Blockchain Technology for Cross-Border Remittances: A Smart Contract Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56532/mjsat.v6i2.713Keywords:
Blockchain, Cross-Border Remittance, Smart Contract, Financial Inclusion, DecentralizationAbstract
This research explores a blockchain-based solution to address inefficiencies in traditional cross-border remittance systems, including high fees, slow processing times, and limited transparency. By deploying Ethereum-based smart contracts and a custom wallet system, the project streamlines user registration, transaction processing, and fee management. Users benefit from a secure and intuitive interface to send, receive, and track transactions with transparent fee calculations. The system significantly outperforms traditional remittance methods in cost, speed, and security. Transactions are processed within seconds at minimal fees, while the decentralized architecture ensures data integrity and transparency. Results demonstrate the system's potential to increase financial inclusion, particularly in underserved regions, by providing a secure and accessible alternative to traditional methods. Future work includes integrating multi-currency support and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to enhance scalability and usability, further establishing blockchain as a transformative technology for global remittance solutions.
References
Deng, Q., 2020, March. Application analysis on blockchain technology in cross-border payment. In 5th International Conference on Financial Innovation and Economic Development (ICFIED 2020) (pp. 287-295). Atlantis Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.200306.050
Rella, L., 2019. Blockchain technologies and remittances: From financial inclusion to correspondent banking. Frontiers in Blockchain, 2, p.14. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2019.00014
Rühmann, F., Konda, S.A., Horrocks, P. and Taka, N., 2020. Can blockchain technology reduce the cost of remittances?. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/d4d6ac8f-en
Kulkarni, R., Schintler, L., Koizumi, N., Olds, J. and Stough, R.R., 2019, December. Cryptocurrency, Stablecoins and Blockchain: Exploring digital money solutions for remittances and inclusive economies. In 66th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (13–16 Nov, 2019) in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. doi: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3511139
Ricci, P. and Mammanco, V., 2019, June. RemBit: A blockchain based solution for remittances to Ethiopia. In 2019 IEEE symposium on computers and communications (ISCC) (pp. 1165-1170). IEEE. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCC47284.2019.8969668
Cross-Border Payments with Blockchain (iadb.org). url: https://publications.iadb.org/en/cross-border-payments-blockchain
Macrinici, D., Cartofeanu, C. and Gao, S., 2018. Smart contract applications within blockchain technology: A systematic mapping study. Telematics and Informatics, 35(8), pp.2337-2354. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.10.004
Subramanian, H., 2020. Security tokens: architecture, smart contract applications and illustrations using SAFE. Managerial Finance, 46(6), pp.735-748. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/MF-09-2018-0467
Coutinho, K., Khairwal, N. and Wongthongtham, P., 2023. Towards a truly decentralized blockchain framework for remittance. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 16(4), p.240. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16040240
Oksiiuk, O. and Dmyrieva, I., 2020, February. Security and privacy issues of blockchain technology. In 2020 IEEE 15th international conference on advanced trends in radioelectronics, telecommunications and computer engineering (TCSET) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSET49122.2020.235489
Lin, I.C. and Liao, T.C., 2017. A survey of blockchain security issues and challenges. Int. J. Netw. Secur., 19(5), pp.653-659.
Malavolta, G., Moreno-Sanchez, P., Schneidewind, C., Kate, A. and Maffei, M., 2018. Anonymous multi-hop locks for blockchain scalability and interoperability. Cryptology ePrint Archive.
Tasatanattakool, P. and Techapanupreeda, C., 2018, January. Blockchain: Challenges and applications. In 2018 international conference on information networking (ICOIN) (pp. 473-475). IEEE. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICOIN.2018.8343163
Khan, S.N., Loukil, F., Ghedira-Guegan, C., Benkhelifa, E. and Bani-Hani, A., 2021. Blockchain smart contracts: Applications, challenges, and future trends. Peer-to-peer Networking and Applications, 14, pp.2901-2925. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-021-01127-0
Ko, H.-J.; Han, S.-S.; Jeong, C.-S. Non-Face-to-Face P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Real-Time Token Payment Blockchain System. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 7364. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/app13137364
Weerawarna, R., Miah, S.J. and Shao, X., 2023. Emerging advances of blockchain technology in finance: a content analysis. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 27(4), pp.1495-1508. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-023-01712-5
Liu, K. and Ohsawa, Y., 2020. Improving Blockchain scalability based on one-time cross-chain contract and gossip network. arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.04601. doi: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2008.04601
Zyskind, G. and Nathan, O., 2015, May. Decentralizing privacy: Using blockchain to protect personal data. In 2015 IEEE security and privacy workshops (pp. 180-184). IEEE. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/SPW.2015.27
Wüst, K. and Gervais, A., 2018, June. Do you need a blockchain?. In 2018 crypto valley conference on blockchain technology (CVCBT) (pp. 45-54). IEEE. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/CVCBT.2018.00011
Coutinho, K., Clark, P., Azis, F., Lip, N. and Hunt, J., 2021. Enabling Blockchain Scalability and Interoperability with Mobile Computing through LayerOne. X. arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.01398. doi: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2110.01398
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Md. Shafiur Rahman, M. Rakibul Hasan Rafsan, Nusrat Jahan Zerin, Pranta Das Gupta, Nyme Ahmed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
