Bitcoin Forum

        Bitcoins is fast growing with a purpose of becoming the worldwide currency. Daily, thousands of people are joining this movement and within the next decade if not sooner bitcoins would have taken over, but what will this mean for Africa? For a continent quite far behind (I don’t want to go through all the reasons why) but let’s face it we just aren’t ready for this revolution and here are my reasons;
TECHNOLOGY
Smartphones to be particular, have increased to almost a double with figures of about 226 million over the past two years in Africa mainly due to the drop in prices from $230 in 2012 to $160 in 2015 according to a report published by GSMA on Africa’s mobile economy. This seems a good thing right? Well maybe, maybe not for a continent of 1.216 billion people this means only about 18% of Africans own a smartphone. Our hopes now rest entirely on how fast the rate of smartphones will increase to how fast the world is taking in Bitcoins.
POVERTY
I honestly didn’t want to include this but Bit coins is a system dependent on money that is buying one to trade for one, and yes poverty is a worldwide epidemic but its rate is much higher in Africa considering the bitcoin worth is rising every coming day taking huge giant strides further away from us only benefiting the rich.
LEADERS
African leaders.....well lets just say for a system against corruption, I don’t think at least not now.

Smartphone penetration is quite good in many of the Africa countries, and a number of Bitcoin ventures originated from there. I can see a lot of potential for Bitcoin in Africa. The M-Pesa/Bitcoin collaboration was quite successful in Tanzania and Kenya. There were a few other startups which dealt in Bitcoin as well. But one thing which is going to affect the popularity of the Bitcoin is the high fees.

Yeah recently M-pesa was quite successful in making a big profit from Africa. It too have levied a big transaction fee, but due to the declined value of their own currency and for business transaction with ease people started giving preference to these service providers.

Unfortunately Africa isn't ready for money at all, for some of the reasons OP listed, so they wouldn't be "eligible" (so to speak) to use Bitcoin to begin with. Here's to hoping this changes soon, not for Bitcoin, but for population living in absolute poverty and in remote areas without access to anything people in developed countries consider to be basic. As for the rest of Africa, it's just a matter of time. A few years back "1st world countries" didn't have access to internet, smartphones, etc and look where we're at...

The price of Bitcoin doesn't matter. Transaction fees do.
High transaction fees kill micropayments and that rules out Bitcoin from poor countries.

I don't know what happened to that tie-up, but I have seen posts from African users claiming that it is no longer working well. What happened with M-Pesa was a big disappointment. Because Bitcoin usage would have been very beneficial to the Africans, especially for small-scale trade and remittance. I heard that it is quite hard there to open bank accounts.

Even more than the smartphone propagation, that is the Internet one, as well as the electricity. I think not even 10% of people in Africa have access to it.

Lets not make a big assumption on one continent that far, and I really don't think Bitcoin usage depends on where you are located but it depends on the level of need of such thing. Also poverty won't be an issue if you really need and want to take advantage of Bitcoin then you can do so, a good example for this is the Venezuelan miners in which in order to escape poverty they do mining in order for them to earn and spend Bitcoin as a main currency. So I think that anyone can be ready for Bitcoin.

I think that it will pass a lot of time before African people start using bitcoin in larger scales. I mean, some parts of Africa does not have electricity yet, and computer and phones run on them. And not to mention wars, and poverty. People does not have whet to eat there, so i do not think they will buy phone or computer before they have full stomach.

I will never agree on a lot that CW said in his last video, but one thing where I agree with him, is :

~ For Bitcoin to go mainstream, it has to improve their wallets interface and also enable people to use Bitcoin on normal phones. This WILL open

   up the financial systems to the poor and the unbanked.

They guy might be a asshole, but he has a point. India & Africa needs simple and easy technology, backed by good security and running on every

phone on this planet.  ;)

Why does Africa isn't ready for money? I think all of us are just thinking about the status of Africa in a 1 perspective look and let's just all be straight we are thinking that Africa is all about some ethnic tribe living and there are no internet or they are all living in a village with no electricity or something but if you are living in Africa I think you had a point with what you are saying, but not all African are all like that and I say that there are 5 richest kings in Africa that I think living a gorgeous lives and with that in mind do you still think they are not capable of getting internet or having their own bitcoin!

Changes are to come. All in good time.
When Africa is ready, it too will have Bitcoin.

Its really affecting third world countries to adopt btc just imagine .0012 btc for every transactions its already worth for a living considering the value of it to local fiat i guess if theres a big players that will push this theresa lots of opportunities for this country to succeed.

I definitely agree with you. Africa as a whole just isn't ready for Bitcoin. They barely have internet, so Bitcoin is definitely out of the picture for most of the African people. However, there are some people that are very smart and have already invested into Bitcoin. Not many, but there are definitely some. Saying that, there are also some smart Africans out there who have smartphones and some kind of internet access. We have all heard about those Nigerian princes who contact people on craigslist and ask to send items to Africa, while acting like an American guy. But there are others who instead of trying to scam people, do different jobs and actually earn that money. Again, there are not many of these people, but there are some.

I do not believe Africa is not ready for Bitcoin or Altcoins because now mobile technology in Africa is growing very fast and so many new infrastructure projects are happening. Africans are very bright and when they see opportunity, they jump in it. If Bitcoin technology can bring many new jobs in Africa, this will change the perception others have of the emerging economies in African Countries. I have big hope that Africa can embrace Bitcoin and the Blockchain very effectively over the next five or ten years.

Africa is very much ready for bitcoins the reason most of us are not rich through bitcoins is that we normally use it for our day to day activities and not save them, we had no idea that it was going to skyrocket through the roofs as time goes by.

Africa is a large continent and has 54 countries inside it. The number of countries within Africa is the same with United States of America. As a whole African countries is a very poor country but it doesnt mean that all people in that large continent are poor. There are also some few average and elite families that has access to internet. Though Africa as a whole cannot be a good ground for bitcoin due to poverty but even a small population that uses bitcoin is already a good sign that bitcoin has a future in Africa. I can relate to the experience of African people I may be very poor once and cannot even access the internet but with willingness internet became my friend in internet shops and with my income from online jobs from bitcoin paying sites I have now a smartphone and has the capacity to pay my monthly internet bill.

Truly bitcoin can help a country to decrease unemployment but it will only happen if a person has willingness to learn and do the work.

TC is right and also I ask a few friends and family.  They never heard of bitcoin and one of my friend doesn't trust it.  Imagine just go to mall and ask same question.  If bitcoin is popular half of my family and friends would hear about it and have some trust.  Bitcoin isn't even ready for mainstream.

The current transaction fee is very large. And when transactions are made in a country like Africa then small-scale enterprises will only be silent and bitcoins will not be included in the economic schemes they run. This is the fact that there are still many poor countries that are not ready to use bitcoin.

They might not be ready for it now, but a wave is coming for them and they will leap into the technological world and many people will regret they ignored Africa for so long in terms of they're going to provide so many opportunities for growth in the fields of renewable energy and modern technology.

No, Africa is not ready for bitcoin, it's only available in some developed countries, whereas in underdeveloped countries, the internet is not popular, which is a huge obstacle to the development of bitcoin. Even though some countries are alienated from technology, they do not know bitcoin.

I agree with you, I think blockchain will help the world solve many problems including corruption. It will take some time, and it will not be easy, but I'm sure that the future is for blockchain.

How bitcoin can help in the fight against corruption. When you say it seems to me that you have made for yourself crypto currency in religion. You can believe in its future, but faith must be based on facts. Bitcoin you attribute properties which are not.

It really depends on what sort of impact you want to have. It's too easy to say Africa and forget what that can mean. Your 18% population who own smartphones are concentrated in a few countries, and in a few major urban areas. The Humaniq project and Stellar Lumens are two crypto projects I know are working in Africa, and both in Western Africa (my guess is Nigeria is the most ready) but even they cannot possibly hope to "change" things with crypto.

You have to spend time there, do research there, and be serious about practical implementations vs policy. You can't just say Africa without any context.

This is true. High transaction fees is the real issue and others would follow.

And actually, I would say Bitcoin has its requirements set before you can enter. Having access to this is a must to acquire that is devices which you need to connect to the internet though even if it is available the problem lies in your financial status though even if you can afford it the thing is you need to know how to cope up and understand the complexity even just the basic ones that are needed. As the OP stated that poverty really can hinder and also education but nonetheless maybe Africa has another thing up in its sleeves.

People keep forgetting that Bitcoin isn't currently good for micropayments. Hopefully future advances (Lightning Network etc) will improve this

Things can change. If they increase the blocksize and reduce the transaction fee, then it may still be possible to use Bitcoins for micro-payments (although the miners will remain dead opposed to this idea).

No one can guess how events will develop. But I am sure that Africa is still very far from bitcoin. There is no technical opportunity to use bitcoin. Only large cities are developed where there are tourists

I agree with you, There is no problem about bitcoin price, The only problem is on fees. We will wait until they will fixed and lowered a bit. Anyways nowadays we saw that fees fall and now is:
The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 300 satoshis/byte.
For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 67,800 satoshis.
According to https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

I think when the fees volatility will be in this marge of ~300 satoshis/byte is not bad and no matter at all even in Africa, exactly for poor countries.

For poor countries like Africa the problem is in high fees even for small or micro transactions but not only that. There are still many people who lack education, Internet access and familiarity with new technologies so in percentage very small number of people in poor countries have access to bitcoin. And if we want for Bitcoin to change their.life and help them this issues should be solved first.

Africa isn't even ready for smartphones. I'm talking about central Africa here because the North and South are fairly developed. Read about the things that are going on in there. Kids running around with guns, pirates attacking transport ships in their little wooden boats. Bitcoin isn't going to change anything for them.

In Africa, people are so inadequate that they have too many physical conditions, and few people have access to internet access. The level of knowledge and education is not high, leading to delays in developing countries, which makes them poor. So they have no money to invest in Bitcoin. In addition, transaction fees will lose the small amount of money they earn. So I think Africa is not ready for Bitcoin

They are not ready because there are some reasons one of them is the education resources in the African region is still far said equivalent or equalized, so knowledge of the internet world, smartphone is still practically minimal or only for upper middle class only, maybe in the next era I think Africa will get a decent place in this world and become a very established and advanced country

I am sure everyone has talked with African people they always talk about money. I think if they get a bit of guidance and some support then a system like bitcoin can be very important and very helpful for them. if we ignore the fact that every human has rights to get what they truly needed then ya Africa isn't ready at all. I also believe they still can get bitcoin working in their country without anyone's help. In addition to that mostly of Africa is high crime region and wild life region. so it is a lot harder for them to adopt any new system specially related to money.

Bitcoin is already very popular in certain African countries like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Morocoo and Algeria. It's only a matter of time before it explodes. Internet penetration is on the increase and with the introduction of fibre optic, things will get better.

I disagree with your overly pessimistic view, and I think you are generalizing too much - Africa is large, as some already have said.


That is at least one person per family - in urban areas I would say more. And some more advanced "feature phones" for less than 50 dollars already run Android and so are able to run a Bitcoin wallet.


There is some truth in that, above all if we observe the epidemy of pyramid schemes that are popular in countries like Nigeria and are doing more harm than good using Bitcoin as a vehicle. But that can change - I can imagine many services, from online education to "banking for the unbanked" and even online medicine, that could benefit from Bitcoin as an easy means of payment. The problem left is volatility, and here I think really people should think about solutions (like an insurance system against crashes).

There are African leaders/governments that are less corrupt than our leaders in South America,  and here Bitcoin is doing pretty well. ;) Bitcoin enterpreneurs are not obliged to choose the worst countries (e.g. Somalia, Zimbabwe or the DR Congo). They can start in stable, relatively well governed countries like Ghana or Senegal.

That right, for now maybe they are not ready but not tomorrow and many people will regret they ignored Africa for so long in terms of they're going to provide so many opportunities for growth in the fields of modern technology.

How about you make your mind?
Was it a success and two minute later a disappointment? Then stop with the shitposting.


Hahahah, I've heard that so many times in the last decade it's not even funny anymore.
What have people in Africa managed to do?

Bring down one single country that was at the level of western countries (South Africa) and transform it in a crime ridden, hiv infected landfill of a dump.

This is the reality of Africa:
https://youtu.be/A0C4_88ub_M?t=4359

Africa is not ready to use bitcoin. Because most African countries are poor countries. The majority of the population is not exposed to technology. Most payments are small amounts. Trading is very difficult. Bitcoin will hardly grow there

Maybe not now yes it is true. However if africa tries to atleast adopt this would let their economy grow. We know that there are smart africans if they invest of trading they can actually do it

Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of South African Reserve Bank (SARB) also noted that: "Blockchain technology has the potential to help millions of uneconomed people in the economy, and improve government services to be much more efficient." He is also interested to consider the benefits of Blockchain further to south Africa

In line with South Africa's fresh air from governments in the country, the Blockchain industry in Nigeria also received full support from its government to collaborate with the Cryptography Development Initiative of Nigeria (CDIN) in education and technology implementation programs. CDIN is a non-governmental organization that aims to address gaps in the development of cryptography for the common good. CDIN hopes to make government agencies, investors, consumers and other stakeholders simultaneously awakened and interested in Blockchain technology to be used as a tool to prevent crime, protect consumers, open new jobs, and expand business opportunities in Nigeria.

Haha, that mugambe wasambe would better do something about this:

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/fsi-only-civil-war-torn-countries-are-in-a-more-fragile-state-than-south-africa/



http://www.iol.co.za/business-report/recession-south-african-economy-shrinks-by-07-9585516
Recession: South African economy shrinks by 0.7%


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-idUSKBN19L2KF
South Africa says may need seek outside help to get economy going

And the solution?


South Africa is going the way of cuckoo socialism.
Bitcoin is pure capitalism and free market.
Those two can't be mixed.

In fact, not only Africa, but other third world countries are also not ready for bitcoins. Many people in these countries do not even have access to a computer, not to mention the Internet.

This is where you are wrong.... they need it even more, given this exact situation. Imagine a world without ATM's where people can transfer

wealth with a push of a few cellphone buttons. {no third party} A world where no corrupt centralized services has control over their wealth and

where they are not robbed when they withdraw money at an ATM. They have access to their money 24/7 and might be able to do micro tx's with

very low fees. I hope people can look past the "bad" actors and see the potential Bitcoin can have, if they are given the right tools.  ;D

Africa is seeing great progress through mobile phone banking and easy to create accounts, the monetary system, be it centralized or decentralized is the way out of poverty.

The key for bitcoins in Africa is easy of use, if it can be taken up through texting etc. then there is a very bright future

Africa is little back in technology and one need to have a good infrastructure of INTERNET for bitcoins to work seamlessly. I think they need to built their infrastructure if they want to adopt bitcoin as a mainstream currency.

I agreed with you as regards lack of basic infrastructures i.e internet. Internet is one of the major factor limiting the acceptance of bitcoin in africa, infact high cost of production of internet service make  for internet subcription to highly expensive and internet is a major tool for creating awareness about bitcoin in africa. With low data subcription the  more awareness.

I am African and live very well, my father is a general and my family has money. I have a computer since I was born and my brothers and friends all have a computer

Frankly I read many comments from people who talk a lot of bullshit

In my poorest atheist country has a cell phone and there are few people who do not have a smartphone or a computer at home

Access to the internet is very easy to have in my country

I hope people do not talk bullshit.

Everyone is smart, however, that intelligence depends on how the person performs. In addition, passion also helps people succeed, not just Africans, anyone who has passion for their work, they will succeed.

Well, Bitcoin is an internet-based tech. Given Africa is likely the least connected area to the internet, it only makes sense they would be the least ready for Bitcoins. :P

Yeah the transaction fees are too high even if it is just a small amount of transaction.
I really hope that we could use bitcoin like the old times when transaction is much faster and the transaction fee is free.

Probably this will not be. After all the coins are mined miners will earn only at the expense of the payment for the transaction. People should already get used to it. Maybe after August 1, the cost per transaction will decrease, but it is not yet known.