Crypto-Driven eCommerce Could Be The Great Equalizer

eCommerce is the consumer platform of choice for the majority of people in developed countries, yet it remains an uneven way of doing business. As the Harvard Business Review outlines, the underlying technology and processes that power many major eCommerce platforms are inherently discriminatory, lacking features to enable people living with a disability to accomplish purchases in digital spaces. Further afield, the old financial and banking networks that characterize pre-DeFi networks are often heavily weighted against consumers – many of whom are vulnerable or financially insecure. eCommerce driven forward by cryptocurrency and its related services can equalize this situation.



Improving accessibility

Various studies have clearly outlined the poor levels of accessibility endemic to eCommerce platforms. One influential 2021 conference paper found that 98% of websites violate basic anti-discrimination guidelines, setting out the scale of the challenge. eCommerce platforms must have basic accessibility characteristics to enable those people living with disabilities to access the market; simple ideas, like standardized text and cross-compatible features such as text-to-speech, can make a world of difference. Digital coins operate at the forefront of technology, and the services associated with their proliferation and use are often fully adapted for use by people with complex medical conditions. Furthermore, they help to protect financial security.

Financial security

The conventional banking system is not weighted in favor of the everyday consumer. Retail Touch Points reports that the chargeback, a cornerstone of rectifying incorrect and occasional transactions, featured only a 45% success rate. This impacts the customers most in need – often the vulnerable. People living with disability are often at specific risk here: American Progress notes that the poverty rate for Americans living with disability is double the rate in the rest of the population. Simply put, financial inequalities target people with disabilities to an even greater degree than found elsewhere. Blockchain and DeFi helps to target this phenomenon; the verified nature of transactions means that chargebacks can effectively be made redundant, and make eCommerce platforms have a level of assurance that reduces the chance for disagreements and conflict between buyer and seller.

Digital life

Cryptocurrencies are already offering noticeable improvements in modern life for people living with disability. Writing for Medium, disability advocate Sheri Byrne-Haber highlighted key areas where living with disability can make day-to-day life difficult. Simple acts such as using coins and counting paper money can be challenging for those without fine motor skills; physical money also carries with it contaminants, which can be dangerous for those with compromised immune systems. Digital currencies give a real opportunity to break down these barriers and make consumerism that much easier. eCommerce is, in many ways, blocking that progress. eCommerce vendors can take a simple look at how far digital currency has brought people living with disability already to gain those new perspectives. There’s business sense to this, of course. People with disabilitie are a huge demographic, and bespoke services can command a huge slice of a thriving consumer market. Ethically, morally, and in business terms, a fully accessible cryptocurrency eCommerce platform is a much-needed concept.