Bitcoin Forum

Google trends for the past year: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=Bitcoin
and past 3 months: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=Bitcoin
both show a big rise in interest in bitcoin and surprisingly the top leading regions are from Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa)

https://i.imgur.com/K3LDsis.jpg

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

Checked for Nepal https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&geo=NP&q=Bitcoin
Found similar increase here in Nepal too, and i think this trend is worldwide as sudden price increase may have drawn attention from new people and media is covering news about bitcoin price surge which is adding more fuel to this trend.  :) ;D

https://s30.postimg.org/jmt5upr0x/Untitlednpgraph.png

yeah even some arab countries are showing some interest in bitcoin especially the gulf countries , and this may be a great sign cause there are many millionaires there who may take this opportunity
in general these trends are due the last price , cause nothing changed in bitcoin except the price and now more online networks are covering it 

yeah, sadly this part is true. the increased interest is because of the price rise and not the fact that people suddenly found bitcoin as a good currency. i wish there was a way to find out what exactly they are searching about, the suggestions google is listing at the bottom seems to be similar searches not what those searchers were interested but it is interesting that everyone has been searching about price and investment about bitcoin.

Bitcoin will eventually take over in Africa, at the minute, especially in Kenya, Mpesa is the leading form of mobile payment and i think actually rivals the national currency in.  But this system requires a middle man and is open to fraud and corruption, think what will happen when the people of Africa learn about a system that requires no 3rd party to send and receive and they can secure it on their phone will a seed back up....... never mind the moon, mars here we come  ;D  

one reason, most online network marketeer shift from paypal to bitcoins, and most MLM companies, MMM like program are only using bitcoins as a mode of payment/transfer.

Nigerian scammers probably doing some research how to pull money out of people's pockets in the future.They have to keep with technology you know.  :D
This is the first thing which comes to my mind.
As far as I know their currency isn't inflating that much right now and I also haven't hread or read about any bigger regulation or war on cash going on.
Maybe it's the interest why some digital currency like bitcoin is having so much grwoth at the moment.People showing interest in something new is always good.

Bitcoin it spreads like an epidemic over the world.

The economies of African countries are usually 3rd world commodity based affairs. Commodities are taking a beating on the financial market when aggregated together, and nations that rely on commodity exports tend to suffer some of the consequences of this phase of the market cycle through the exchange rate of their national currency.

It's not just African countries that are affected in this way, commodity based economies like Chile, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc have all been having a currency crisis of some form or another as of late.

That's strange but not totally surprising, Africa economy is decent and Bitcoin offers a high growth compared to their currency. Secondly betting is legalized in Africa, so it could be used for betting purposes, as the person who bets shall never come to know. I mean a outside person using African as a proxy and wiring the money, and people won't doubt also as it's legal, and thanks to Bitcoin identity won't be revealed. That's my guess on this so far.

I believe, there are 2 reasons for that: 1) there are some problems in Africa that can be solved with Bitcoin, such as remittances 2) MMM, obviously  ::)

And it also allows many Africans to make money, you know. If they are able to buy Bitcoins on exchanges, they can later sell them to other people at a higher exchange rate for ZAR.

Makes sense they google about that and create websites on where to buy Bitcoins, such as this one (https://www.bitcoinzar.co.za/buy-bitcoin-in-south-africa/).

So, everyone tries to do business in this world

The central bank of Nigeria has seen merits on the use of bitcoins in their society and that is possibly why there are many Nigerians who are using bitcoin. Nigeria is also a frontier in MLM marketing services and such and thats why since they are so familiar with online transactions they are the best market for bitcoin. With the MLM networks that are there in Nigeria promoting bitcoin as an investment is no longer a big deal.

https://cdn.mg.co.za/crop/content/images/2015/07/11/barakamarketmogadishumoneychangergetty_landscape.jpg/633x356/

The price increase probably attracted them. Those who have money will try to find ways to keep it. Since they saw the the price has increased steadily over the months, they must have though it's a good store of value. Like someone mentioned, they can also sell the coins for a profit to others there. Remittances is also another possible factor. I don't have exact numbers but I believe there are a lot of Africans working in Gulf countries.

Checkout Bitcoin's interest at Quark's bar:

https://i.imgur.com/HslspGR.png

http://media.tumblr.com/ceb5791c4f4deeb29f624c4664c92c2a/tumblr_inline_msu79rP4Ia1qz4rgp.jpg
"I can't wait till we start accepting XRA and RES."

That's the first thing I thought, all the Nigerian scammers.  But who knows?  From what I've read on this forum there are quite a few Africans interested in bitcoin.  It's an asset that's made a lot of money for a lot of people, so it really isn't surprising to me that it's a big thing worldwide.  Go Africa!!

I find this data very interesting. It is great to see that Third World countries are becoming interested in Bitcoin and how it can change the life of a country in the future. Here in Brazil it is very interesting to also see the growing number of people interested in Bitcoin and I foresee that this number goes up more and more ..

When i do heard about Nigerians the hting comes to my mind is about "TBC" not btc because most buyers on those mlm scheme and now they are going to the legit thing which is bitcoin, its a good news that those people who already got interested to bitcoin since they do know that BTC does have a value rather than on those TBC scam coin.

Most people inside Africa and Malaysia already know that Bitcoin has a monetary value sort of tied to it. The reason why the big people such as the owner of The Billion Coin [TBC] ask for people money virtually is because they secretly want to stock up on Bitcoin BTC.

If you look real closely at the HYYIP programs that are on social medias and search engines, you would notice that most of them accept BTC. Weird isn't it? Not really.

Bitcoin been around the internet for many years and it's I am sure that the owners of the HYYIP websites have built website after website just so they could stock up BTC from the people that give away their money.

I’m surprised that Venezuela is only number 5, you could put it at 4 since it seems it is tied with Malaysia, with the crazy devaluation and the political instability of the country I would have thought Venezuela would have been number 1 or at least number 2.

Yes so let us share it to our friends, families and enemies.

People suddenly got interested in bitcoin because of the rise in price I think. I joined a Facebook group called "Bitcoin" and I see manny of the posts came from people from Africa and Middle East countries.

Not just on bitcoin, Nigeria is also one of the biggest handler on The Billion Coin, I am just wondering why these people keep on buying TBC even they know that this coin is just a scam and never can have a exchanger, and now, they are buying bitcoins even you will sell it to them doubling its price, they don't mind, as long as they can have bitcoin. You may said that I'm saying nonsense here, but one of my friend just sold 1 bitcoin to a Nigerian and just bought for $2000.

We al know that bitcoin is helping so many people around the world, and bitcoin don't have an exception on who can use it, as long as you are dedicated and have knowledge on how to do it, then it is okay. Maybe that is why Africa is showing that big interest on bitcoin because they want to change their country, which is most of the areas there are facing poverty.

It is very normal that bitcoin is popular in African countries. In fact, interest in the bitcoin in countries where the dollar is valued will increase over time. Because the bitcoin earned in the internet environment can be converted into dollars. The people there are more comfortable with the dollar.

I am not surprised to find interest in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa.

Earning money from bitcoin is doable in Africa, therefore so many africans do that. Don't forget they play MMM ponzi scam in Nigeria, so they like bitcoin.  ;D

it is a good news!Bitcoin it spreads like an epidemic over the world.
more people interest it ,higher price will be!

My first thought was Nigerian "Princes" wanting to move their ill-gotten gains into bitcoin, but that would make up only a small percentage if at all. Maybe many see bitcoin as a way of getting on an even playing field with the rest of the world.

I worried about it too, that their interest just because of the rising price of bitcoin. This few weeks I also see many ads about bitcoin. I think those ads lead those people to be interested in bitcoin. well, it does not really matter because when they know what bitcoin really is, their interest will probably increase.

most of the time in the third world countries where salaries are low and people are less educated and experienced, they look for ways of making more money in this case more bitcoin so they search investment, and in bitcoin the only thing that comes up is 90% Ponzi schemes as investment search result.
and them not knowing these they try them out.
and worse thing about this type of scheme is their affiliate system, the Ponzi scheme uses the victims to get more victims which means after a while it is users that are advertising the program not the program itself.

I know many people within this forum that have used faucets and receieved a payout. It may not be much but it's something to work with. Do you remember that faucets a longtime ago was generally spitting around 1 Bitcoin per day?

African, outside media awash are hard working people and intelligent, that is why there always see good in investment, business and services. Bitcoin is raising in Africa because bitcoin transactions are decentralized. PayPal do not accept Nigerian and some African countries but bitcoin come as an alternative.

It's weird that most of these places they talk about do not have internet yet they can trade bitcoin.
You try to get a cell phone service in the serengetti of the African jungle before? And you expect a clear wifi signal when your transmitting btc to another wallet?  ::)

You'd be a little surprised at the things going on in Africa. The oppression is real within those places and the people in the Military is the ones that get better privileges...Africa is rich, yet the oppressors hide money from the poor.

I would think that a cellphone connection is the very least of their worries.

Yes i do got the thing you want to explain and i agree bitcoin do known already on nigeria thats why the creator of that scammy TBC coin creates a scheme on which it do collects Bitcoin from its buyer or members which is really sad for those who are innocent about this matter because they dont even know on what thing they are involved.

I work on contract in Africa for a couple of months in a year, and I can tell you ....cellphone coverage is very good in urban areas. You get the

strangest coverage in rural areas some time. They use a payment method called M-Pesa that are linked to cellphones, and some of them have

up to 3 old cellphones.  Africa is one of the most unique countries I have worked in my whole life.  ;D

I think another reasons may be that since some of the African countries you cannot open a Paypal and that could severely limit you to receive payments but with bitcoin you don't need a credit card or to verify who you are so that could help adoption to grow in those countries.

Africa is seriously ready for bitcoin, and when it takes off bitcoin will be on a rocket to the moon, to be honest i am surprised that most Africans arnt all over this already, like it has serious benefits for their economies.

Nigeria is an oil economy and they have been struggling a bit since the oil price collapsed from the $100 level in 2014. Though of course they are in better shape than Russia or Venezuela.

The Nigerian economy is in deep recession, and Russia is faring much better. In 2016, the Nigerian economy shrunk by 1.54% (worse than the predictions), while the Russian economy shrunk by just 0.2% (much better than the expectations).

but nothing you said in these comments are the reason from inreased interest towards bitcoin in African countries. the economy and all these other things can always affect the fact that people seek other investments to make more money but they are more interested in bitcoin because of all the rises that bitcoin had in the past years.
people around the world are all interested in bitcoin. you can't see it on google trends sometimes because they search for it in their own language.

Africa is known as a land of poverty, where people have little understanding of the technology, especially Bitcoin. however, charts shows the development there, this is actually a good thing. It's good news, more people are moving to the technology, and will also go further, I believe it. This also shows that Bitcoin is the world known. Great

Not everything in Africa are small towns with low technology, they have cities like anywhere else in the world, while the quality of life is worst than in the first world it is obvious they still have access to services like internet, running water and electricity.

happy to see that my country is coloured blue. well before this month i havent about bitcoin and africa on the same line and since few days back in this month only i am hearing of the fact that africa is on way to dominate the bitcoin world. well happy to know that people across the world are increasingly adoption bitcoin. let the new technology revolunise the world.

I'm hearing stories of people not getting paid in Russia, and protests about it in many cities.

Russia is experiencing terrible inflation as well because the ruble collapsed in value. They are definitely in a worse condition than Nigeria, Nigeria at least grows it's own food.

Not everything can be seen in the numbers or statistics, sometimes other factors may be the most important to understand how and why there is more adoption in one country than the other, one reason that Nigeria may have a bigger growth is simply the government, Russia has a long story of despotic governments that get on people businesses.

This is a good news as bitcoin is a good catalyst especially in industrializing countries like in Africa.Since no one controls bitcoin, its a good equalizer that create equal opportunity whoever you are. But the great impact is really on the poor where fiat money is scarce.

what exactly is the interest over time vertical column represent? 100% of what? given it was 50% 6 months ago, does that mean that it has doubled in interest in 6 months?

I couldn't agree with you more but since these roses are from Nigeria and Ghana we should guard against the negative usage of Bitcoin from there as we all know the scam reputation of these two African countries. No disrespect though.

This big rise in interest from After is good news for all Africans as the continent they deemed poor has started seeing the need for bitcoins to revamp their deteriorated economies. Nigeria is an even bigger news because of their population which could serve as a boost to Bitcoin popularity and enhance global expansion.

In fact, bitcoin mining can be done in africa. Africa is a very warm climate. Solar panels can be used as an alternative energy source. Thus, the cost of electricity is reduced to a minimum. Perhaps with bitcoin, the African economy could develop.

Did anyone read the article that putin has $260billion in wealth. Forbes doesn't list heads of states in their research. However, similar wealth that is not reported surely exists in Africa and moving of that wealth into BTC may be an attractive option for those individuals

Anytime a currency, in this case bitcoin, outperforms any other known currency by a mile, it is sure to grab people's attention. Although bitcoin is still pretty much volatile in nature, one cannot deny the fact that it has been performing very well lately. And that maybe part of the reason why third world countries are becoming more interested in bitcoin and some other crypto-currencies.

The label on Nigerians here is so bad. And as a Nigerian who has never done any illegal thing in my life, I feel deeply offended. It is not only Africans or Nigerians that scammers. The most notorious internet hackers are not even blacks. How many times have hackers stollen millions from exchanges like Bittrex and co but you won't talk about. You guys justtake joy in stereotypes. If you're a Nigerian here, we need to go hard and comment against all this rubbish. A friend of mine can't get money from dash Senate just because he is a Nigerian and the white dick heads feel he is equal to a scammer. This is their mindset; Nigerian = scammer. We need to let them know it is shallow for some douchbag to generalise everyone just because of some minors. It is like saying all Muslims are terrorist just because of Osama Bin Laden or we say all Christians are potential hitlers. I really hate all this rubbish and instead of us waiving it anytime we see this please speak out. I have argued severally on facebook, Twitter and slack about stereotypical fools calling all Nigerians scammers. I am a Nigerian and I am not a scammer. Thank you very much

That's a good thing. It is really my dream to introduce bitcoin into a third world countries because most of the people in this countries doesnt have or cant afford bank accounts. I hope that it could boost africas economy

Have u ever been to Africa before? FYI Africa is not a jungle and we dont stay in caves. The fact that I am on this forum nullifies your statement that we dont have internet services and a clear wifi signal. Stop all this in-informed attacks/ bashings of the Africa continent. I am a Nigerian who makes his livelihood in a legal way.stop sterotyping us. We are not backward and criminals.

Oh this is new ;D Well, I suppose it's mainly because of the sudden rise in bitcoin's price in those first days of 2017 and it drew people's attention all over the world. But I still don't understand why it happened that people searched for bitcoin in Africa so much. I think that because those European countries or Asian ones are too familiar with the fact that bitcoin keeps going up and down so this didn't surprise them as much as it surprised Africans. But anyways, it's great that bitcoin has got some notice.

people are really getting affected by the movies the have watched and pretending that they know everything about africe while the fact they know nothing. probably these people never go to africa and so do i but i must say that majority of countries are now already bulding the infrastructures and i'm sure that africa's countries are now also doing it.