Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,
My real name is Jaques

I am from South Africa and have been involved in the BTC for some time now, actually a fair amount of energy into Bitcoin since I started in 2013, and been growing since. You might say its "strange" that I only surface on the main forums now, considering the following:

(And this is true and accurate, no reason to BS)

I own and operate the Cointelegraph South Africa Franchise
I am the 1st and I am sure the only Brand Ambassador for Snapcard.io in Africa
I am CO Founder of our flagship company providing training and digital currency advisory services, namely "Bitmagnet"

Not all of the stuff I am involved in, just a quick summary... But yeah basically involved in BTC and time and efforts are all to allow adoption,growth and to empower Africa with the technology.

I'm not posting URL links here about the above since its not what the "Introduction" is about really. You will find all if you Google it (like twitter, facebook, the websites etc..)

Anyway, happy to finally take the time and register, should have done it from the onset!

Nice Website!!
Just Checked it out!!

Yet I don't get the point of it.. what exactly are you doing / the company / the website ...

An Explanation would be great!!

THE UNKNOWN ONE

Hi there,

Yeah we are still working on a much more content rich site, but in short:

Full Bitcoin training courses from instructor led to online, from mining to investing and trade etc...
Payment integration services
Bitcoin portfolio management and cold storage
Advisory on usage and risks etc..
General training and information

Because of the lack of understanding and adoption not yet at the US/EU levels, We established ourselves as providing "Education" in the Cryptocurrency space as that is really where one needs to start, instead of selling a wallet or something like that...

A suggestion of mine would be since there are posts on twitter and facebook.. I think it would be a great idea for a FEED of that to be added to the website, so you know people can get a quick overview of the quality of it.

THE UNKNOWN ONE

Hello Jaques :) welcome to the community. Ah Found someone special(with project) here :D
i also surfing to find Bitmagnet website, then that's nice website :o Nice project!


~iki

Where are you situated?

I work on contract basis in many of the African countries and we normally fly to South Africa {JHB} and then go from there to some of these countries.

I would like to have access to BTC Atm's or Vending machines at the airport, when I go pass there.  ;)

Lovely country, and much bigger than I anticipated... a nice balance between 1st and 3rd world people, and very technologically advanced... I would love to see more of South Africa, but works keep us VERY busy.

Ps : Cards Accepted & Payment Methods does not support Bitcoin? {On your virtual card services}

Hi there,

Based in JHB sir :)

Yeah the Bitcoin/Blockchain movement has been somewhat "slowish" for Africa, There are some strong players and some definitive startups and businesses like Bitmagnet around, but of course nowhere near the US/EU, but this will likely change this year. The Africa Bitcoin Conference 2015 actually stars this week and is hosted in the lovely Cape Town the 16-17th, big speakers and top people involved, should open a few doors no doubt and gain some good exposure! We will be attending it there as Media partners representing Cointelegraph South Africa.

SA is technology advanced indeed in many areas, however much work to be done still in the Crypto Currency space.

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like you are already part of the crypto world.

If you don't mind me asking what is cost of electricity in South-Africa?   Love to see BTC spread through the world.

Welcome to the forum Jaques, really cool to see people like you from South Africa involved so much in bitcoin. Keep it up :)

I have some mates in south africa and in some places is surprisingly high, to the point mining was definitely not profitable. In some other places its low, but people don't have money to buy machines.

ur website has help a lot of people, keep up the good work

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and positive comments, it is appreciated!

welcome, and if you are a important guy there, please spread your interest about bitcoin with other, adoption is what bitcoin really need to grow

btw something i want to ask, there are mining facility there in africa? or the electricity cost is too prohibitive?

Thanks for the welcome :)

The question around mining and cost comes up allot, and some speculate its not great compared to ROI etc.. I think the very biggest issue is not the power cost per kw/h that will likely be cheaper than most, The x2 biggest contributing factors from my perspective are:

1. The cost to import the miners with customs etc... completely destroys the potential ROI that was planned, its insanely expensive and just throws the idea to the floor
2. Reliability of the power provided, our main Grid and power provider doesn't shout "reliability" so you will have black-outs and downtime, and since the investment required 24/7 upkeep and mining its just not worth it.

Hi there and welcome!
It would be a great achievement if people would actually use bitcoin to pay eg. groceries, smaller trades p2p, ... even more then something like mining. Could mining be profitable in SA? Is electricity expensive there?
I really like your project and wish you all the luck!

Well, my partner and CO Founder of our company Bitmagnet, is a very very strong believer in the mining aspect, and if one could provide him with a good ventilated cooled housing area with power he would go wild, he already has a fair amount of hashing power.

I think, putting aside shipping and import costs including the customs charges, if you could have the miners drop from helicopter into the data center today, and plug them in to work 24/7 then yes, I think it would be greatly profitable. Power cost and cost per kwh is low here yes compared to US/EU or whatever the case may be. My experience from speaking to other local guys and looking at numbers is this:

The purchase/shipment/import/customs cost of your miners from abroad to SA, completely destroys your ROI that you had planned, so the numbers looked good on paper, but then gets wiped out, you will eventually break even and then start profiting but at what risk and how long will that take?

We can't really do the math on this one.  We would have to know exact costs.  It sounds very very expensive on importing from hat you said.  Also it will never ROI is my feeling if you "miners drop from helicopter into the data center".  I have never heard of using a helicopter to move miners.  Always trucks.

I am guessing mining might not be optimal in your situation.

Welcome to the forum cryptozulu!

Seems like you're bringing the Crypto heat and Bitcoin awareness globally in South Africa.  I'll be sure to keep my eyes and ears open on the interwebs for your next interesting projects.

Keep on Bitcoinin'!!   8)

I dont have extensive experience in the mining locally aspect, never been strong in the mining, some "cloud" stuff but nothing physical, the cost was always to great, then asking around you would get the response about shipping + customs etc.. ruins your investment. So yeah i followed the fold and listened to those with experience, lets call it "non-profitable" at this immediate stage, that's my opinion.

My partner who leads the instructor-led Bitcoin courses has a bunch of bitfury usb miners for the delegates to train and play with during the course...

Welcome aboard zulu.

Those nanofury's can be a great teaching tool when first introducing somebody to the whole concept of mining.

USB stick miners really are great for learning.  I highly suggest using one vs cpu/gpu.   Don't have to worry about running to high of a intensity on computer.

Also if you run a Raspberry Pi you can get a good start at learning Linux.  So good for those who mainly use windows.

Welcome to the community im from the usa my self. If you ever need help we are here to help you. Well some are some will troll you for days but you still got to love them.

Thanks everyone, will be sure to shout if I want some input from this great community, thanks for the warm welcome into the fold!

I have to agree with him, the reliability was a problem, when I was there. They have a system called "Loadshedding" where they switch off whole suburbs to reduce the load on their network. {It seems as though the provider, cannot supply enough electricity} Luckily for me, the hotel where I stayed, had backup generators, so we still had power, when the outages occured.

The receptionist said, it's a daily thing, and it can happen up to 3 times a day.... 2 hours per event, without electricity. {This is not provitable at all for miners, who wants 24/7 electricity, and using backup generators, will decrease profits even more... due to the increased cost of gas.}

The climate is also a bit warm in summer, for mining to be viable. {Cooling cost will increase} I compare that to Canada and China.

Still a great place, and a must for everyone to see.  ;) .... I have been to a place called, Sun City and it was a great adventure.  ;D ;D ;D .... The people are also more friendly, than in most places in Europe.  

I wouldn't say so, compare to IT infrastructure in Africa, progress is quite fast :)

SAWUBONA cryptozulu!!

How's the general attitude towards bitcoin in SA? How's it like working with the banks, and what does the government say?

How's the community, are many involved?

I am sure many would appreciate it if you wrote a small article on bitcoin's status in SA and Africa in general from an insiders point of view. You might even get paid for it if you contacted one of the major bitcoin newspapers online.

A couple of examples:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/
http://www.coindesk.com/

Hi there, the short version on the btc movement here:

Its on the upraise this is definite, getting strong and recently farily doubling in adoption, Much potential here for great services for mobile/payment platforms, mostly low-middle class income individuals. People forget that the USD based price for the US citizen might not be a "heavy expense" in general, however you convert that USD value to our Rand (ZAR) value, then well you are looking at money that people cannot simply for out as they please, its substantial and critical to their monthly survival and savings. If you can cater for the low to middle income class, more of a "millibits" theory, well then get ready for fantastic business and adoption.

here in SA, the average guy has heard the word, the term, knows nothing of Satoshi at all, and know its a digital currency, has no idea why or how or for what they would want to use it, education is key.

Well, if you look closely at my signature you will find I am the owner and head of Cointelegraph South Africa (Franchise) and have been building it piece by piece, stories are scarce and so are interested parties, but that is rising