Bitcoin adoption in Africa: Bitcoin solving problems in the country

[hoian0809]

Bitcoin has high value against ZAR ( African currency ) so if African people able to mine or earn bitcoin, it become great advantage because it will help African's economy. Let say if they build online shop or other public service that accept bitcoin , I'm sure that the transaction will be active since the demand will increase overtime

Pretty sure this means it's a good time to get out, no story has ever ended with, and all the poor people in Africa were better off afterwards. Probably setting them up for a huge bitcoin pump and dump.

[warwar]

Yes true bitcoin demand was really high even tbc there.Africans are just taking oportunity to earn and make some money because on how they live there, we all know that there is a crisis before so people are adopting everything to earn and bitcoin is one of it.If it dominates and helps to increase economy status it will be a good effect on whole country and whole bitcoin community

[Kakmakr]

Bitcoin was supposed to be a alternative Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System for everyone and in a way it still is, but it is turning into a expensive alternative. In the early days, the "Cypherpunks" like Adam Back & Nick Szabo & Hal and Satoshi were looking for a cheap alternative to the expensive banking systems and they seem to have found it in Bitcoin.

Now big corporate entities with visions of millions in profits has hijacked this idea and they moving towards the same model that is funding the banks. < Payment hubs >

African countries has already found their solution for this in payment networks like M-Pesa and if Bitcoin cannot compete with that, then they should stay a payment option for the 1st world countries, where richer people can afford the fees.  

[qiman]

Bitcoin can solve many logistical problems as well and African Governments can use the Blockchain to get rid of bureaucracy and also save on massive govt expenditure that could be used to help build infrastructure projects for their countries. Also on a smaller scale Bitcoin can get to places where there is no banking at all and help the disenfranchised.

[Kemarit]

We all know for a fact, that most African country has low income and doesn't
earn as much as those in Europe and US. So Ihink Africans believe that bitcoin
could improve their economic standing if they have bitcoin in the wallet to buy
or trade or just simple change them to their local fiat. Or likely there are a
lot of bitcoin advocates in Africa now so bitcoin is increasingly becoming maintream
there. I hope Africa can take advantage of bitcoin and become mass adopted in
the continent.

[TastyChillySauce00]

Bitcoin can solve many logistical problems as well and African Governments can use the Blockchain to get rid of bureaucracy and also save on massive govt expenditure that could be used to help build infrastructure projects for their countries. Also on a smaller scale Bitcoin can get to places where there is no banking at all and help the disenfranchised.

Just curious, How could bitcoin reach a place where banking things such as ATM, Bank, and etc aren't there?. I think that majority of people living in Africa struggling of having a good connection and therefore they need the cash in form of local fiat, not in bitcoin.
If there's nothing like ATM, just curious how they can use the bitcoin ( keep in mind that the internet is not existed in every of Africa )

[Xester]

Hi Everyone,

We come to learn that Bitcoin adoption is rapidly growing in Africa. Analysts say that Bitcoin could be a solution to problems in Africa including remittances, economic difficulties and even corruption. If this would be successful for Africa, would it do the same for other countries too?

What can you guys say about it?

Well if Africa can do it then why not other countries. If Africa will be successful in their goal then they will be the model government in which bitcoin is widely adopted. After that success many third world countries will also use bitcoin and adopt it. Corruption will be stopped since the public can monitor where the bitcoins of the politicians go.

[BTCLovingDude]

Bitcoin can solve many logistical problems as well and African Governments can use the Blockchain to get rid of bureaucracy and also save on massive govt expenditure that could be used to help build infrastructure projects for their countries. Also on a smaller scale Bitcoin can get to places where there is no banking at all and help the disenfranchised.

Just curious, How could bitcoin reach a place where banking things such as ATM, Bank, and etc aren't there?. I think that majority of people living in Africa struggling of having a good connection and therefore they need the cash in form of local fiat, not in bitcoin.
If there's nothing like ATM, just curious how they can use the bitcoin ( keep in mind that the internet is not existed in every of Africa )

whenever i hear this kind of news and whenever i read a little about it, i find that it is mostly saying stuff. people may invest in bitcoin and for that they don't really need fast internet connection and they can even buy offline but that never solves Afria's problems. it is just some people who are earning profit through bitcoin.

[severaldetails]

Honestly, I do not think that bitcoin can solve the problems Africa has.
Corrupt governments, wars, a lack of education, no rain, those are the main problems.
Some of them bitcoin could even make worse.
The most ipmortant things Africa would need are order and peace. I can't see how bitcoin could help there.

[IadixDev]

It could be a solution in the future, but I think that most rural places in Africa still do not have access to good internet. This poses a problem for widespread Bitcoin adoption there.

A friend of mine recently gave a lightning talk at the Git-Merge conference, which explained this problem and offered a solution, using Github as a money-less transaction exchange ledge system.
I know this doesn't have anything to do with Bitcoin really, but I thought it was pretty interesting, I'll copy the gist of the talk here:

“Lightning Talk / Git: The Original Blockchain”
Meredith L. Patterson, Mautinoa Technologies

Meredith showed how Git was chosen as the underlying platform for implementing a money-less transaction exchange ledge system. This implemented an actual monetary system in Sierra Leone, where phone minutes is actually considered a viable FX currency, since otherwise the national bank would go bankrupt.

Bitcoin and other blockchain-based distributed ledger systems are “gossip protocols”, and require always-on Internet access, not available in much of Africa. What is needed is a way to perform transactions off-line, with later reconciliation step. This means that the system needs to store timestamps in its blockchain… Meredith noticed that this is what Git does! The presented solution uses a ledger-cli / hledger plain text accounting format as a format for storing transactions, Git commits for blockchain, remotes as wallets / accounts, and GPG keys with short expiration dates for signing.

This shows how technologies, such as Git, that do one thing well can change the world by doing the thing they do well in unexpected places.

Source: https://git.github.io/rev_news/2017/02/22/edition-24/

Sadly the video isn't up on their website yet.

Electrum can keep only the transaction related to an address on the local computer, not sure it can get directly the balance or compact summaries from the node, but anyway if you want to check an address, you still want to have a minimum of the history for the all transactions. After it's more in having more advanced filtering to minimize the data that has to be transmitted for the operation, if it's just to send a new tx to the network, you can already do this via web service who have up to date node.

There are some system already of off line signing, but the risk is double spending, if the output of the off line signed tx are spent before the reconciliation, it will be an invalid transaction.

It's a bit also the downside of decentralized network, they need to rely on gossip and can lead to more bandwidth and ressource use to sort and validate and synchronize everything from everyone, the solution with git - like thing seems to go back to a form of centralization to minimize individual processing and synchronization in case of scarce resources, but it become somehow another system, more based on centralized trusted server to process validate and optimize things for everyone.

[olubams]

Hi Everyone,

We come to learn that Bitcoin adoption is rapidly growing in Africa. Analysts say that Bitcoin could be a solution to problems in Africa including remittances, economic difficulties and even corruption. If this would be successful for Africa, would it do the same for other countries too?

What can you guys say about it?

Reading through the article, I could not agree less concerning the rapid popularity bitcoin is gaining in Africa especially Nigeria as this is supported with facts that can be verified but on the part that it could solve problems including remittances is not what I will subscribe to that even advanced countries with sophisticated infrastructures still provide a stiff opposition to bitcoin simply because they could not find a way to ensure the right remittance, I wonder how Africa could now make that and explore to their advantage.

[Casabrandy]

Hi Everyone,

We come to learn that Bitcoin adoption is rapidly growing in Africa. Analysts say that Bitcoin could be a solution to problems in Africa including remittances, economic difficulties and even corruption. If this would be successful for Africa, would it do the same for other countries too?

What can you guys say about it?

Reading through the article, I could not agree less concerning the rapid popularity bitcoin is gaining in Africa especially Nigeria as this is supported with facts that can be verified but on the part that it could solve problems including remittances is not what I will subscribe to that even advanced countries with sophisticated infrastructures still provide a stiff opposition to bitcoin simply because they could not find a way to ensure the right remittance, I wonder how Africa could now make that and explore to their advantage.

there were really lots of advantage using bitcoin, Africa maybe  exploring it now and might finds that transactions were much easier using bitcoin than the regular transactions they using. They might also in accepting the concepts of technology into their government.

[bitcoineverything]

I think bitcoin is ideal for developing countries. It offers alternative forms of payment at much lower costs and for any amount. Micro loans are rapidly growing across the African continent, helping small businesses get up and running. I think bitcoin is a tool that can be utilized to make these businesses keep their costs down. If adopted and used properly, it can certainly propel many countries forward.

One best thing about Bitcoin is that its benefits is not only for businesses but also for consumers. It is a sure big boost to the economy if used and implemented properly.

[requester]

well since few days  we are seeing the africa is not far from bitcoin world. we appericiate for their efforts to make he currency a great success. lets march with all bitcoin lovers and keep the haters away.

[mace15]

It is good to know that bitcoin is becoming rapidly growing in other country. In some points, by having bitcoin in their country can help in terms of economic crisis. Through remittance, or sending bills or payments can added a big help. As long their is a proper guidance on whats the process of using bitcoin can really help in solving the problems in their country.

[bryant.coleman]

The African nations can gain a lot, if they allow and regulate the usage of Bitcoins. As we all know, many of the African currencies are extremely volatile, and the inflation is some of these nations can get to three digits. Bitcoin can be a safe medium to store wealth for the ordinary Africans, who doesn't have the means to invest in equities and bullion.

[mummybtc]

I think Bitcoin was introduced to Africans in a wrong way, it was used as a tool by all this Ponzi scheme programs to lure people in and when they got burnt they see Bitcoin as a scam. We really need to enlighten them about what Bitcoin is truly is. I saw one artcle classing Bitcoin and Onecoin together as scam

[staggerpines]

Africa is a continent and not a country.
It has 54 countries.
Just saying....

[Xester]

Yes true bitcoin demand was really high even tbc there.Africans are just taking oportunity to earn and make some money because on how they live there, we all know that there is a crisis before so people are adopting everything to earn and bitcoin is one of it.If it dominates and helps to increase economy status it will be a good effect on whole country and whole bitcoin community

I have heard of TBC or the billion coins, a digital currency that is set to grow in value everday. Right now it is sold at 2.4 btc each coin and tomorrow it will be another price. But Africa is not only crazy about TBC but also with BTC and the primary reason is that it is their outlet of business not only in the local but also internationally. When they do bitcoins they are sure that they will gain some profit since the target market is not only Africa but the whole world.

[Pettuh4]

It may probably solve some issues, but not all of them. If a person doesn't have Internet connection, no Bitcoin will save them.
But I believe it can drive economics of the country which will lead to new working places.
Will it work in other developing countries? Maybe...

You're right but I'm sure that most of these African countries will have the basics ready that's why it is helping them, but the few underprivileged will of course benefit from other relatives with a computer and Internet access even though it might not be enough but it's better than nothing.