Oddbean new post about login | logout Okay, I learned that hawaladars don't care *who* redeems their notes for local money at the receiving end. I thought their notes were more like modern bank checks that could be redeemed only by the named payee. But I guess hawaladars have a secure secret sharing system! Interesting that an honor system like that survives so long at the local exit points though
exactly. As mentioned, Hawala would operate between two trusted business men, often big traders in international routes. One person in Arabia could send money via they system to another in Tangier, without any explicit identification, only a key word or phrase. The merchants would carry the ledger of debts. Basically, zapping channels etc. A lot of what we do today is just a reinvention of the old systems.