HesabPay successfully migrates to Algorand Blockchain

By Leandra Monteiro

The Algorand Foundation, whose mission is to empower the ecosystem of Algorand, the carbon-negative Layer 1 blockchain invented by MIT professor Silvio Micali, announced that Afghan e-payment solution HesabPay has successfully migrated to the platform.

HesabPay’s migration, which was funded through the Foundation’s grant program, is expected to stimulate about 6,000 transactions daily and impact tens of thousands of Afghans, especially women, in dire need of access to payments.

Utilising the Algorand blockchain as a settlement layer, HesabPay users will benefit from its Pure Proof-of-Stake (PPoS) consensus mechanism which enables near-zero cost transactions that settle within 4.5 seconds. This is expected to increase the ease and efficiency in which HesabPay connects international aid organizations to the citizens of Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan’s liquidity has been drastically constrained by a paralyzed banking sector, frozen assets and an acute shortage of physical currency notes,” said Matt Keller, Director of Impact and Inclusion at the Algorand Foundation. “Equipping HesabPay with a fast, reliable and cost-effective settlement layer is critical to moving international aid into the hands of those who need it most.”

While only 6% of Afghans have bank accounts, there are 27 million mobile phones in use, of which over 9 million are smartphones. HesabPay has been utilized by over a dozen humanitarian organizations to send funds directly to beneficiaries in urgent need, across all 400 districts and 34 provinces of Afghanistan. This includes a program to support over 5,000 female-headed households in some of the most remote areas of Badghis and Faryab.

“With 98% of Afghanistan’s population under the poverty line and withdrawal of expenditures that accompanied international forces, starvation looms for many as drought and global food prices spike,” said Sanzar Kakar, the creator of HesabPay. “Algorand Foundation shares our passion and commitment for applying the power of blockchain technology to alleviate suffering by efficiently distributing financial aid with unsurpassed security.”