It has been a whirlwind year for the team over at Electroneum as they make moves to solve one of the worlds largest problems; getting the unbanked and less-fortunate people around the world access to life-altering opportunities that will change the global economy forever. Earlier this year Electroneum announced their mobile top-up initiative with South Africa, Turkey, and Brazil and have since expanded to Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda with more to come soon. The crypto company has also announced their creation of a two-sided marketplace, AnyTask, that will function like the Fiverr app via Electroneum payments in exchange of goods and services. Further, they will enable free e-learning for individuals to access in the third world in an effort to further pull people out of poverty. And with the near close-out to 2019, huge news continues to follow the coin as they announce bringing on David Bull; former Unicef CEO.

David’s role at Electroneum will center primarily around the initiatives happening on the ground in the developing world. Specifically; to ensure that Electroneum’s Fiver-like app, AnyTask, and their free e-learning platform, TaskSchool, are successful in their mission of enabling the unbanked to escape financial exclusion; a feat viewed as a trillion-dollar opportunity by many experts. Electroneum CEO, Richard Ells recently said “we are very excited and privileged to have David Bull on our team. He is here to help further our vision to help millions of people in developing countries and to broker deals with corporations and the most successful organizations in the world.” The excitement was shared by Bull as well who said Electroneum “is an ecosystem of initiative working in innovative, dynamic and creative ways to bring digital and financial inclusion and better and more sustainable livelihoods to those who are left behind...this seems to be just the kind of innovation which can help ensure that by 2030 noone is left behind, unconnected and financially excluded.”

Bull served as the Executive Director for Unicef UK from 1998 through 2016. Under his leadership, the UK’s chapter of the UN’s International Children’s Emergency Fund became one of the most game-changing initiatives in it’s space; developing rich and lasting partnerships amongst private sector corporations. It was during that time at Unicef that Bull’s influence greatly assisted in the organization’s volunteer income growth from £13 million at the start of his duties to well over £100 million by 2016. David has done amazing work over the course of his tenure at Unicef and Amnesty International which enabled drastic improvements to the lives of the less fortunate and the communities they live in, all through sustainable development initiatives. In July of 2016 Mr. Bull left Unicef UK to journey into the world of independent consulting for purposes of educational and international development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

It makes a lot of sense that Electroneum would be a great place for Bull to make further impacts on the unbanked world, and the organization is privileged to have him on their team. Mr Bull recently wrote a blog article on November 22nd titled “Electroneum: A Cryptocurrency ecosystem with a Development Mission.” The article draws light to the UN’s SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) to “leave no-one behind” and targeting the year 2030 for achievement. He highlights that with only 10 years remaining to achieve this feat, over 2 billion people worldwide still remain far, far behind by not having access to financial institutions that would “allow them to earn, save and spend safely… 38% of the world’s population is ‘unbanked’ and they are disproportionately women and the poor.” Bull further shines light on the opportunities presented with the evolution of the “freelance economy” and it’s flexibility, as well as the shortcomings of past and present first-world initiatives at helping the unbanked. He then goes into Electroneum and praises the system for their initiatives towards transparency, compliance, NGO-centered mining process, as well as their 50 dollar smartphone which gives online access to people in developing countries.

Ultimately, David Bull’s goal is to help Electroneum to work with NGOs and communities to demonstrate how Electroneum’s model can really transform people’s lives who need it most via Electroneum’s current framework. He closed his blog article in saying “ [Electroneum] is an exciting project for me, and I am looking forward to learning from colleagues in the development world. This seems to me to be just the kind of innovation which can help ensure that, by 2030, no-one is left behind, unconnected and financially excluded, as the world changes around them.” It will be interesting to see what happens next with Electroneum and it’s global initiative in the years ahead.

Marcus Henry is an American Journalist with over 11 years working in the tech industry. He has been actively involved in the crypto community for the past three years and currently works out of Austin, Texas. He covers breaking news, writes perspective pieces and reflections, and conducts interviews with industry professionals and community members. Follow Marcus Henry on Twitter- @MarcusHenryHODL

Disclaimer: The information above does not constitute investment, financial, trading or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of my content as such. I do not recommend the purchase, sale, or holding of any cryptocurrency or other product and nothing I write about should be deemed as an offer to purchase, sell, or hold a cryptocurrency or other product or service. Please do your own research and consult a certified financial professional before making any investment decision.