Open Money Initiative

We research how people use money in closed economies and collapsing monetary systems. We believe that access to a free and open financial system is a human right. Our initial focus is on Venezuela, where people are enduring the inability to exchange or transfer money abroad, violent crackdowns on merchants who set their own prices, and hyperinflation. We go to the field to learn, using a design-led process to capture the human experiences often lost in macro data. We gather qualitative knowledge through methods like ethnographic interviews and longitudinal studies. We share our insights with the public and work with our partners to derive inspiration for products and services.