# Cross-Border Finance

**Why Finance**? Blockchains enable many marketplaces but banking services are the *native use*.

Consensus protocols are creating new economies with tokens and trading. Smart contracts are serving as a platform for collectibles and gambling.

These early use cases are driven by the core value of blockchain: providing exchange and liquidity infrastructure for financial transactions. Harmony focuses on broader *financial products* as they are [well validated with Ethereum](https://harmony.one/defi-data) and ready for mass adoption.

**Why Cross-Border?** Open platforms work locally but global users are the *most underserved*.

Finance products within one country are already [highly efficient and protected](https://www.saveonsend.com/blog/money-transfer-china/). On the other hand, purely on-chain #DeFi solutions without onramp gateways or local distribution have limited impact in real-word economies.

Harmony focuses on bridging high-growth economies in countries such as China and India, hence #*CrossFi* for cross-border finance. Harmony remains an infrastructure layer; our local partners serve customers with country-specific products and compliance.

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**Why Harmony?** Not only fast and secure, Harmony is *decentralized* and guarantees *privacy*.

Ethereum’s short-term pains are [scalability and security](https://harmony.one/keynote), which Harmony has solved with sharding and proof-of-stake. The long-term value of open platforms is decentralization, which Harmony has committed to with thousands of nodes and [*open development*](https://medium.com/polkadot-network/polkadot-2019-year-in-review-8c852ef42668).

[Private transactions](https://blog.coinbase.com/what-will-happen-to-cryptocurrency-in-the-2020s-d93746744a8f), similar to secure HTTP for the Internet, are essential to businesses and corporations. However, governments mandate audits and compliance. Harmony solves this dilemma by bringing *auditable privacy* to production.

**How?** We are customer obsessed but must identify the *right customers* and *external values*.

The market [is divided](https://medium.com/proofofcapital/remittance-market-primer-and-landscape-3213c2c81771) into serving consumers or businesses: c2c (cash remittance), c2b (ecommerce billing), [b2c (*employee payroll*)](http://blog.eladgil.com/2020/01/products-i-wish-existed-2020-edition.html) and b2b (marketplace payout).

Platform protocols seek rent but must inject capital from *off the chain* as revenue.

The values Harmony provides for customers, beyond open settlement, are forex *quotes* and peer-to-peer *liquidity***.**

Stablecoins and forward contracts can *manage fluctuations* in fiat currencies; private matching can pool together local reserves like trades with over-the-counter (OTC).