C2016 Western Union [portable] Access

The company realized that the "unbanked" don't want cryptocurrency—they want certainty. And in a chaotic 2016 world of Brexit, the US presidential election, and volatile oil prices, Western Union offered the most valuable commodity of all: a reliable way to move a dollar from Chicago to Chiapas in 10 minutes.

Blockchain was a solution looking for a problem that Western Union had already solved with old-fashioned ledgers. Marketing and Branding: "A Family United" To combat the "expensive dinosaur" narrative, Western Union launched a massive campaign in 2016 focused not on technology, but on outcome . The tagline, "The fastest way to send money home," evolved into "A family united." c2016 western union

Simultaneously, (WU’s eternal rival) was bleeding market share and looking for a buyer (it would eventually find Ant Financial, though the deal later collapsed). Ria Money Transfer was aggressively undercutting prices in the low-end corridor. The company realized that the "unbanked" don't want

Behind the scenes, however, Western Union was experimenting. Leaked reports from 2016 suggest the company ran a pilot project integrating XRP (Ripple’s token) for settlement between dollar and peso corridors. They found that while settlement was fast, the volatility and regulatory uncertainty made it useless for the average remitter sending $200 to feed a family. Marketing and Branding: "A Family United" To combat