Google Trends: a big rise in interest in bitcoin specially in Africa

[paul gatt]

Africa is known as a land of poverty, where people have little understanding of the technology, especially Bitcoin. however, charts shows the development there, this is actually a good thing. It's good news, more people are moving to the technology, and will also go further, I believe it. This also shows that Bitcoin is the world known. Great

[wxa7115]

It's weird that most of these places they talk about do not have internet yet they can trade bitcoin.
You try to get a cell phone service in the serengetti of the African jungle before? And you expect a clear wifi signal when your transmitting btc to another wallet? 

Not everything in Africa are small towns with low technology, they have cities like anywhere else in the world, while the quality of life is worst than in the first world it is obvious they still have access to services like internet, running water and electricity.

[requester]

happy to see that my country is coloured blue. well before this month i havent about bitcoin and africa on the same line and since few days back in this month only i am hearing of the fact that africa is on way to dominate the bitcoin world. well happy to know that people across the world are increasingly adoption bitcoin. let the new technology revolunise the world.

[alyssa85]

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

Nigeria is an oil economy and they have been struggling a bit since the oil price collapsed from the $100 level in 2014. Though of course they are in better shape than Russia or Venezuela.

The Nigerian economy is in deep recession, and Russia is faring much better. In 2016, the Nigerian economy shrunk by 1.54% (worse than the predictions), while the Russian economy shrunk by just 0.2% (much better than the expectations).

I'm hearing stories of people not getting paid in Russia, and protests about it in many cities.

Russia is experiencing terrible inflation as well because the ruble collapsed in value. They are definitely in a worse condition than Nigeria, Nigeria at least grows it's own food.

[wxa7115]

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

Nigeria is an oil economy and they have been struggling a bit since the oil price collapsed from the $100 level in 2014. Though of course they are in better shape than Russia or Venezuela.

The Nigerian economy is in deep recession, and Russia is faring much better. In 2016, the Nigerian economy shrunk by 1.54% (worse than the predictions), while the Russian economy shrunk by just 0.2% (much better than the expectations).

I'm hearing stories of people not getting paid in Russia, and protests about it in many cities.

Russia is experiencing terrible inflation as well because the ruble collapsed in value. They are definitely in a worse condition than Nigeria, Nigeria at least grows it's own food.

Not everything can be seen in the numbers or statistics, sometimes other factors may be the most important to understand how and why there is more adoption in one country than the other, one reason that Nigeria may have a bigger growth is simply the government, Russia has a long story of despotic governments that get on people businesses.

[clickerz]

This is a good news as bitcoin is a good catalyst especially in industrializing countries like in Africa.Since no one controls bitcoin, its a good equalizer that create equal opportunity whoever you are. But the great impact is really on the poor where fiat money is scarce.

[hinterlog]

Google trends for the past year: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=Bitcoin
and past 3 months: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=Bitcoin
both show a big rise in interest in bitcoin and surprisingly the top leading regions are from Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa)

https://i.imgur.com/K3LDsis.jpg

That's strange but not totally surprising, Africa economy is decent and Bitcoin offers a high growth compared to their currency. Secondly betting is legalized in Africa, so it could be used for betting purposes, as the person who bets shall never come to know. I mean a outside person using African as a proxy and wiring the money, and people won't doubt also as it's legal, and thanks to Bitcoin identity won't be revealed. That's my guess on this so far.

what exactly is the interest over time vertical column represent? 100% of what? given it was 50% 6 months ago, does that mean that it has doubled in interest in 6 months?

[Pettuh4]

This is a good news as bitcoin is a good catalyst especially in industrializing countries like in Africa.Since no one controls bitcoin, its a good equalizer that create equal opportunity whoever you are. But the great impact is really on the poor where fiat money is scarce.

I couldn't agree with you more but since these roses are from Nigeria and Ghana we should guard against the negative usage of Bitcoin from there as we all know the scam reputation of these two African countries. No disrespect though.

[megynacuna]

This big rise in interest from After is good news for all Africans as the continent they deemed poor has started seeing the need for bitcoins to revamp their deteriorated economies. Nigeria is an even bigger news because of their population which could serve as a boost to Bitcoin popularity and enhance global expansion.

[wh04m1]

In fact, bitcoin mining can be done in africa. Africa is a very warm climate. Solar panels can be used as an alternative energy source. Thus, the cost of electricity is reduced to a minimum. Perhaps with bitcoin, the African economy could develop.

[hinterlog]

Did anyone read the article that putin has $260billion in wealth. Forbes doesn't list heads of states in their research. However, similar wealth that is not reported surely exists in Africa and moving of that wealth into BTC may be an attractive option for those individuals

[Doms]

Anytime a currency, in this case bitcoin, outperforms any other known currency by a mile, it is sure to grab people's attention. Although bitcoin is still pretty much volatile in nature, one cannot deny the fact that it has been performing very well lately. And that maybe part of the reason why third world countries are becoming more interested in bitcoin and some other crypto-currencies.

[scozky]

The label on Nigerians here is so bad. And as a Nigerian who has never done any illegal thing in my life, I feel deeply offended. It is not only Africans or Nigerians that scammers. The most notorious internet hackers are not even blacks. How many times have hackers stollen millions from exchanges like Bittrex and co but you won't talk about. You guys justtake joy in stereotypes. If you're a Nigerian here, we need to go hard and comment against all this rubbish. A friend of mine can't get money from dash Senate just because he is a Nigerian and the white dick heads feel he is equal to a scammer. This is their mindset; Nigerian = scammer. We need to let them know it is shallow for some douchbag to generalise everyone just because of some minors. It is like saying all Muslims are terrorist just because of Osama Bin Laden or we say all Christians are potential hitlers. I really hate all this rubbish and instead of us waiving it anytime we see this please speak out. I have argued severally on facebook, Twitter and slack about stereotypical fools calling all Nigerians scammers. I am a Nigerian and I am not a scammer. Thank you very much

[chixka000]

That's a good thing. It is really my dream to introduce bitcoin into a third world countries because most of the people in this countries doesnt have or cant afford bank accounts. I hope that it could boost africas economy

[leppyj]

It's weird that most of these places they talk about do not have internet yet they can trade bitcoin.
You try to get a cell phone service in the serengetti of the African jungle before? And you expect a clear wifi signal when your transmitting btc to another wallet? 

Have u ever been to Africa before? FYI Africa is not a jungle and we dont stay in caves. The fact that I am on this forum nullifies your statement that we dont have internet services and a clear wifi signal. Stop all this in-informed attacks/ bashings of the Africa continent. I am a Nigerian who makes his livelihood in a legal way.stop sterotyping us. We are not backward and criminals.

[Blitzboy]

Oh this is new Well, I suppose it's mainly because of the sudden rise in bitcoin's price in those first days of 2017 and it drew people's attention all over the world. But I still don't understand why it happened that people searched for bitcoin in Africa so much. I think that because those European countries or Asian ones are too familiar with the fact that bitcoin keeps going up and down so this didn't surprise them as much as it surprised Africans. But anyways, it's great that bitcoin has got some notice.

[VanDeinsberg12]

It's weird that most of these places they talk about do not have internet yet they can trade bitcoin.
You try to get a cell phone service in the serengetti of the African jungle before? And you expect a clear wifi signal when your transmitting btc to another wallet? 

Have u ever been to Africa before? FYI Africa is not a jungle and we dont stay in caves. The fact that I am on this forum nullifies your statement that we dont have internet services and a clear wifi signal. Stop all this in-informed attacks/ bashings of the Africa continent. I am a Nigerian who makes his livelihood in a legal way.stop sterotyping us. We are not backward and criminals.

people are really getting affected by the movies the have watched and pretending that they know everything about africe while the fact they know nothing. probably these people never go to africa and so do i but i must say that majority of countries are now already bulding the infrastructures and i'm sure that africa's countries are now also doing it.