Bitcoin Forum

Portuguese were the first to discovered Africa and Nigeria in particular in 1384, they had treaties with traditional leaders on trade. The only method of transaction was "Trade by Barter", in which the exchange rate was goods to goods. Even when the British came after the Portuguese, the same form of transacting was still maintain. And that period was known as "Agrirarian era".

When the industrial revolution came, African economy was monetized to suit the capitalist system abandoning the African way of trading.

Different currencies were introduced in African countries. Mostly the farmers who could not get the white cola job to have the newly introduced currencies for transaction became frustrated and most of them died in the process.

After the introduction of currencies in the continent, African currencies were made lower in the world. And Africans were trying to upgrade, increase and make sure that their currencies should be equal with Pounds and Dollars in the physical and the stock-exchange market when Crypto-Currency Storms the continent with its digital appearance that making the citizenries more confused.

Crypto-currency is not a physical cash or currency that the primitive men or market women can easily use for their transaction of goods and services in Africa. But internet base or computerized currency. Statistically, about 80% of inhabitants in Africa can't access Internet plus high cost of devices.

Africa being a developing continent, have deficiencies in the technological atmosphere, mostly internet and light.

Most of the Communities in Africa have no internet services and light to access the currency or use it for transactions.

So, to what extend can everyone in Africa uses the Crypto-Currency for transaction of goods and services.

Also, how can Crypto-Currency help the indigenous Fiat currencies and grow the African Nations Economy.

While it's very popular to generalize the whole continent of Africa and talk about it as if it were a country, I think it's a misleading and unhelpful strategy. Imagine talking about 'cryptocurrency in Eurasia', for example, which is comprised of many nations and regional powers with their own crypto policies that can differ from friendly to hostile and everything in between.
As for the idea that money isn't traditional in Africa but imported with colonisation, this claim caught my attention, so I fact-checked it. And, apparently, it's incorrect, and here it's said (https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-144#:~:text=The%20earliest%20example%20of%20coins,to%20mint%20their%20own%20coins.) that
As for the Internet access, it's a huge obstacle on the way toward crypto adoption, but it's again different in different areas and countries. Nigeria has Internet penetration of 50% (https://www.statista.com/statistics/484918/internet-user-reach-nigeria/) which is high enough for significant crypto adoption. Improving the penetration here and in other regions in crucial to ensure that there's at least a possibility of crypto adoption. Then, crypto adoption can create new jobs and some influx of money from investments.

Africa is a continent that have a good number of tech savvy people and because of the nature of the continent most countries in Africa experience bad governance. And the only way they can get out of the dangling economy is to embrace the internet and make money through trading goods and services online.

I have met alot of cryptocurrency traders online who are from Nigeria. They have good knowledge of how the market works despite the fact that some countries in African like Nigeria cannot boost of 24hrs electricity they still find a way to wax their trading online and staying relevant in the digital world.

Africa is not deficient in the technological scene. The continent has a fast growing internet population and a teeming amount of youths in the population who are very interested in tech.

What is your statistics on this? In Nigeria, where I am from; Internet is quite popular and has penetrated almost the entirety of the nation, same with many other African nations.

To a very large extent. The continent has a large following for cryptocurrencies and is only limited by some government policies.

Cryptocurrencies cannot support economies, neither can it help fiat currencies. It is a peer-to-peer network which bypasses the need for a third party.

Maybe, the OP will enlighten himself about your answers here because you come from the African region. And you are responding according to your actual experience. For people outside your region, some are having different perspectives on what is happening in your region. But if you will research via net, you will already get the answer and Africa is not tailing behind with regards to cryptocurrency market.

If the OP wants more discussion on "The Outlook for Blockchain and Crypto in Africa", this 10-page document is a good read to clarify his doubts.

https://icintelligence.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Insight-IC_04_intelligence-INT.pdf

Africa is wide and fast developing, and I think crypto-currency is always going to have a head way in Africa, although Africa has alot of challenges in terms of technical development and high tech knowledge, and this is due to the fact that Africa is still a developing continent, but this hasn't stopped the influx of African citizens into crypto-currency, and I think the government right now are our biggest challenges, but with time it would fade away, I see Africa making head ways in crypto-currency, Nigeria has one of the largest crypto-currency community, this is a testimonial of africa's influence.

Cryptocurrencies are actually a getaway card from the old fiancial system that has been keeping Africa underdeveloped

Lol. 80% of the inhabitants can't access internet? Where do you get these stats from. I don't know Africa well but this can't be true.

Definitely not true. I don’t why is selling that narrative. I am Nigerian, I was born here. I don’t have to be Dangote rich to access the internet. Everybody has a mobile phone even kids do... I have been to the trenches and I can boldly challenge the narrative presented here that 80% of the population can’t access the internet.

for now only technology, such as the internet, computers and smartphones can be used as a liaison for crypto transactions, without it will be very difficult

it takes a long time to make African citizens actively transact with crypto but slowly if education is intensively carried out it will definitely make it easier for other African citizens to transact with crypto

The role of the government in accelerating infrastructure development in Africa is very much needed

When I read the OP, I thought something like this but I wasn't sure, as I don't live in Africa, but I would say Agbe has expressed what he thinks, which may apply to some country or countries in Africa, but generalizing without any basis.

The Nigerian community is large in Bitcointalk and we can't generalize as the fellow has commented above:


Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa have different situations, to name a few.

Is it possible that the Nigerian community is the largest African community on Bitcointalk?

According to 2021 Global crypto adoption index from Chainalysis (https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-global-crypto-adoption-index/) and Usefultulips.org (https://www.usefultulips.org/combined_Sub%20Saharan%20Africa_Page.html) data, the adoption and trading volume of cryptocurrency in Africa continent has been increasing very dramatically last couple of years.

You can see many nations in this continent mentioned in the report, as top nations in terms of crypto adoption. From usefultulips' data, trading volume there on Peer to peer marketplaces has been climbing considerably since 2020.

Well it's quite impressive Africans are getting interested in crypto and have gone out of the belief of investment being a scam

And that's why IRS has brought an avenue to pay investors in USDT when they hold $IRS instead of knocking on your door collecting tax

Is there a source for this? This is what people might think about the continent and even though when compared to some other part of the world, it might seem this way but I wouldn't label it as such.


While some major interior locations might not have a connection to the main power grid this does not mean they don't have access to electricity. There is hardly a community without Generators for power or solar-powered system now.


If you check back just like 2-3 years ago, you would realize that some African countries are major crypto traders by volume according to data and Why are you even asking about "how can Crypto-Currency help the indigenous Fiat currencies and grow the African Nations Economy." or maybe you can tell us how cryptocurrency has helped any Fiat currency in other Nations.

I don't know where you got these stats from but you need to update your information on internet coverage in Africa.
It has increased since 2019, and most of the countries that make the Internet coverage rate in Africa low are in number, but many countries have coverage of more than 50% and the indicators are increasing.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS?end=2019&locations=ZG&start=1990&view=chart

Some financial services have succeeded in that African country, and therefore I think it is time to add a dimension of digitization, especially since many African countries are open to this technology.

Digital currencies & cryptos will contribute to changing these countries, but the resources that these countries possess, with the absence of infrastructure and with the large area of ​​the continent compared to the population, we expect more positive adoption during the next 10 years.

It's nice to see and hear how bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are capturing new territories and more and more people are studying and mastering them. I realized a long time ago that this is a cool solution, especially for those countries and regions where the financial infrastructure is poorly developed. Where this is the case, blockchain is not just a solution to problems, it is a real working tool for raising the standard of living, creating new jobs and the well-being of citizens. I am sure the future will show us that this approach will have more and more examples in real life.

Please are you just assuming this because you have hard some few cases of scams from Africa or is there any actual data that shows Africans never believed in Investment and see it as a scam? Do you know that the World Richest Black man is actually an African in Africa and not from any other country? World's Richest Black Man (http://afrotech.com/worlds-richest-black-man-aliko-dangote-1-3b-richer?item=1) And do you think his investment started yesterday? I am just going to leave these two links here for your knowledge:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56169917
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/04/despite-ban-nigeria-leads-bitcoin-p2p-trading-across-africa-in-q1-2021/
 

And what does that even mean?

africa skipped over the "land line" telephone based internet (now fibre).
africa went straight to cellular telephone/internet. which was cheaper to set up and allowed more freedom of movement.

setting up cellular towers per village is much cheaper then trying to wire fibre cable to every house in the village and then wire the village to  far distance telephony switch stations.

african remote villages can very easily become more internet accessible very quickly compared to a country village in the UK

when it comes to mining. requiring alot of electric. forget it. .. not due to the electric. but just due to the sure climate of africa, its a hot country.
africa is not a place for miners. so just forget that industry.

as a currency though. using phone apps and desktop wallets. no problem

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as for africa's tireless and endless wars and economic instability trying hard to peg their currency units 1:1 with US dollar..
never going to happen

no matter what currency africa uses, america will always want to de-peg the currency.
if america can buy 'cola' or vegetables or clothing in america for $5 why would they buy the same thing from africa for $5
america want to buy it from africa for like $0.50 so america will always try to flex its muscles on the forex to devalue african countries by 10x+ so that america can buy 10x+ more product, rather than making it themselves.

put it this way. china has 4.25x more population than america. meaning if everyone has a house, food on their plate. then china should be like for like 4.45x more wealth than america.

but america dont want to lose american status as the world super power. so america flexes its forex muscles to devalue china by 5x to bring its value to appear as being less than america.

and no expansion, no extra business. no change in currency will affect that.
america will always devalue the currency swap rate in forex to allow america to get more for its money from other countries

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a bit of quick history
$1.40=1 ZAR in the 1970's (africa boomed)
but then international policies didnt like africa's policies
$0.50=1 ZAR in the 1980's (africa slumped)
$0.33=1 ZAR in 1991 (africa slumped)
$0.16=1 ZAR in 1999 (africa slumped)
$0.07=1 ZAR in 2001 (africa slumped)
$0.16=1 ZAR in 2005 (africa boomed)
$0.06=1 ZAR in 2021 (africa slumped)

no matter what forex fiat currency africa creates you will always see the powers that be devalue an african currency over time
which is why many africans prefer to avoid the ZAR(rand) and instead take value in USD(us dollar) or GBP(uk pound) EUR(euro)
after all they wont de-peg their own elitist fiats

by adopting a currency thats not on america forex market an instead on its own open market exchange. africa can actually hedge against the dollar using a deflationary currency to beat americas inflated currency. and stay away from US powers playing market manipulation of the wall street forex exchange

Wow that was painful to read. Africa certainly does need help in many areas, but unfortunately many countries have fallen to corruption (in part caused by the nations you describe) and are currently going into heavy debt as their leaders are selling out citizens in exchange for Chinese debt financing. Unlike European and American countries however, the Chinese will happily take control of major infrastructure like ports and airports when the debts cannot be paid - giving them a stranglehold over any future development. It is a tragic story, but unfortunately tribalism has been too strong in this region - both through the indigenous population and through external interference. We can only hope that some people can be saved by joining the internet economy, as jobs seem harder and harder to come by.

I think the development of cryptocurrencies has been comprehensive all over the world today, so it is very funny if we say that the African people have become interested in crypto investments recently, compared to other countries, Nigeria which is one in the African countries has their own digital currency, namely eNaira and of course this shows that the development of crypto in Africa has been going on for a long time, so that Nigerian leaders dare to take risks to issue their own digital currency.
I think about the belief that investment is a fraud as @Elbecca said, of course it doesn't only happen in Africa, in developed and developing countries many people also think that way, because of the many fraudulent news that occurs and obviously creates fear for those who want to invest, but I think in that case it's not just crypto investing but investing in general that they think about.

the political problems of africa that makes corruption not end, on the contrary every year the corruption only increases makes things like bitcoin that would be a good thing not accepted in africa because corrupt politicians always don't want to give freedom to their people and that has been since years. but at least now things are being given up a little more by the corrupt who even accept bitcoin but don't legalize it, they just allow the use of bitcoin

As of December 2020 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/505883/number-of-internet-users-in-african-countries/):
- 575 million Africans had "internet access"; and
- 1.25 billion Africa's population.

Assuming some growth for the year, we can project 45% of Africa have some internet connection.

How the connected 45% breaks down in terms of
- 60% roaming mobile access vs.
- 40% hard line broadband.

Its reasonable to say that about 20% have reliable, non-intermittent broadband internet access.

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Any online discussion about Africa must conclude:

"white Christians are to blame for every negative aspect of Arica's current situation. The only resolution is for whites of today to pay the rulers of Africa's countries billions to atone."

Any other suggestion proves the commenter is racist, homophobic and antisemitic.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

Indeed very bad results for african continent, considering the age of technology the world is living right now. Every person in the world should have free access to internet connection. Actually, that should be included in the human rights.

But I can't deny access to internet in Africa is increasing faster than ever! I can see this fact on practice, as more and more profiles from african people are appearing at social medias these days, at same time making more evident news related to the continent on the internet. In crypto community, african participation increasement is also very clear, although not from every countries.

I risk saying the tendency is to see those 20% which have access to quality and full time internet tripling to 60% in the next couple of years... Anyway, foreigner investors from another continents are needed.

The development of cryptocurrencies in Africa has also made a rapid development in the income level of people in Africa. This is certainly a new chapter that makes Africa more advanced and some great people emerge from Africa. Constrained by internet connection problems, there is indeed an increase in internet users, but the cost to be able to connect to the internet is still quite expensive compared to other countries. Internet data prices in Africa are around 7.12% of total revenue for 1GB of data and are still quite expensive. but the possibility of the longer the internet will also adjust. Most of the people who are still not connected to the internet are not even from the African continent, but in southern Asia.
https://databoks.katadata.co.id/datapublish/2022/02/04/pertama-kalinya-jumlah-orang-yang-tidak-terkoneksi-internet-menyentuh-di-bawah-3-miliar

Cryptocurrency is the backbone of the future economy and can realize every dream of every poor and underdeveloped country. Crypto can be an alternative that will provide many advantages if used properly.

be aware there are 381million africans under the age of 10.
infact there are 678million under the age of 19
so dont downplay how many have internet access.

2 parents 2 kid with internet in the HOUSEHOLD is more like 4 of 4 not 1 of 4, even if there is only 1 name on the bill

If Africans do not start doing these things themselves, they will continue paying away the fruits of the continents labor to China to do the work for them.

Africa governments get, all tolled, easily $100+ billion** every year in royalties as their cut from natural resource extraction (e.g. petroleum, minerals, lumber, energy, etc). Africa could fund the tech rollout themselves, if they held their leaders accountable, instead of letting the leaders pocket most of it.

** Nigeria takes in over $10 billion per year in royalties for petroleum extraction alone. Then there's natural gas, mining, forestry, etc. Between the 50 other countries rich in natural resources, they collect an additional $90+ billion more from foreign corporations.

Sir, I, OP  saying base on experience, " not they said". If someone is from Africa, Nigeria in particular we will definitely have different experience on a particular issue mostly if we are in different field of study.

Where I am right now, there is no internet in Nigeria, I access the internet when I travel to the city. Now I am using this deficiencies as the inductive analysis.

With this most Communities in Nigeria has internet deficiencies. I am not a city boy but a village boy.

So you can't judge me from the city to my village, I know what is happening in my village. 

Slow Death has said it all. Africa is blessed with natural resources to develop the continent to a standard way, but the world order is not allowing the Leaders to develop their own countries. And the small one that is receive by the leaders are primitively accumulated. That is the leaders are very much corrupt that nothing can be produced technologically.

Nigeria is blessed with resources like Crude oil, Gold, Palm oil etc yet our leaders are not utilizing them to develop the country mostly the technological atmosphere, but to in-rich themselves.

Nigeria has all it takes to develop the country technological atmosphere but the leaders are corrupt so they are not interested to develop the country but themselves.

I don't have internet in my village and no light...I only browse if I am in the city.

Corruption is one major reasons why it is hard to develop a certain country. And I don't think there will be drastic change that will happen to this region. So the responsibility will depend now on their citizens, how they will optimize the benefits brought by crypto market in their lives. As long as their government is not totally banning the usage of it, they can always find a way how to explore this market to improve their lives.

Correct corruption is basically a big problem corruption is hindering the development of the country. It is necessary to ensure proper implementation of the government's incentive package it is possible to encourage private sector investment through proper implementation the bulk of this incentive package is being channeled through the banking sector, which has already put additional strain on the weak banking sector. Therefore it is time to take urgent reform measures to address the long standing major institutional weaknesses of the banking sector. The situation in south africa and kenya is deteriorating due to corruption it is important to incite resentment and impatience against corruption.

Investment in Bitcoin is the only answer on how the African Nation can approach this. Bitcoin has been giving positive returns in the last 10 years, mention one thing the government has invested in that has been giving a positive returns in the last 10 years, nothing instead they keep printing fiats and devaluing our local currency. Our leaders needs to understand how El Salvador took advantage of the currency by making it a national currency. If this is done in Africa country, it'll draw the attention of crypto related projects to the nations.

Africans have to stop fighting this innovation and accept it. Make it the nations investment vehicle and hold as much Bitcoin as possible. Among the top countries holding Bitcoin either as investment or from seizure, I don't think there's any African on the list. Use Bitcoin as an investment vehicle and the country will be receiving positive ROI that they can use the funds for building institutes and infrastructure for creating job for their citizens.

Bros you hit the nail on the head, I believe even our Government knows this. They all, (from the Federal to State Governments) have financial advisers that can see this, or is it just us that sees it? of cause not but like we have all pointed out, it is the level of corruption that is keeping the country and the continent in general, back where it still is now.

you should be more specific (which country you mean) because Africa is a continent and not all countries in Africa are left behind...

Libya, South Africa, Nigeria and Aljazair are countries on the continent of Africa which have sufficient infrastructure to accept digital/cryptocurrencies transactions. but other countries that are categorized as poor need large infrastructure development to be able to adopt digital transactions. I think what is happening in Africa is not much different from Asia and the Americas, there are still many countries that are categorized as poor and need large infrastructure development to be able to accept digital transactions..

I worked on contract in a lot of African countries as part of my work and I have seen what rural Africans can do with limited resources, so this blame shifting and excuses in your post is unacceptable. Stop playing the victim and use African creativity and ingenuity to get past these limitations.  >:(

You know that MPesa was developed before Bitcoin.. right? It is predominantly used in African countries on mobile phones ... so if the Africans can do that, before Bitcoin was even developed... what else can they do for themselves?

I have a pet hate in this African mindset of some people that they were the victim of the Western influences .... when there are brilliant people in Africa that can do great things with limited resources. I worked close to many of them and I even trained a lot of them and they are my friends to this day.  ;)

You made it understandable to everyone buddy,o so op have to be specific for the country in particular, because generalizing it to Africa continent, it looks like African continent is one country and besides Many African nations are taking immensely impact in cryptocurrency community as you mentioned buddy, what is happening in Africa continent via cryptocurrency it's also happening in any other continent, you can not devalue your nation while you have not traveled round the continent to know the way about of others before conclusion.

I quite disagree with those who discredit the African continent as if the left behind that occurred was a whole...

I have never traveled around the world let alone explored the African continent but I often see the news so I know that there are many rich and developing countries (towards developed countries) on the African continent. Besides that, crypto transaction activity, especially bitcoin, is quite high in several countries on the African continent.

Bad government never good for any continent and third world countries having the issue of high level of corruption. That is what the African people facing in their situation.


Not only Africa know and understand the market and things have been made easier with the growth in technology, now exist android phone, iPhone and good laptops that can be powered to last a long time. There are phones whose power strength can go beyond 24 hours. Also power banks for those that use phones always.

But, I think its not right if we put all the blame to the government. On some countries they also have a corrupt officials but people managed to get successful with their living. They strive and find a way on how to improve their lives and they do not waste their energy blaming the government because they know that wont help them.

Cryptos are not just a currency but it can be a very good tool to help us in our journey achieving a good life. Let's not lose hope but we must think positive that there will be a change that will happen. Elections is coming on some countries while idk if when on this country but they should vote wisely next time.

It is true that Internet access or coverage in Africa is poor compare to other Western countries. But it is not only the Internet that is the problem of Africa people to adopt bitcoin. Another problem is information and mindset. When the government has spoilt the mindset of the people and the people does not get good information.
I am saying this is because the number of people using Facebook in Africa is high. You cannot use Facebook without Internet. That mean some people use their own internet to do other things.

It is not just a problem in how many people in Africa have internet access, but how many people have at least some basic education that would then allow them to use Bitcoin. The problem is that many live in the belief that Bitcoin is some sort of magic internet money, resulting in a lot of people who become victims of scams. Although scam succeeds in most cases due to human greed, an even better environment is in the poverty of most African countries where people sometimes simply do not see any other way out, than to bet on some too good to be true crypto projects.

If Bitcoin can help anyone in Africa live better in the way to allow him to circumvent corrupted systems, then it is a great success - because I can agree with @kakmakr about the fact that these people with very little resources make very good results.

Not all countries in Africa don't have a poor Internet access, it's just that Western ideas and perspective are drilled in our heads that it's what we think. Corruption and civil unrest might contribute to that problem but other than that I think that if we see more African countries improve and grow, we will eventually see more crypto growth in the country because it already has a people that uses crypto there.

Corruption and bad leadership are big factors of getting behind for the development and economic growth, and this is very common to the majority. But Africans had made their way to adopt crypto despite those things and even having a slow internet connection they will still be able to survive.
So why not these people don't quit from crypto? This is because they'll know that this could help them to earn money and even just having an intermittent internet connection couldn't stop them.

Many thanks for this respond to op, I would have say same thing and good that I usually go through response from members here before I respond to most of my post. I wonder why people do refer to Africa as a country as if they are more better than Africa as a continent.

Last year, I worked for a crypto company that was launching a new cryptocurrency exchange and exchange token. So, the administration of the crypto company made a bet on development in Africa, which was confirmed by the presence of photos and videos from the events held. It turns out that Africa is not such a backward continent in terms of the use of cryptocurrencies and the availability of Internet services there. What I can agree with is that Africa is a promising continent, where there are many people who would really like to get additional opportunities to receive both additional income and the opportunity to use cryptocurrency as a means to restore the financial sector and financial institutions.

if you use European countries as a comparison, African countries are certainly far behind in terms of technology.  In addition, in several conflict countries on the African continent, they are duping themselves, they are deliberately slow in building internet access infrastructure so that their citizens cannot access the internet, so that citizens remain under their control.  the government is an institution that is fully responsible for internet access, without equal internet access, how can citizens in African countries transact with cryptocurrencies?

This is completely true, because most of the Western world has a perception of Africa as a continent where nothing has changed in the last 50 years. Yet things are much different if scratched below the surface, but the situation varies from country to country, as some countries have made considerable progress, while others have lagged far behind due to wars and corrupt governments.

When we talk about cryptocurrencies as something that can help Africa as a continent, then we should keep in mind the other side of the story - and we know that some choose the wrong path and involve in scams - because to be honest, most crypto projects actually serve no purpose except that the individuals on them get rich as quickly as possible. What I would like to see is that it happens that some African country is trying to do something similar to El Salvador with Bitcoin, which would give people a chance to prosper without having to worry about doing something legal or not.

Some interesting data speak in favor of Africa's development as a continent :