pigzbe.com and sign-up to our newsletter. Join the conversation on Telegram t.me/PigzbeICO. And watch this space.