Jacquiline Romorosa – Philippine Women Blockchain Influencers

April 12, 2019 – The introduction of bitcoin was a game-changer to the future of business, commerce, and transactions as the new digital currency built on cryptography featured a transaction ecosystem outside that of the existing banking and finance systems. Built based on blockchain’s transparent and decentralized nature, each transaction operates without a centralized clearance government.

Today, blockchain is being utilized into existing banking, commerce, credit, and finance systems as the mechanism that will power modern economies by the next decade and so. Jacqui Romorosa, the COO of Qwikwire, a FinTech start-up company offering global payments, billing and invoicing solutions for enterprises in Southeast Asia, has been working with blockchain-enabled payment platforms for a number of years and she knows the potential of the technology in the global financial system.

Blockchain Opportunities in the Philippines and Asia

The Philippine economy immensely benefits from the net inflow of money from overseas remittances by Overseas Filipino Workers. The volume of the money coming in from remittance has, in fact, buoyed the country from external shocks of the global economic downturns. Despite a population of over 100 million, the nation’s unbanked remains at a 77% rate and factors such as geography, lack of identification cards, and inaccessibility are prohibiting a large portion of the population to experience access to credit and modern financial services via banks. Despite this stagnation, therein lies a great opportunity for inclusion.

Like the Philippines, the Southeast Asia region is experiencing rapid development due to infrastructure and venture capitalism across unilateral ties based on neighbor trading agreements. The rapid development of the region has its fair share of challenges that includes exclusion: as huge portions of the population who identify as poor or destitute, are having trouble keeping pace with the economic development.

Knowing this, Jacqui firmly believes in financial inclusion and a “greater value for money” across financial services. Backed by over 9 years of experience in finance and consulting, with highlight on credit, mortgage, real estate, microlending, and remittance, Jacqui leads Qwikwire’s growth initiatives and overseas business operations based on the introduction of several financial and payment service powered by blockchain. She has been working with startups since 2014 and her track record includes: handling investors support for their ICO and raising $26M in ICO funding.

Knowing blockchain’s value and huge potential for enabling greater inclusion on economic development, Jacqui affirms the platform’s future as the core mechanism that will power the future of finance:

“Blockchain technology is beyond cryptocurrencies, all the hype and gaining monetary returns. It has a huge potential to improve many aspects of our lives through its real use cases such as making transactions efficient, transparent and risk-free through decentralization, using smart contracts to eliminate intermediaries thus lowering transaction fees, its application to healthcare systems, agriculture and logistics, eliminating corruption in the government, effective voting system – ideal for voter registration and identification, facilitating real estate transactions and the list goes on.”

Women in Blockchain

Jacqui also believes that blockchain’s bright future means equal opportunity for all, and that includes women.

“I believe more women can lead in the education, development, and promotion of blockchain technologies. Women can bring more and different experiences and expertise to the table. Women can also represent groups and push for advocacies in financial and gender inclusion.”

“Blockchain is still new and there’s no better time to get involved in blockchain than now. There are a lot of events happening in town where you can be educated and learn more about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Be active, meet and know the people involved in blockchain projects in your community, get involved and contribute.”

This article originally appeared on BitPinas: Jacquiline Romorosa- Philippine Women Blockchain Influencers

The Women in Blockchain Series Part. 1 continues next week with profile articles about the blockchain influencers above. This article is written by Ms. Gail Cruz Macapagal of Dynaquest on behalf of the Philippine Blockchain Association.

Photo Taken at and by Great Image Uptown Mall. Styling and Direction by Etiquette De Manille