[2017-02-02] Nigeria: An In-Depth Look at Using Bitcoin in a Currency Crisis

[tyz]

Nigeria: An In-Depth Look at Using Bitcoin in a Currency Crisis

This case-study will focus on Bitcoin’s rise in Nigeria. It was partially inspired by a question from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal about what benefits does Bitcoin bring to people living amid a currency crisis.

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-currency-crisis-nigeria/

[cr1776]

Nigeria: An In-Depth Look at Using Bitcoin in a Currency Crisis

This case-study will focus on Bitcoin’s rise in Nigeria. It was partially inspired by a question from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal about what benefits does Bitcoin bring to people living amid a currency crisis.

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-currency-crisis-nigeria/

Interesting...not to mention using bitcoin to preserve your wealth from being inflated away.

[ByzantineGeneral]

In summary:

Remit $100 to Nigeria and there are the amounts in Nigerian Naira the recipient receives:

Bank Wire NGN 32,000
Western Union : NGN 33,750
PayPal: Cannot received fund via PayPal in Nigeria
Bitcoins: sell at LocalBitcoins.com Nigeria: NGN 47,100
Cash USD: NGN 49,500

Cash Dollars convert to the greatest amount of local Nigerian currency but there remains a problem: How does the expatriate Nigerian deliver physical cash dollars to his family in Nigeria?

Using Bitcoin is a close number 2 in terms of the total return, but does not encounter the problem of physically transporting currency to the destination.

[ByzantineGeneral]

To @cr1776

Yes, inflation in Nigeria is currently 80%.

Source: https://www.cato.org/research/troubled-currencies

Nigerians can only protect real wealth against that with USD or possibly Gold or Bitcoin.

But the beauty of the scheme to finesse false official USDNGN FX rate explained in the Bitcoinist article that I wrote is that the Receiver of the remittance wins by 50% over official rates with a constant Bitcoin price. Does not depend on Bitcoin price going up.

[btcjoin14]

It does make sense for people in Nigeria to make Digital Payments because of how rough it is over there. The payment systems are popular on mobile phones and things like Venmo Pay: https://mic.com/articles/133994/stellar-this-startup-is-helping-nigerian-workers-send-money-home-to-their-families#.QEQKxcriZ

Startup's are using mobile payments more than paper bills. People in Nigeria could send 316,998,405.50+ Nigerian Naira with a simple charged up phone. Can you hear me now?

Good.