Africa is a Paradise for Bitcoin?
By Coinmatics on Altcoin Academy
Cryptocurrency is the money of tomorrow.
It is based on state-of-the-art technology — blockchain. At first sight, it might seem paradoxical that chronically poor regions rather than technically developed countries or countries of Asia which are gaining momentum have been becoming a driving force of cryptocurrency development.
And Africa will allegedly become the main such region.
The reasons such as instability of the financial policy, hyperinflation, fiat issues, and need for cheap cross-border transactions supporting week economies has led to the situation when 10.7% of South African Internet users possess crypto, while the average figure across the world is 5.5%. Nigeria and Ghana also make the list at 7.8% and 7.3%, respectively.
After the ban of foreign currencies in Zimbabwe, the country has become one of the continent’s biggest crypto markets, resulting in the Prime Minister’s proposal to make BTC a national currency.
Against the background of these facts, the opinion of Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, that Africa will define the future of cryptocurrencies, especially the one of Bitcoin, looks pretty convincing. Due to this belief, Jack is going to spend half a year on promoting Bitcoin in African countries.
The Dorsey’s view on the issue coincides with the one of Andreas Antonopoulos. The latter was expressed by the author of the books ‘Mastering Bitcoin’ and ‘The Internet of Money’ in a podcast on the Defiance YouTube channel.
Antonopoulos believes that the advantages of cryptocurrencies, which can prevent savings from economic fall, expropriation, and other disasters that cannot be prevented by governments, can be easier understood by people from countries with unstable economies than the US and UK citizens.
The blockchain technology can play a significant role in the developing of the economies of African countries. The blockchain startups of Cape Town and Nairobi have been grown by 25% since the beginning of the year. Nigeria works on improving road safety, developing the loan system, reducing the amount of counterfeit medicines with the involvement of the possibilities of blockchain.
But along with the possibilities for development, the risks of being drawn into a cryptocurrency scam scheme are growing.
A cryptocurrency pyramid called Dunamiscoins Resources Limited had been operating in Uganda for a month. It had promised a 40% return of investments.
The fraudsters acted in a classical way: they opened an office and launched an active advertising campaign. After that, as it sometimes happens, the company was just gone with no trace, having left both employees and investors.
A lack of regulation in Uganda facilitates swindling. However, it didn’t stop Binance from entering the cryptocurrency market of the country a year ago, which proves that cryptocurrency enterprises are getting increasingly interested in the African market that is not yet subjected to harsh technological and legislative hardships.
While the majority of investors are focused on traditional regions, it looks like a good time to pay attention to Africa. Maybe the underdevelopment of Africa will turn out to be the best ground for the development of cryptocurrencies in the decade ahead, who knows.
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