Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild

According to Eagle, local incumbent Safaricom had started a minute-sharing service for its prepaid cell phone plans a few years back. The idea was to enable users to send minutes to family members in rural areas, who weren’t otherwise able to buy prepaid phone cards. However, Kenyans quickly came up with other uses. “Lots and lots of people were using it as a surrogate for currency,” Eagle said. “[You] could literally pay for taxi cab rides using cell phone credit.”

I always enjoy the real creativity of customers-driven side-uses of emerging technologies and services.