Bitcoin Forum

Hope this will give me a clear understanding of the direction that Africa should take in embracing Bitcoin. If the answer is positive will inquire about how Africa can adopt cryptocurrency.

The xxx topic about Bitcoin conquering  Africa.

Here is an article from 2013:
Remember 2013!!!!


http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-and-m-pesa-why-money-in-kenya-has-gone-digital/

Africa is a place where bitcoin has major potential. But what you might not realize is how important electronic money already is to countries there such as Kenya. First, a little economic information about this East African nation. Kenya is one of the region’s largest economies with a GDP of $41 billion dollars. Fifty percent of its people live below the poverty line. Approximately 75 percent of people work in agriculture. According to the CIA World Factbook, on Kenya, “low infrastructure investment threatens Kenya's long-term position as the largest East African economy.”

http://www.coindesk.com/kipochi-launches-m-pesa-integrated-bitcoin-wallet-in-africa/
Where is Kipochi now?


Read this about dreams going the wrong way:
https://blog.stakeventures.com/articles/what-actually-happened-at-kipochi

Yes,Bitcoin has a great future in Africa and Africans have a great future with bitcoins.Already they are getting benefit by sending remittance in bitcoin through m-pesa.Africa being a continent full of developing and poor nations would be benefited economically through bitcoin.Nigerians already adopting bitcoins due to the failure of their currency.

It has the potentials to grow but not everywhere (not in all countries), that's for sure. A lot of African countries are poor and people don't even have things to eat or water to drink, the life conditions are the worst that they could ever be and I don't think those people have the time for bitcoin.

It can certainly thrive in places where there's infrastructure and internet, mostly big cities. But it will be a while before rural Africa can benefit from Bitcoin.
The rather large fees could also deter people from using Bitcoin, though that issue seems to be over for now.

I don't believe in the prospects of bitcoin in Africa. There is very little infrastructure. The people are very poor and not all places even have Internet. If possible the market for bitcoin in Africa, a very long time.

I don't want to ruin your hopes, but vast majority of African countries are unfit to be good planting grounds for cryptocurrency.
The poorer the country the harder is to introduce bitcoin to it. Especially now when on-chain Bitcoin transaction cost around half a dollar each.
First things first, African countries need water, good stable governments and peace. Not bitcoin.

If you are talking about the already urbanised cities in Africa, why not? No difference at all. If talking about countryside or tribes etc, hell no, dont even have computers or easy access to internet, how to use bitcoins

A lot of aspects have to considered, Lack of the infrastructure, There are lots of social gaps among the ordinary person.
Although there is a potential, but it looks still there a lot of the contraries. While most of the countries are included in the poor countries we can't expect enough infrastructure to support it.

A large sum of people in Africa don't have access to the internet.
Any country in the world can choose to adopt Bitcoin, but Africa has some of the worst living conditions, so if anyone wants to pool his resources on getting Bitcoin embraced there, maybe he should rethink and focus on improving their living conditions instead, shouldn't he?

Developing countries will benefit from bitcoin more than developed countries because of inflation and the influence on dollars payment on transactions. If Africa countries will adopt bitcoin the pressures on USA dollars will reduce and bitcoin be a decentralised crytocurrency will create equality on their economic.

I think in some states of Africa where national currencies is weaken by war and crysis BTC could be among alternative means of payment
in the other hand soooo much illegal transactions would take place there

Africa and most third world countries are usually slow to adopt new technologies, but sometimes they skip a whole early phase of emerging

technologies and they come in at the end when the technology have matured. I think the same will happen with Africa.... they will get Bitcoin,

when most of the problems {scaling} are sorted out. They need a Bitcoin with cheap micro transaction capabilities and Bitcoin cannot offer that

at the moment.  >:(

The people in Africa have smartphones and they could use that technology to use Bitcoin.

i think people in africa are way too behind in terms of technology there to fully embrance bitcoin, they will have an hard time keeping bitcoin alive, but some of the countries in africa are not so behind like tunisia and egypt, they can trade bitcoin and build some atm for them, but to be honest i can't see anything big happening there, like regulation or exchange

I do believed Africa is like Japan where bitcoin was being accepted as mode of payment electronically. And I agreed that every nation will accept bitcoin it will surely the price will also increase in which Africa can be like other country who will continuously  in progress.

Depends on which part of africa. If you are talking about the part where there is stable interenet and power then you might have a chance. But if you are talking about the poorest part of africa where the wars and turmoils are happening then you have no chane to make it possible.

Agreed. On which part of Africa. Africa is a huge continent and mostly poor countries. But Nigeria, South Africa, Algiera and Seychelles, which is one of the riches country in Africa, bitcoin can thrive because they have already the structures and facilities (e.g., internet and power supplies) needed for the support of bitcoin technology.

I see bitcoin thriving in Africa as recent facts have even supported such. According to Luno who claimed over1 million downloads in a yyear. That's definitely a good start. Although, there might not be serious regulation as its going to be in the advance countries due to level of technology development, but that's equally an advantage has free movement can be achieved without unnecessary regulations.

Lightning Network is going to play an important role here, but the main problem is that it may take a very long time before we see this become reality. In the meantime most of the people that are somewhat up to date with everything will most likely look for altcoins to do the job. Not that something is wrong with this, but I much rather prefer people to make full use of Bitcoin, which at this point isn't possible as you also stated.

With Bitcoin, power returns to the people. All Africans need to rally from their own provinces to their leaders, and push for a change in the system from a bottom-up approach.

Gradually, we'll break free from this slavery we all call "freedom".

I guess Africa wouldn't readily embrace bitcoin because I know their leaders would not accept it since it cannot be controlled and manipulated. The people there I think would not readily use bitcoin too since not all people there have internet access and a computer/smartphone to use to store bitcoin yet. Also, using crypto currency would be a hassle for some people there.

Yes, it will help them to add more opportunities for development. They will be able to earn money and pay for various purchases on the Internet.

Each and every country in the wold has the power to use the block chain technology and bitcoin can act as the that power as a currency for transferring against the goods and services. It is as good as currency which can be sent in globe anywhere to anyone. Only thing is that it ns not regularized by anybody.

If the government can build the right infra structure and support bitcoin then bitcoin can help the people to giving them a better life, but the potential to grow still low maybe because some of the country not too familiar with internet, but introducing more people to join is good, with more user bitcoin will become stronger and more powerful

No, there are enough countries in the world that do not yet have 'the power' to use Bitcoin, you'd be amazed to find out how many countries worldwide do not have proper infrastructure to connect the majority of their population to the internet.

Then add the fact that millions of people do not even have enough money available to even buy 0.01 Bitcoin makes that statement wrong.

Most people on this thread have wrong perception about Africa and it's embrace to crypto currency, Crypto-Currency is a major source of business and revenue for lots of people here in my country. People tend to buy bitcoins and sell them at a good profit weekly in my country.

Are you from African country and do you mean to say already you people are using bitcoins as a trading instrument not as a currency ? I guess you people are on right track.

When you find bitcoin trading is profitable, you may enter into 2nd phase of bitcoin ecosystem : using bitcoin as store of value. Every bitcoin trader will become an bitcoin investor when we realizes holding will be more profitable than trading. The 3rd phase needs more time which is establishing bitcoin economy. Bitcoin economy needs bitcoin-users and bitcoin accepting merchants. When those will be happening you will embrace bitcoin as a currency.

Something to consider before hoping for mass adoption in Africa:

WORLD RANKING OF COUNTRIES BY THEIR AVERAGE IQ SCORE
https://static.iq-research.info/20150809/img/iq_by_country.png
Source: https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country

You don't have to be a genius to use bitcoins, but you probably need to be at least above 'mental retardation' level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_intellectual_functioning

^^^ The problem with Bitcoin is that, the user is also responsible for the safety of the coins in his wallet. I don't know whether people having an IQ of 60 or 65 will properly understand the risks such as wallet hacking.

I don't really know the situation and infrastructure in africa, but in the big cities where the internet is available, there's potential of bitcoin to grow. But apart from there, i don't think bitcoin can grow in africa for now as from i've seen there's too many poor and uneducated people there.

Few African countries were getting more and more bitcoin users. This has been taking place even after the government revealing several warning statement. People feel comfort in using it as well in those nations the transaction accessibility is not that good. So people move towards it as it too provides a growth in value. This in some cases improve the living.

So according to this map Chinese are the smartest people? no wonder those little fellows ASICboostraped us all for more than a year or so :D
I'd say let bitcoin first answer our needs, us the loyal users the always in the scene community and then think about other people, besides everyone are free to use the network if their government allowing them though.

For now there are some people lining their pockets waiting for an eminent hard fork to happen to secure their next 10 generations :D

That's right, even before teaching people there about the basic of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, they're already lacking infrastructure and basic education. Only in big cities there in Africa are capable of using bitcoin, the rest is doubtfully incapable.

Africa has already BitPesa, so I doubt that bitcoin will not gain popularity in Africa. In my opinion having low IQ is a not hindrance, people just need a basic concept (like buying and seling) of how money works. So if they know that bitcoin can be convert to fiat then I think more people from Africa will take advantage of bitcoin technology. This will be more evident in countries like Nigeria and Kenya, as per BitPesa website. Bitcoin is truly conquering the global scene, US, UK, Russia then Asia now Africa.

Yes, but how can African community know about bitcoin, and even about cryptocurrencies at all? Most of them are not into technology, because they simply dont need it now, it is just useless for them. Too many people in there do not have internet connection to take any profits from BTC, they just do different things.

They need to build needed infrastructure for that purpose, also without many agrocultural improvements, that still wont make a thing, and the Africans will stay in poverty.

It's already 4 years since the fall of Kipochi.

They tried to replicate the Mpesa success in Africa but they failed and they did it badly.
Why? Because it was damn impractical.

And there was no real financial advantage. And the people decided...sorry bitcoin..

Bitcoin is already moving in Africa and it is running smoothly. In a country such as Africa what we need to do is to let bitcoin move naturally even without any road map to follow. Third world countries doesnt need to force things to itself rather it will need for bitcoin to be absorbed by the community before it will be accepted on local shops and other stores.

There are roughly 346 million Internet users in Africa, so I have voted "Probably" because those people definitely could use Bitcoin. As for the other 73% population of the continent the answer is obviously "No".

In Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo businessmen are already extensively using Bitcoin to make payments to their Chinese suppliers. And of course Bitcoin is used by many in South Africa.

Hello friend! I think you are a little late. I have African friends (from Kenya) who not only know bitcoin since months but even hold or use it for several reasons. I don't know if you are African and if yes from which country but your data about this matter are a little old.
Maybe in Africa bitcoin have not the spread that it have in several European countries or USA but to pretend that is not known seems a little not realistic for me.

I think Bitcoin and other crypto currencies won`t be very popular in Africa, because of the poverty of local population. Except the South Africa people are engaged in getting everyday food, but not converting their real money to crypto.

Yes you are right, so they can use their smartphone devices to access bitcoin on their hand,
it is more simple, easy than use computers or laptop to use bitcoin,
and many website (services,exchangers,) relate bitcoin that support for smartphone devices
so bitcoin can be used on smartphone.

Whatever it is if for the sake of bitcoin development I will agree, not only in Africa but in europe, asia, america, australia and even the whole world i will be very happy.

Just how to make the structure and facilities for bitcoin to grow.

Not impossible for ever, it may take some time but it will happen one day. The decentralized currency will help people to store their hard work securely unlike how they struggling with their inflated local currencies.

So, we can expect Africa is coming out of using their local fiats and adopting bitcoins for the reason of how some countries like Zimbabwe are already suffering due to their corrupted leaders/politicians. When they will be using bitcoins, they can simply bypass their countries economic situations to get their wealth stable all the times.

Africans are using bit coin now, infact it is really solving the pressure of high rate of unemployment existing in many african countries.but i dont what the governments response will be.

to me i will like to say that bitcoin will surely be popular in africa also. to me i think bitcoin is already available in all over the world. i do not think that there will be a single country where the users of bitcoin will not be available.  i the only need is to increase the users of bitcoin, because the number of bitcoin users are still very low, and they need proper education about bitcoin so as to start using bitcoin.

I say probably. We still don't have a clear picture on what influence bitcoin is really in African Continent. Maybe few countries there are using bitcoin now, but we still don't know. Africa has been struggling economically in the last decade or so, I can't say if they are ready for bitcoin. Maybe we need to wait for a more years to really say that they have accepted bitcoin or not.

This is what I believe too. And recently, I have read an article about on how Africa will be accepting and adopting bitcoin and if that happens they will be one of the biggest contributors in the market of bitcoin. I know the population there is big and once people started to work with bitcoin there, they will be getting volume of transactions.

not only inn Africa but in so many other countries bitcoin is solving the problem of unemployment, as bitcoin is giving opportunities to people to invest a very little amount of their assets and get a good profit. even those people who do not have any investment, they can still make good profit by joining a signature campaign, i think such people can earn at least their pocket money from signature campaign. i

But it will not good as your main job, Basically all of the things and especially about the job on the crypto world is a side job. So, We must think if that the job can be running just in a short time.
As long as the bitcoin still new in the world. And there will be more spot to take an opportunity from the era of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is not solving the problem of unemployment, but it gives an opportunity for everyone to get a side job and small bucks to fill his wallet.

This is why i think butcoin will have a hard time becoming at par with the fiat currency. Some countries in africa don't even have computer access much less internet connection, which is the main requirement for btc or cryptocurrency usage.

If the africans have enough computers and smartphones and are educated enough to write-yes,Africa can embrace bitcoin.I think that the African countries don`t produce enough electricity for their population despite all their resources.There is a lot of potential.

I haven't kept track of Kipochi in sometime nice find thanks for that it seems the corruption is still there.
On the other hand mobile banking and Bitcoin are a good fit the challenge will be in maintaining good banking relations as even now exchanges are having problems with them.
Or Bitcoin Bank funded by Bitcoin Venture Capitalists could happen we have enough Billionaires in the sphere someone could just up and run a fiat bank sometime if the main banks keep forcing vendors to reject Bitcoin businesses.
The challenge may be having timely nodes in that area.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/meet-the-man-running-the-only-bitcoin-node-in-west-africa

That said Unocoin is trying India so it could be a similar model that could be tested by someone in Africa
http://www.livebitcoinnews.com/unocoin-customer-base-doubles-200000-past-six-months/

Do you think computers/smart phone and knowledge about bitcoin/Internet will be that much challenging things to reach Africa ? I do not think so. Technological advancements will reach every part of this world over time and Africa will be adopting bitcoin in upcoming future. Compared to the rest of world, some parts of Africa might be adopting bitcoin in slower pace but they will do it definitely.

The human will prefer comfort zone all the times. In this highly communication developed era can expect any part of this world will be coming forward, competitive in any technical field. So, Africa cannot be an exception because finding comfort is basic human nature.

we're not finding comfort, you're talking shit without knowing the circumstance there, you maybe don't even know what you're talking, without resources such as computers and internet connection there's no way they could access bitcoin
technology advancements will reach part of africa but really slow, the tribes there barely know what is electrity, if you don't agree, prove your statement

For enjoying Bitcoin, you first must have entire infrastructure, electricity, wifi, Internet, computers and others..You cannot expect Africa embrace Bitcoin before facing some other more important problems such as hunger, diseases..
When talking about Africa we must talk about few regions where actuly exist infrastrucure, and what percentage we are talking about, how many people can affort this? Yes they have smart phones and workin for a few dollars a day.
Some Europian countries are shamed with minimal salaries, and human rights, i cannot even imagine how is to live in Africa.


https://harvestchoice.org/labs/readme_poverty

You're actually comparing European countries to Africa?
Human rights?

Oh my god.You must be out of your freaking mind to even say something like that.

Even in the poorest of the poor you don't have 10% of the population at starving rations, you don't have epidemics, you still have a 400 vehicles per thousands inhabitants compared to 30 to 1000.

When was the last time an European country asked for food packages from the UN?

I think people in Africa will love the concept of bitcoins. If something new and unknown but trusted and popular is being introduced then it will surely be embraced by population. Africa would embrace it positively because local currency there is cheap and if bitcoin is introduced then people will earn more money. Holding one bitcoin would be like holding a 8 figures of salary in Africa due to it's trade volume in Africa. Believe it or not you can read about it and do some math to know more.  :)

It's hard for me to imagine that in Africa, crypto currencies may soon develop. In many more developed countries, little is known about bitcoin. It seems to me that this country is not ready for bitcoin

With all due respect to you sir, but I have to say that you are out od your mind.
People in Africa would love the concept of some idea which would allow them have food available and water supply, without big problem and bitcoinis not the way to achieve that.

Africa needs to be more developed to at least get closer to the point, where the people will grasp the idea that they do not have to labor to earn money, that it is possible to be satisfied with your salary that is fully paid virtually.

Lets be serious, they cannot even fix the issue of HIV, because they dont give a damn about condoms.
You want to introduce bitcoin to them? Feel free, no one will stop you.

It seems to me that you're talking rubbish.

Country? Africa is a continent, if you're talking about Africa a a country I suggest that before saying anything else or giving advice you start learning a bit about the outside world.
Let's make it this way: Geography then Economics.



I'm at a loss when you say unknown and trusted.
How can you trust something unknown?


Local currency is cheap...
What the hell are you talking about? This makes no sense. 1 usd is cheaper than 1 euro which is cheaper than a gbp ... so???

Trading volume which is 0.

aTriz, you shared a good points. Africa needs (at least the undeveloped part of it) to first achieve stability, education, water, standard economic growth.
Bitcoin is still, and probably will be for a long time, a luxury. It is not necessary needed nor helpful in your daily activities, it is a rich men's toy.
It is an empty dream if you want to introduce BTC to battle poverty in Africa...

Nigeria, Ghana and southafrica are the biggest users if Bitcoin in Africa and do if these African super power nations are spearheading the usage of this cryptocurrency then I have no doubt the rest of Africa will embrace it and Bitcoin is bent on going places to help us all.

Africa can truly embrace bitcoin because it can help them to earn money easily by just doing like our common work which is signature campaign and it will be easier to them to grow their money because if they just invest in bitcoin and hold them for about a year then it will double their money and they earn money easily and it will help them to avoid corruption in africa because bitcoin is decentralized and no one control it so it will be a huge help for them.

Kenya is another major user, but even in these nations the total number of users hardly exceed 1,000. The tie-up with MPesa has not worked as expected. There is a long way to go, and we can only hope that Bitcoin will become popular in Africa.

Not comparing just saying they are way far from modern way of life, and to talk about Bitcoin in Africa in global is very sad, when we all know how they are living there! Maybe few regions are more developed and using Bitcoin wich is good. But for me when someone talks about African people and prosparity (Bitcoin) first thought is presented with previous pricture i have posted.

Bitcoin in Africa can be. But only in rich families. People who are financially literate. And there are everywhere, Africa is no exception. Access to bitcoin is at all, and some are ready to use this chance

Reallly?
I've asked in the past of proofs but care to share with me those regions where bitcoin is used?
And not by a guy who sell hyenas hot dogs.

A major exchanger in Africa?
Something other than having 6 guys in the whole of Nigeria trading bitcoins?

Africa can easily become the world biggest bitcoin market. Already Nigeria is one the top nations where many users are using bitcoins. Need a little promotion and it will spread to whole of Africa.

Every country where the national fiat currency is in bad shape (and all the economy sinking in the process) is a potential candidate to have a huge BTC adoption. It has happened in Argentina, Venezuela and several countries in Africa. But, with the economy falling apart, to have BTC is helpful in any way?

I would agree with some users here saying that big and relatively poor countries are good potential markets for Bitcoins and its biger adoption. Because if poor condtions people often search for alternatives and Bitcoin could be one of that.
But for biger adoption in Africa and elsewhere we should increase the knowledge about Bitcoin and how to use it and better access to Internet and new technologies for such people.

Yeah? Andy data to back this claims?


Since you claim it has happened in Venezuela and people are still hunting for stray dogs and cats alongside flamingos I guess it didn't do ...


That is actually false.
Most poor people who have endured for a longer period of time are quite reticent to change because they are afraid of losing even the little they have.

I agree with you that European countries shouldn't be even compared with Africa in terms of human rights and regarding social standards of living, but not all the areas of Africa are so undeveloped as we might think. There are over 300 million Internet users in Africa and Bitcoin is already used by businessmen in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo  and South Africa. You can read more on this from the link below:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/23/africa/bitcoin-startup-africa/

Yes, most of them do. But there are those who are willing to risk everything that they have and escape from poverty. Then, when they become rich, they all envy and say that they are lucky.
I believe that bitcoin can develop in Africa. But not massively

https://www.bitpesa.co/register
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OulBAJweuzQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENkRRYw8P_8

Bitcoins- Interview with BitPesa CEO, Elizabeth Rossiello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIfNNPgPJeA

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/23/africa/bitcoin-startup-africa/

At least US students from Kenya will send their money back home using those services, and this is start.
But this is far far from the real World, and poor will stay poor for a long time, Bitcoin cannot change this truth!

That is actually the point. If we want mass adoption - be it in Africa or elsewhere - we must develop mechanisms that lower the volatility risk. Poor people simply can't afford to lose even 10 or 20% of their monthly income (and Bitcoin can do worse, as we all know). Until that problem is not solved, Bitcoin will be only play money for the elite and upper middle class of African countries.

I think for Bitcoin being adopted by the masses in Africa and other poorer regions of the world, we need two things:
- a low-fee micropayment platform (perhaps Lightning)
- a CFD-like mechanism which allows people to save money on a Bitcoin-based "stablecoin" (similar to what Bitshares does). This should be possible with Rootstock (which is about to start in a month or two) or with altcoins like Bitshares, Ethereum or Qora (the tech is already available but only Bitshares has a working implementation).

You think people who live in africa do not know the digital currency, they already know digital currency like paypal, nettler, skrill, etc maybe a little bit already knows a lot about bitcoin and i'm pretty sure bad news about bitcoin in Spread by the media they have heard but only a small part who knows the potential of bitcoin.

Right, people in Africa is not that poor like how the media tries to portray it is. People in Africa use various smartphones and other technology that is not that expensive and send payments digitally without any issues.

The problem is that people there don't have jobs and infrastructure to create jobs. Without jobs there isn't money and without money there isn't bitcoins. I don't know if media is luring us about Africa, but all I see is a lot of poor persons doing nothing all day long,
Just waiting the help of other countrie's ongs to give them supplies. No money circulating there, maybe only circulating on their dictators hands.

Parts of africa certainly may, but a large part i think won't. Of course this dorsn't only apply to africa as there are parts of the world also that has limited access to modern tech or internet connection. In africa, i think illegal businesses would be one of the first to embrace btc because of it's anonymity. Like poachers and drug syndicates. These are mostly the ones who do transactions with other countries illegally

Oh, I see, you are a true Africa expert.

Most people do actually work there, and they work a LOT, for no (subsistence farming) or small salaries. In some countries like Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe there is a greedy elite scamming the rest of the population, but there are also relatively well-governed countries like Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, Botswana and (with reservations) Ivory Coast and Nigeria where the economy is growing and Bitcoin also is doing relatively well (although it's still in its infancy there). Ethiopia is other country with a large potential, its government is centralized (their "federalism" is a lie) and authoritarian, but they're economically doing pretty well and it could be "Africa's China".

It doesn't matter which bitcoin related site use Nigerians and Indians are there. Africa is developing bro ;)

No I absolutely do not agree that the problem of most of the african countries are no jobs.  There are always some work to be made. Lets look at the Sweden or Norway. There is no such a thing as a work there that is not paid even the kind of  job that is not paid elsewhere, like helping people.

So no, the problem with the many of African countries is that their elites are very corrupted. Corruption is not always bad. If a defrauded money stays in the country you might call it a different alocation of capital, sometimes better and sometimes worse. In the case of most poor african country the money stolen there are spend in some rich countries like uk. Thats a serious issue that lead to a sittuation of not having enough money in those coutries and with a burden of debt.

Another problem is a lack of oppenedness of those coutries to global economics. They are only open as a basket of resources. Many countries are interested in having a sittuation where those coutries are not being able to use or sell their own resources so that the corporations could get all of the profits.

So a succesful way for africans is to be protective towards their own resources and openned towards new technologies like bitcoin. I see their are doing exactly the opposite in the poorest  of the countries. They are completly free market on their own resources and are very sceptical towards new ideas. Thats a recipe for disaster they are witnessing.

They shoud protect their resources and allow a payment for them in internationaly recognised currency (why not bitcoin) using some means like internet for a price check. But firstly they should be helped with getting rid of corruption by some people willing to be unbiased experts on a matter of fighting a corruption in the so called developing countries.

Oh yeah they are.
How about we look at some statistics... like cars per thousands people?
The first was Lybia with 290 compared to 800 for the US.
Or 10/1000 for most of Central Africa.

Yeah , what kind of magic technology they use that is not expensive?
Maybe they should start teaching us Europeans how to do it /sarcasm

The emergence of crytocurrencies and bitcoin being the most known would further impoverished the African continent for a longer time.

One do not get acquainted, follow up with global innovations and happenings without being educated and as such, internet compliance .

Thus, education and the use of internet would be a debacle to how far the poor in Africa would embrace the crptos.

Hence , the rich, knowledgeable would keep 'swimming in wealth' .

While Africa does have jobs and they are able to work (technically speaking), they do not have any major infrastructure up to make a lot of their countries valuable in any sort of international trade. Even China is now trying to go in and build up Africa in an effort to exploit the economic opportunities, but that's doing only so well. Depends on where you look. I recommend watching "Empire of Dust" on YouTube, even if it is kind of old.

The good news is, anyone who is interested in private security contracting will have a lot of opportunities available as more assets start being built up in and around Africa.

Africa needs to have a larger work base with more disposable (or at least saveable) income before we can consider the continent somewhere that Bitcoin can expand to and flourish in.

Maybe they're smarter than US and European citizens and don't invest in a heavy, expensive thing that's standing still without being used about 99% of its life ;)

No, but overall I agree ... there are pretty significant life standard differences with other continents, even with most of Asia. But that's also an opportunity because it allows Africans to bypass some inefficient and Centralist technologies like traditional banking and using smarter methods like cryptocurrencies. But as I already said, volatility is the problem to solve for that to happen.

Not really. Such pathbreaking innovations help countries 'leapfrog' in their adoption. This could actually act as a leveller.
Even in countries where telephone network is not strong, mobile phones are prevalent.

Africa most live from safari.Two safari,one picture and kill.

Yeah innovations are a part of every nation. Now things were happening with Africa, because they are in much need and trying to be part of innovations. Though Africa is lacking in the internet the growth is quiet promising with the emerging technology usage even through mobile phones.

I heard a news about Bitcoin in the Africa that many countries are taking in consideration approving Bitcoin as s currency, I don't know the validity of that news. If it occurs then I strongly believe that that day is so far when Bitcoin will be the approved currency in Africa.
So let's see..

Yeah, I have also heard these "news", mainly from accounts with not much experience in a certain forum. ;) Please provide a source for these news.

What I consider more realistic is not that they are "approving" it as a "currency" (at least not as a "legal tender"), but regulating it like many countries have done. That could be positive (liberal regulation, like in Japan or the Phillippines) or negative (restrictive regulation, like in Bangladesh) or something in-between (Germany, USA).

Some news items from the last year (all three are relatively positive):

Uganda Takes its First Steps Toward Bitcoin Regulation (http://www.coindesk.com/uganda-africa-first-steps-bitcoin-blockchain-regulation/)

Mauritius: The Tropical Paradise Looking to Become a Blockchain Hub (http://www.coindesk.com/mauritius-the-tropical-paradise-looking-to-become-a-blockchain-hub/)

Central Bank of Nigeria Says ‘We Can’t Stop Bitcoin’ (https://news.bitcoin.com/central-bank-of-nigeria-says-we-cant-stop-bitcoin/)

The countries you quoted in the previous post have problems with pure infrastructure.
People don't have access to water or electricity their whole annual wage is not enough for a monthly rate on an an average car.

The thing about the car being a bad investment and Africans being smart and not buying is pure BS.
They can't afford one , they can't afford gas , there is no gas .. there is nothing.

Ever been to the slums of a capital city in any of the country mentioned?
A cheap Hollywood movie about zombies is pure paradise compared to the reality there.

How the hell can you think about online payments when 15% of people have access to electricity.

You have seen the emoji, haven't you? ;) (But in my opinion, the sentence is not a pure joke - cars are overrated. You can agree or not.)

And sorry, your sentence about the zombie movie is a great exaggeration. I've been in some Latin American slums and African slums are not really different. Living there is not easy. But most people there even have (cheap) smartphones and could use Bitcoin if there was an app for it, and if it was more stable.

The people excluded in third-world countries are more so those living in the countryside, as there often there are very bad internet connections. But even there some use financial mobile apps, e.g. to know the prices for the agricultural goods they produce.

Exactly so it doesn't really matter where Bitcoin is used. I can confidently say Bitcoin is well known in some African countries than in the west and its in the positive sense.

though it may take more time for majority of african people to be able to grt used to bitcoin transactions regularly due to constraints when it comes to going online. of course for those that deal with businesses that would be easy enough but for those regular people who rarely get access to the net, that would be a big challenge

That is exactly what hinders them to use the blessings of Bitcoin. Since a lot of people there don't have that much to buy a gadget and connect to internet in order to have an access to Bitcoin. Though it is good to have Bitcoin but I think it will be most effective with people who atleast afford to have access in Bitcoin but if not then that would be tricky.

Africa is getting much advance than safari , picture and kill  :D Africa is one of the biggest market when it comes to Bitcoin Matrix, investments and MLM Programs. Although most Nigerians and Africans scams another African, yet it is one of the hottest business in Nigeria. Now they are trying to attract Asian to invest in their scam bitcoin scheme and investment plans.

my friend living in such backward areas of Africa as they are there on job, but they have the internet connect as we speak and talk on facebook regularly, therefore i think internet is present there and therefore bitcoin users must be there, but they just need some more introduction of bitcoin. so that those people who do not know about bitcoin should also start using bitcoin,

Haha! Yeah I think that bitcoin would definitely work for the country. Their currency is so destroyed from poor economic choices that this would probably give them a leg up.

I don’t think the fact that bitcoin is still new is a problem because it would certainly already give them a much better chance of catching up then their own currency. I think it could work for sure it’s a question of how to implement it.

I am pretty sure that the transaction fee plus the amount of time it requires for Bitcoin to have a confirmation is the only thing that stops Bitcoin from surging within Africa. People within Africa have smart phones and Internet access and it wouldn't be that tough to get more people into Bitcoin because they already know how to use electronic items.

Bitcoin could be a better option to use instead of something like M-Pesa or the new mobile banking companies that are out there.

Already repeatedly random questions about whether Bitcoin will help poorer countries and people. Homeland all Who lives the black continent I think Bitcoin will not be able to do anything because this is not a situation where you can earn money and help those people. The first priority for people who live in Africa needs knowledge, it is knowledge that can raise their standard of living.

Yes Africa can embrace bitcoin. This is already happening as large numbers of the masses all over significant part of Africa are already investing heavily and transacting businesses in bitcoin. The acceptability of the coin is high thereby making it very possible for mass embrace.

For all countries from africa, bitcoin is a great chance to get out of poverty, but I think when you're sitting in complete poverty, you're definitely not up to bitcoins, but only thinking how to make ends meet (

Possibly Bitcoin can be widely adapted within all the parts of Africa if and only if the resources that are needed to be uses in coming up into such adaptation will be provided. But I guess it will such a hard thing to do because people out there based on what I know was already contented on what they have even without the presence of large currencies even the influence of dollars. If so that it will be possible to convince the people to get engage with Bitcoin, it will be a great help for them since all people do really need to come up into innovation process.

One of the reasons Bitcoin isn't very popular in rural areas of Africa (and other not-very-well-developed areas of the world) is the lack of stable Internet connections.

If people had a way to pay with Bitcoin for goods and services without being online all the time, acceptance could increase. I think many of us here know the method to interchange paperwallets (like Casascius Coins), but the solution is not ideal, as you must trust the issuer.

In the Spanish forum I discussed a possible model for such "offline transactions" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2599687.msg26458062#msg26458062) with other participants. I asked then in the Development forum if the model is viable and it seems so - it is even one of the proposals that led to BIP65 (CheckLockTimeVerify) - although it originally was thought to be used for another purpose.

In this model, both parties need to be online once before and once after the interchange, but it doesn't need to be very close to the time of the trade, e.g. one week before and one week after it is OK, so as long as both have sometimes access to Internet connection the model would work well.

It is difficult to describe the model in layman's terms but the general scheme is:

- The buyer sends the seller a special transaction. This transaction sends the money to the seller if he can provide a secret code. Otherwise, the buyer can spend the money after certain time (it can be freely chosen, e.g. 1 week).
- When the trade is carried out, the buyer gives the seller a file or a piece of paper with the secret. The seller will instantly be able to check that the secret is correct, with a simple electronic device (without Internet connection).
- The next time the seller gets internet connection, he shares the secret and transfers the coins to his address.
- If the trade is not carried out the buyer doesn't share the secret and so he can spend the coins again after the chosen timeframe.

See the link above for more details.

I think this offline transaction model could be of great interest for those that want to create Bitcoin / cryptocurrency businesses in Africa, because it would expand the market to areas outside the big urban centers (where Bitcoin is mostly already known).

Bitcoin adoption and utilization of Third World Countries will be a good indication that bitcoin has really spread well across the globe. It's surely the beginning of how Africa's economic growth will be in the next few years and i am sure that bitcoin will boost that more.

Many African countries are so poor and underdeveloped that they do not even have the capacity to fully meet their basic needs. Although maybe cryptocurrencies just the same and will be able to change it!

While countries in the African continent will benefit the most out of bitcoin the truth is that those that are the poorest will not have any access to bitcoin and its benefits and it seems they are going to be some of the last persosn to ever adopt bitcoin, when you think about who are the earlier adopters of a technology you will find that most of the time those are people that were well off financially to begin with since they could afford to lose the money they invest in something like bitcoin which they did not knew if it will become successful or not.

Well, I quite agree with this statement. Based on this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Africa#Current_situation most internet users are Marocco. While the least is Somalia. Poor infrastructure in Africa is the main obstacle when adopting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Africa is one of the worst places in the world to mine bitcoin. It’s hot, dusty, and suffers from poor infrastructure. Power blackouts are a daily occurrence in many parts of the continent, making Africa wholly unsuited to mining. In South Africa, utility companies regularly engage in “load shedding” – imposing national blackouts to ease the demand on the electricity grid

My vote will be on Probably. Because I don't think that there is much implementation of internet in Africa where people really need it and bitcoin relies on internet. The most remote sections of the society of Africa, that would need bitcoin, to earn their livelihood, would even then be too poor to afford usable internet speeds to be able to properly use bitcoin.
However, if the government there decides on subsidizing internet access, so people can use bitcoin, spread its popularity in a large scale, and adopt bitcoin, then I believe it would be beneficial for both the country's economy and for stabilizing the price of bitcoin.

I doubt that the people there would even understand about Blockchain, but if there is a person that would explain it to them one by one maybe there will be a chance.

You don't need fast internet speed to use bitcoin, even the slowest internet connection available will do.
You just broadcast a tiny transaction to the network, nothing more.
Even mining has no big requirements.

But...subsidies? From what?
Most countries in Africa can't feed a starving population, they lack running water and you think they will throw money on internet ?
There are even now regions in Eastern Europe that lack running water and internet access.
Africa has to wait for it, and it will be a lot of waiting...



Not all of it is like that. After all it's a damn continent with all the climates possible.
But the infrastructure is terrible in like 99% of the cases.

Well the internet on the africa seems low and don't judge the people on africa though , and I'm doing some search regarding this topic and this is what I got. And actually you don't need to have fast broadband or an internet well you just need to have patience to learn.

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42582343

very often the God of the media is already the case the topic that Bitcoin can help poor countries, and those that are already developing quite actively. I think that this is not the task of crypto currency and Bitcoin, as well as other coins will develop different spheres of human life, but not to raise the economy from the knees.

Many Nigerian youth already adopted this new technology, its left to their government to see the benefits of the cryptocurrency

I fully agree with your comment. Africa is actually one of the poorer continents with the war and hunger constantly being in motion. Most of the other continents are not truly aware of the serious situation that Africa is in.
Most of the people in Africa really don't care about the Bitcoin, they even don't know what is Bitcoin and what is its purpose.
They even don't have the proper technology to do something with Bitcoin.
Many of the people in Africa need the true help and that help need to come in the form of the food supplies and health care and not in the form of the Bitcoin introduction!

Africa has always struggled to emerge amidst forces against its
potentials.Considering the advent of decentralized digital currency;
bitcoin and others, Africa has embraced this technology with both hands
believing it would give the continent its needed financial leverage and opportunity
to get out of all forms of economic slavery.It may even embrace mining, trading and
owning its own decentralized crypto coins just to keep afloat.