Fintech researchers developing emergency finance tool

The blockchain-powered Emergency Finance system would deliver payments from public authorities in the event of a socio-economic crisis

Stirling University researchers are developing a pioneering emergency finance tool which will be tested in a pilot scheme to deliver payments for textbooks to local primary schools.

Fintech researchers from the University of Stirling are developing a new digital tool that could deliver emergency finance to people during crises such as the current Covid pandemic.

The blockchain-powered EmFi (Emergency Finance) system would deliver payments from public authorities in the event of a socio-economic crisis.

Researchers say payments in the form of ‘digital tokens’ from local councils – or even central banks – could be paid to specific groups of people or particular businesses through the platform.

Dr Andrea Bracciali of Stirling’s Faculty of Natural Sciences will lead the design of the EmFi platform as part of a collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and digital technology firm, Cefriel. The project is financed by the Algorand Foundation.

Researchers say targeted payments are inefficient at present, riddled with high administration costs and regularly fail to reach socially isolated people, such as those who do not use a bank.

However, these are often the people who are most in need of financial support in crises situations.

To address this, the EmFi framework fosters greater financial inclusion, using mobile apps and exploring ways to include digitally isolated people through a tokenised digital currency.

If councils want to help families to buy medicines, incentivise people to shop local, support the hospitality trade, or make a basic income payment to the population, then digital and ‘programmable’ money is the most efficient way to identify, validate and support the beneficiaries, Dr Bracciali explained.

Public bodies across the world are grappling with the issue of how to do this in a flexible, efficient, accountable and secure way. Digital money is an innovative technology that could be a far more efficient system than the status quo, he added.