Bitcoin Forum

Right now Africa starting to change MPESA payment to Bitcoin.

 Most of Africa doesn't have to deal with those pesky banks so Bitcoin should integrate much more easily with their economies ;)

Integration doesn't exactly have correlation with wealth, gdp, etc of a country, mostly due to the availability and expansion of technology.

Exchanging Mpesa with bitcoin started about two years ago and it is very informal. You can only do peer to peer and no bank is involved. Moreover, the exchange of Mpesa does not indicate that the transaction was meant for bitcoin exchange. That is the beauty of Mpesa. It only has a limit on how much you can transact in a day but you don't have to give the reason for the transaction. 

why can't i find anything on M-Pesa integrating bitcoin in their system, all i can find is third parties accepting M-Pesa payment in exchange for bitcoin, which is the same as third parties accepting paypal for bitcoin on places such as localbitcoins and paxful.

can you share some links here?

Well Africa is one lucky country as i would say :D they already change to MPESA payment to bitcoin and i didn't know that Africa has that kind of technology for the bitcoin and its really amazing. further more i didn't even realize that Africa will be the one to Chance MPESA payment to bitcoin but recently here in my country non of it matters the bitcoin i mean -_- i only spend it on the internet only :'(

Africa might be the new China for bitcoin.With the economic growth of the poor african countries more and more people will have computers and devices with internet connection.This will help for bitcoin adoption.
Most of the African national currencies are very unstable,so bitcoin will be a better alternative for the people.

are they integrating this to have a better technology or they just need the influx of more money because they are in poorer condition?

i was always advocating how for third world country it's more vital to have new technology asap versus advanced country

look africa isn't even regulating bitcoin and already doing stuff about integration

They already started to change Mpesa to Bitcoin years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBWH7Sea3Xo

Now we are seeing progress.

I guess it's coz there's a need for it there. I read somewhere (forgot the title of the book) that that's how Africa (or any less developed are at that) catch up... they leapfrog technologies. So what if you don't have an extensive telephone network when cellphones are already here? Just don't use that tech and start from the most advanced one.

It seems that's what's happening to bitcoin there. They need more remittance options and the existing ones are not up to task so they're going to use bitcoin. Who knows, if they don't have strong banking systems in some countries there, bitcoin might fill the niche in financing.

Everyone is getting it wrong here. MPESA was pioneered in Kenya, a country which is on the African continent. MPESA is used in Kenya and a few other East African Countries, i.e Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. MPESA has been adopted widely and used in making payments ranging from purchasing goods, gas stations, payment of utility bills, school/college fees etc. Due to this adoption, it is used even in the remote villages and this makes it easy to transact MPESA with Bitcoin.

Well, the answer for that is pretty much in plain sight. In Africa, there is a big lack of banking infrastructures, that's why Mpesa and some others were able to create a market niche. Bitcoin, has made its way through these options because it has a wider application and wider range. It gives a lot more chances for the unbanked to access Banking services, and with this, they are able to leapfrog directly to this new technology without having to pass through the traditional Banking model.

You are very right. The reason for the widespread use of MPESA is due to a big population which has no access to banking services. This is brought about by the fact that most banks are located in urban centers which are far away, and also, the fees associated with banking are quite high. MPESA came as a savior because individuals are able to access MPESA agents next door and do their 'banking'. Transfer of money has become so easy for them.

Much of Africa is unbanked so it's no surprise that a huge effort is being made there to integrate bitcoin into payment systems.

Technically all you need is cash & a mobile phone & you're ready to go.