As I struggle to coherently think about writing this piece, with many issues which India and several developing nations have to deal with, I have some very common and very important issues which people might not generally consider while thinking about the 3rd world. It's not just banking or corruption. Have you thought about excessive food waste? Have you thought about inflation? Have you thought about access to water, internet, education etc?
Here are some issues I feel blockchain can address very well.
Fluctuating food prices
It is no joke, having lived in Germany, I barely noticed any change of price, except discounts and a few cents increase which doesn't really affect many people. India had onion price problem, currently facing dal(a kind of pulse) price problem, Nigeria is currently having Tomato crisis. All these problems ranging from poor food production to pest issue to poor storage to distribution problem.
If blockchain developers can think about solvable solution pertaining to storage or matching prices or solving logistics to the bottom from the farmer to the consumer. Like Dash, if Food Storage can be distributed or use cold storage can be distributed, and people can earn money through blockchain. And many more issues which can be simply solved through few lines of codes.
Inflation
What is going on Venezuela? Inflation!!! If your money is jumping up losing it's value, no matter if the price of general things in 1st world maybe, it's going to be a killing in the 3rd world. I'm no economist, if you are going to tell me that Venezuela is an oil producing country and oil price just tanked, this is obviously a bad news and everyone is going to panic and worry.
Bitcoin fortunately saved a few during Greece debt crisis in 2012, the CEO of Bitgold told in the Keiser Report in RT about how a Nigerian was able to save his assets/investments with Bitgold as Nigerian Naira tanked.
Very glad that Bitcoin is gaining traction and other cryptos are gaining recognition through their special ways, if Ripple like network reaches masses, then it helps people fight inflation through secondary currencies and remittance from 1st world.
Access to water, internet and education
In some countries internet is a human right, food/water is a human right, education is a human right, In India and some food/water and education maybe human rights, but rights are never demanded and never fulfilled to the highest efficiency. The quality of teaching is appalling and there is rampant cheating because there is anxiety of getting good education to achieve a good monetary status and lead a good lifestyle. This is also leading to a lot of students commit suicide.
As far as internet and education are concerened MOOCs which was somewhat of a hype during 2014 and 2015 need to come back and help developing countries in their own ways.
As far as everything goes in my opinion education is the most important things which can do wonders. @jbs410 wrote a blog Over Population, Over Consumption In Pictures, the picture would surely change if education is universal and people work on self-development goal rather than archaic ways of living and bearing many children.
There are many more issues I didn't cover and these are the things which came in my mind when I readily thought that blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can solve.
If you have any ideas, please write it up. I want to compile a list of them.