B-Desh: Revolutionizing Remittances: A Decentralized Blockchain System for a Secure & Efficient Smart Contract-Based Transaction
1Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Chittagong, Bangladesh
A Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for IBCOL 2023
Sustainable Development Goals
Keywords
Abstract
Remittance is the one of the largest source of foreign currency in developing countries. For example, in Bangladesh. About 10 million migrant workers contribute to the remittance inflow. With the increasing migrant workers each year, remittance inflow and its contribution to GDP has not increased comparatively. This is because people are choosing illegal money transfer mediums such as hundi transfer.
In this paper, we discuss why people prefer illegal money transfer medium- “Hundi” from which government earns nothing from the transaction to traditional banking systems. We identified several limitations to our current bank transfer including with one of the key causes being high exchange rate, inefficient onboarding, vulnerable KYC, error prone, limited control and challenges in regulatory compliance. In line with SDG 10 and SDG 16, we proposed a decentralized Blockchain Platform “B-DESH” Powering Smart Contract-Based Remittances, to mitigate hundi so that people are drawn in a legal system where government also gets the portion from the money transfer. Blockchain technology can ensure traceability, transparency, data privacy and prevention of fraudulent which meets the SDG 16. Expected transaction fee is below 2% whereas, SDG 10 aims to keep the remittance fee below 3%.
Our process involves three segments: KYC establishes a biometric profile and wallet ID stored in a private IPFS cloud, with hashed values in smart contracts. Smart contracts enable real-time, intermediary-free money transfers, with DeFi as a liquidity provider. Post-payment, the distributed ledger verifies transactions. Our project aligns with SDG 10, targeting a 2% exchange rate to reduce transaction costs, and contributes to SDG 16 by ensuring transparency and accountability in financial transactions through blockchain technology.