1. Could Blockchain Give African Youths a Political Voice?
An average age of 78.5 years makes Africa the continent with the oldest set of leaders. This is one of the reasons for the younger generations growing desire to take the lead. The approaching date of Nigeria’s elections only intensifies the sentiment. In less than 15 months, the country will have the opportunity to replace the old generation with a younger one. A lack of opportunity for the youth is causing a brain drain. However, the decentralised and non-regulated nature of the blockchain technology could change this. People aged between 20 and 45 years are currently launching most of the Blockchain startups in the country. An event which increased awareness about the cryptocurrency Dash was even organised in Nigeria earlier this year. Adeolu Fadele’s Cryptography Development Initiative of Nigeria (CDIN) is another example of the groups being established with the aim of using Blockchain technology for the development of the continent.
2. British Bitcoin Investors Not Allowed to Use Their Profits to Get a Mortgage
Concerns over money laundering are keeping Bitcoin Investors off the property ladder. Mortgage lenders and brokers are not accepting deposits generated by cryptocurrency investments. For example, a public sector worker managed to raise a deposit of £ 40,000 but he was denied a loan for fears of a breach of the Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations. The Building Societies Association stated that a lack of regulation by the central banks means that cryptocurrencies have a high risk of being involved with money laundering and are often used by criminals. However, a refusal to grant mortgages to Bitcoin investors does not have any basis in the UK mortgage regulation. The issue still arises as it is not possible to carry out an extensive identification process.
3. Head of Singaporean Central Bank Wants Cryptocurrency Technology to Survive Crash
Ravi Menon, head of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said on Monday that he hopes the technology on which cryptocurrencies are based will recover from an eventual crash. The managing director believes that the popularity of cryptocurrency will eventually decrease, and this will lead to a crash,but he hopes blockchain technology will recover. Despite Singapore declaring itself a hub for financial technology, a cautious approach towards purchasing cryptocurrencies is still being adopted. Menon concluded by saying that a cryptocurrency backed by MAS could be issued in the future, although he is still not sure if it would be a good idea or not.
4. 80% of the Total Supply of Bitcoin Has Already Been Mined
On Saturday January 13th, 16.8 million Bitcoins (BTC) were in circulation. This means that so far, 80% of the total supply of Bitcoins has been mined. To reach the 21 million supply cap, 4.2 million units have yet to be mined. Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in the cryptocurrency’s white paper that the cap was introduced to create a shortage of the currency which would result in higher demand and value. At the moment, for every block that is mined, a 12.5 BTC payment is rewarded. However, the mining reward is halved every 4 years. In June 2020 it will drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Furthermore, there have been attempts to increase the total supply of Bitcoin but without success.
