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Some tech-savvy street vendors have already made the transition to using Venmo or Cash App, which are considered popular methods of sending money or paying bills digitally.
But this idea of duets goes beyond what is currently used.
We would like to update them on what’s going on in the crypto world, said Hj Chong, co-founder of Local Hearts, a nonprofit philanthropic organization. If we can educate them to be on the cutting edge of technology, then they will be on the cutting edge of their time.
Local Hearts and start-up ZUZcoin have their eyes set on a new era of digital currencies, especially cryptocurrencies, which recently exploded in mainstream media following a commercial craze for Dogecoin, a crypto coin. which gained popularity thanks to the celebrity endorsement of Teslas Elon Musk, and volatile stock trading.
Given its decentralized nature with no traditional bank fees and untapped potential, cryptocurrencies could be used to help street vendors accept different forms of payment so they can sell their elotes and chopped fruit by the market. Bitcoin, according to their theory.
An example of what this might look like in practice would be scannable QR code stickers placed on the sides of a food cart. A customer with a digital wallet app installed on their smartphone with a few crypto coins to spend could simply scan the QR code with the phone and transfer funds directly to the street vendor’s digital wallet.
The seller could then exchange the crypto coins for US dollars through a company that offers this type of service.
Chong, co-founder of Local Hearts, admits the idea sounds far-fetched and even more confusing for most street vendors and customers to use today, but he thinks cryptocurrencies could be an alternative to help. to ensure the safety of street vendors when working in the street.
Local Hearts is teaming up with ZUZcoin, a crypto arm of a new digital software company called Zero Utility, to help them navigate the intricacies of cryptocurrencies.
The two organizations met in Long Beach for a backpack giveaway through the Manny Pacquiao Foundation in April. ZUZcoin was officially launched in March of this year and raised over $ 30,000 in cryptocurrency at the giveaway event for the two nonprofit groups. The company has also helped Local Hearts establish a digital wallet so that the organization can also accept donations of crypto coins.
ZUZcoin CEO Jared Brunson and the company’s 13 employees have developed a niche in a growing digital market for non-fungible tokens, commonly referred to as NFTs.
Brunson said digital artists or musicians are working with ZUZcoin to help them auction and sell ownership of their artwork or music.
Similar to cryptocurrencies, the NFT market is still fairly new, although some NFTs are already selling for large sums of money on the internet. A 2007 viral video titled “Charlie Bit Me” on YouTube recently sold as NFT for around $ 761,000, as reported in Yahoo Finance.
Brunson said that ZUZcoins main role in the partnership with Local Hearts is to serve as a guide in the digital currency market for street vendors.
There is a barrier. Not many people know how to use crypto, and that’s another educational factor we want to tackle, Brunson said. We have access to the interior of the space, so we were able to fill in the gaps, and it is our greatest ability at the moment to have connections with the outside world and within the crypto space, which is quite bombed.
Street vendor Pedro Castellanos-Aguilar holds a laminated sheet with direct QR code links to his Venmo and Cash App accounts so customers can purchase items from him without using cash. Photo by Sébastien Echeverry.
Besides industry know-how, some street vendors also face language and cultural barriers.
Events organized by Local Hearts often help migrant Latino street vendors and children from low-income communities of color. At the end of last month, Chong and his Local Hearts co-founder, Tito Hernandez, organized a buyout event for two street vendors who had been harassed and wrongly labeled.
Chong says most street vendors are pretty savvy, but still struggle to catch up with modern payment methods.
We know a man in his forties and he just knows Facebook, WhatsApp and that’s it, Chong said.
On Tuesday, Long Beach City Council said it was considering more safety programs to protect street vendors, including helping them move away from cash transactions as well. Cash also remains a preferred method of payment as they can easily send money to their families back home, Chong said.
There have been a few encounters in which street vendors have been seriously injured and robbed. At an unveiling event for a new rainbow-colored lifeguard tower that burned this year, Getzer Tellez, an older salesman who was selling items at the event, said that ‘he was nervous when he was selling on the street while having money in his pockets.
Sometimes you run into bad-intentioned people and you get nervous, Tellez said in Spanish.
According to data from the Los Angeles Police Department, crimes against street vendors increased by almost 337% between 2010 and 2019.
Pedro Castellanos-Aguilar, a deaf street vendor in Long Beach, was also selling at last week’s event.
He already has QR codes on a laminated sheet of paper with direct links to his Venmo and Cash App accounts. He said he has been using digital services since 2017 and has been accepting debit card payments since 2012.
While the two men were working, Tellez had to turn away some customers because he only took cash. Tellez said he was more interested in learning how to adapt to debit card payments, and noted that cryptocurrencies seemed too complicated for him to learn.
Jeruel Garado, a ZUZcoin marketing partner, echoed Tellez’s sentiments, adding that the crypto market is not yet convenient for street vendors, but hopes it becomes more accessible in the future.
It’s not yet particularly user-friendly for street vendors, yet, and that’s mainly due to the high cost of moving coins from one wallet to another, Garado said. There will come a point where these fees will be very low. It is about adapting and understanding it today so that they can be more empowered for tomorrow.
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