Africa May Leapfrog Traditional Banking

[Paleus]

If bitcoin acceptance reaches a critical mass where necessities of food, shelter, and clothing can be bought with it, it will likely have reached a tipping point where it displaces national currencies. In this scenario, many areas of the world would be leapfrogging banking infrastructure and traditional money wire transfers. Most notably this would describe the financial landscape in developing economies such as the nations of Africa.

BITCOIN LEAPFROGGING BANKS

Leapfrogging is described as a theory of economic development which skips inferior or obsolete technologies in order to move directly to advanced ones. Take, for example, phone coverage in African countries. Landlines and grids for household use were never fully developed because, by the time Africa came into market view, mobile phones were the new paradigm of telecommunications and hence, the entire infrastructure for household landlines was leapfrogged by cellular technology. Similarly, bitcoin technology could leapfrog the banking infrastructure of western economies and go directly to a new financial paradigm and serve the needs of the vast number of the unbanked in these regions. All that would be required on behalf of the citizens is a mobile device with internet connectivity.

Read the full analysis on Diginomics

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[coinpr0n]

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

[randy8777]

it could be bitcoin. but nothing prevents them from creating their own digital coin where they can still maintain full control. africa is a great example of which is deeply in need of something like bitcoin.

[solitude]

Africa may leapfrog...

That would be cool, except most Africans are still living in huts and flinging shit at each other.

Take this back to reddit where they'll be happy to upvote bullshit

[Ibelievetruly]

Africa may leapfrog...

That would be cool, except most Africans are still living in huts and flinging shit at each other.

Take this back to reddit where they'll be happy to upvote bullshit

https://i.imgur.com/gLhyFIh.jpg

OP is a dumbass. If he's talking about Africans in countries that don't have access to tradional banking already, then there is no way in hell that they could use bitcoin. That would require Internet Access and a computer or smartphone. All of which are probably much harder or buy to get than access to a bank.

Bitcoiners could be optmistic, but at least be reasonable. Some of the shit I see around here on this forum makes you wonder if anyone has brains.

[OpenOcean]

That would be ideal, hopefully it happens sooner than later.

[Kprawn]

I work on contract for 2 to 4 months in a year, within most of these "African" countries and they might surprise many people, who have never been there.

M-pesa {digital money on mobile phones} launched in 2007 already and opened money transfer to a lot of people, who was excluded from the traditional banking system.

Kenya has a estimated 18 million subscribers - {How much does Bitcoin have? - 3 million?}
Source :
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/opinion/kenyas-banking-revolution-lights-a-fire.html?_r=0

So they are doing quite well from their mud houses, with satelite dish on the roof...  .....will they leapfrog the traditional Banking system... Erm.. they already did. 

[coinpr0n]

Africa does have some well-connected, highly developed cities where mobile phones and internet access are common. Africans have been exposed to technologies like M-Pesa and Bitcoin could also be within their reach. None of this 'Bitcoin takesover Africa' stuff, but I do see it having a rightful place there.

[zircon]

M-Pesa is certainly a cool and functional concept, but within the realm of countries and governments its scalability folds mostly due to political and financial pressures. This is where Bitcoin comes in - it crosses borders whether government and financial institutions like it or not.

If this fact and its low transaction fees are a value proposition then it will succeed. If not, then it will fail and the Universe will keep looking for a better solution than the current one. Same with Bitcoin. If it succeeds then more efficient methods will be sought, eventually one will be found and that will replace Bitcoin too.

You can delay nature, but ultimately, you cannot deny it.

[tatu]

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

I think it could take a while but bitcoin really has the potential to catch on in Africa with the unbanked and the remittance market. The potential and benefits of bitcoin is clear so I just hope it catches on. I'm sure Nigerian/Ghanian scammers will also take advantage of it soon. There's actually a whole subculture of scammers over there. It's quite bizarre. Check out this short Vice documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o26Eks801oc

[coinpr0n]

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

I think it could take a while but bitcoin really has the potential to catch on in Africa with the unbanked and the remittance market. The potential and benefits of bitcoin is clear so I just hope it catches on. I'm sure Nigerian/Ghanian scammers will also take advantage of it soon. There's actually a whole subculture of scammers over there. It's quite bizarre. Check out this short Vice documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o26Eks801oc

An interesting watch, indeed. There was a BBC documentary too that looked at Nigerian scammers - I'm also sure they will use Bitcoin to scam. Remittances is still where I see the most opportunity. I suppose "agents" would have to be trained if it were to be done the Western Union way or else a whole new system would need to be developed?

[Oscilson]

These people can use bitcoin for p2p payment without the banking service. However, if they want to use bitcoin for daily purchasing with instant confirmation, they need a centralised banking card (or equivalent such as both the purchaser and vendor have coinbase account) service. This banking could be different from traditional banks.

[bryant.coleman]

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

[SpanishSoldier]

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

[countryfree]

There will always be banks. Most people need a credit to buy their home.

[IIOII]

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

I disagree. I think the key is to offer more simple Bitcoin services that do not rely on internet & smart phones but on SMS service instead.

The problem is not that African people are not educated to use smart phones the problem is that simple cell phones are cheaper and more readily available (also in terms of infrastructure).

[Lauda]

There will always be banks. Most people need a credit to buy their home.

So the people that have no bank accounts have no house. I like that logic.
It's obvious that banks can't be removed, at least not easily or quickly.

I disagree. I think the key is to offer more simple Bitcoin services that do not rely on internet & smart phones but on SMS service instead.
The problem is not that African people are not educated to use smart phones the problem is that simple cell phones are cheaper and more readily available (also in terms of infrastructure).

Exactly how do you plan on doing that? If we start adapting Bitcoin to old technology we aren't going in the right direction. Yes we need to make simpler services, but not in that way.
We should be pushing forward, not backwards. Africa has so much potential. The question is: is anyone going to do something about it?

Note: There is a smartphone that costs $29.

[Ludi]

When the M-Pesa / Kipochi partnership was first launched, there were lots of interest, and it seemed that BTC will capture quite a lot of market share. But now it seems that things have cooled down a bit.

Unless African population is educated to use internet & smart phone, bitcoin has no future over there.

I think you're being pretty ignorant here. Africa is a massive continent and contrary to popular belief they don't all live in mud huts with no electricity. Even many impoverished African countries have a mobile phone but don't and can't have a bank account so bitcoin could really flourish over there. The internet isn't as scare as you might think either and is being implemented there at an astonishing rate.

[shogdite]

Africa may leapfrog...

That would be cool, except most Africans are still living in huts and flinging shit at each other.

Wow that's a fairly ignorant statement, I take it you're trolling?


http://www.zdnet.com/article/africa-has-more-mobile-phone-users-than-the-us-or-eu/

[thejaytiesto]

Already happened at least once recently with mobile phones. Land lines were leapfrogged. It takes some education or savvy to use Bitcoin will be interesting to see how this develops.

Yeah as far as I know there was an option already to use the blockchain throught SMS messages, this is pretty huge and benefits tons of less fortunate than us people out there.