With one million displaced, Lebanon turns to digital wallets for aid

Headline really deploying passive voice here. Israel's invasion and wide bombings of Lebanon is what has displaced a million people.

Seems there are two parallel developments here:

a) Rise of alternate forms of organizing trust. People distrust government or other organizations, and turn to alternative forms of organization and trust.

b) Rise of digital wallet/transfer systems that are fundamentally about charging for throughput/withdrawals. The article mentions that banks are restricting withdraws - presumably because banks need deposits to stay liquid. Whish on the other hand doesn't care - it makes money as a % of each transaction.

Hasn't Hawala been a thing in Lebanon for hundreds of years? It doesn't seem like a novel development at all, besides the digital tools. Informal money transfer systems are not new thing challenging the banks at all. The banks are the new thing here.

Damn I wonder why they are displaced. No one to blame for sure.