The Zimbabwe Solution

[mokimarket]

Quite a bit I hear Zimbabwe pop up as an adopter of bitcoin.

I am a native of Zimbabwe and I go back there quite often. One thing I noticed last time I was there was the extensive use of mobile minutes as currency. There is no "change" in Zimbabwe, so if you owe someone $1.50, you might give them a dollar and some minutes.

I think the easiest way to get a country like Zimbabwe to adopt bitcoins is to create some sort of cell minutes for bitcoin exchange.

If anybody is interested in exploring this angle let me know. I don't have all the logistics as to how to set it up but I do know people (2 degrees of freedom away from Mugabe) so I'm sure we can bribe our way to get something implemented. I think it would be really cool to have a country adopt Bitcoin as a currency.

[farlack]

trading cell minutes, that's neat.

[virtualmaster]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178660.0

[jp]

Can you elaborate more about the trading of minutes works? Is it some code that people send via SMS?

[virtualmaster]

For example you have 300 minutes of call time on your sim card and you send 100 minutes to your friend.
He will have 100 minutes more and you will have 100 minutes less.
It is only possible if the network provider supports this feature. There is no general code for this feature - depends on your provider.
Is usable in some countries as a kind of micropayment.

[mokimarket]

Are you referring to M-PESA? I've heard it is very popular in Kenya. So popular that the government had to crack down on its use.

No M-Pesa basically capitalizes on this premise however they transaction fees are quite high for small transactions (6-8% I believe on a $3 transaction)

Lets say you are in Zimbabwe and you need to call someone real quick. You can purchase $1 prepaid slip and call anywhere in the word for a few minutes. These $1 slips are quite popular and everybody on the street accepts them a currency because you can easily liquidate them.

I'm suggesting that lets say a cell phone company comes into town w/a new smartphone that you can buy internet time and talk time on. You can probably offer this service by the minute (Wouldnt work in the states because people require much more). Say you charge 10minutes per mBtc and only accept mBtcs. Now you create a separate service that allow people to purchase mBtcs for dollars. Soon people will associate bitcoins with a way to get time on their phones. You can also have mBtc apps on the smart phone so people can transfer mBtcs to each other to purchase more time.

Time literally is a currency in Zimbabwe so I think it could work. I'm just not sure how to get the cell service side of this thing setup.

[mokimarket]

For example you have 300 minutes of call time on your sim card and you send 100 minutes to your friend.
He will have 100 minutes more and you will have 100 minutes less.
It is only possible if the network provider supports this feature. There is no general code for this feature - depends on your provider.
Is usable in some countries as a kind of micropayment.

This is why I think the way to promote this in Africa is through a cell provider. If we can get a cell provider to accept bitcoins as payment for minutes (seems like the perfect commodity because the cell provider is not dealing in a tangible asset) and set up an app on their phone that releases x minutes per mBtc then I think bitcoins will take off.

[abyrnes81]

The transfer time on bitcoins is still way too long to be used very well as a currency.  It can take over an hour to get confirmations of 3 or more and that's just way too long to be practical. I'm sure it can be used some but not that widespread for awhile.

[virtualmaster]

For example you have 300 minutes of call time on your sim card and you send 100 minutes to your friend.
He will have 100 minutes more and you will have 100 minutes less.
It is only possible if the network provider supports this feature. There is no general code for this feature - depends on your provider.
Is usable in some countries as a kind of micropayment.

This is why I think the way to promote this in Africa is through a cell provider. If we can get a cell provider to accept bitcoins as payment for minutes (seems like the perfect commodity because the cell provider is not dealing in a tangible asset) and set up an app on their phone that releases x minutes per mBtc then I think bitcoins will take off.

It could work in Africa and in other countries where there is a mobile system but it is not very well developed.
In developed countries doesn't work if there is a tariff for ex. 20$/month unlimited minutes.
In countries where 300 minutes costs 10$ and this is what you get as payment for 2 days it works well, because locally it represent a significant value. You can pay a taxi and buy some food with it and I saw that works concretely.

[caveden]

How common are smartphones in Zimbabwe?
If they're not very common yet, what's needed for quicker Bitcoin adoption is something like Coinapult SMS wallet, at least while smartphones are not everywhere.

And, of course, an exchange would be necessary too. I'm not aware of any... is there an exchange in Zimbabwe, or an easy way for Zimbabweans to send dollars to foreign exchanges?

Actually, if the transfer of cell phone minutes is so easy, wouldn't it be possible to build a "cell phone minutes/BTC" exchange, instead of BTC/USD exchange? You would only need to be sure the cell phone operator would not close the exchange account for unauthorized use of its credits.

The transfer time on bitcoins is still way too long to be used very well as a currency.  It can take over an hour to get confirmations of 3 or more and that's just way too long to be practical. I'm sure it can be used some but not that widespread for awhile.

For the great majority of transactions you don't need more than 1 confirmation. Actually, if you know the sender, you don't need any confirmation at all.

This is why I think the way to promote this in Africa is through a cell provider. If we can get a cell provider to accept bitcoins as payment for minutes (seems like the perfect commodity because the cell provider is not dealing in a tangible asset) and set up an app on their phone that releases x minutes per mBtc then I think bitcoins will take off.

Are you aware of Bitcoin Wireless? Perhaps you should contact them.

[mokimarket]

How common are smartphones in Zimbabwe?
If they're not very common yet, what's needed for quicker Bitcoin adoption is something like Coinapult SMS wallet, at least while smartphones are not everywhere.

And, of course, an exchange would be necessary too. I'm not aware of any... is there an exchange in Zimbabwe, or an easy way for Zimbabweans to send dollars to foreign exchanges?

Actually, if the transfer of cell phone minutes is so easy, wouldn't it be possible to build a "cell phone minutes/BTC" exchange, instead of BTC/USD exchange? You would only need to be sure the cell phone operator would not close the exchange account for unauthorized use of its credits.

The transfer time on bitcoins is still way too long to be used very well as a currency.  It can take over an hour to get confirmations of 3 or more and that's just way too long to be practical. I'm sure it can be used some but not that widespread for awhile.

For the great majority of transactions you don't need more than 1 confirmation. Actually, if you know the sender, you don't need any confirmation at all.

This is why I think the way to promote this in Africa is through a cell provider. If we can get a cell provider to accept bitcoins as payment for minutes (seems like the perfect commodity because the cell provider is not dealing in a tangible asset) and set up an app on their phone that releases x minutes per mBtc then I think bitcoins will take off.

Are you aware of Bitcoin Wireless? Perhaps you should contact them.

No I was not aware of bitcoinwireless, thanks for the link. I have a few contacts I message this morning and I will see if I can get them setup with a phone for testing over there. The kids are where all this crap take off. Smartphones are not big in Zim right now...well of the same caliber of the ones we are used to. I like the minutes to btc exchange, I think that would be a good way to handle fluxuating prices.

[charleshoskinson]

You should take my course. I mention Zimbabwe

https://www.udemy.com/bitcoin-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-crypto/

[flix]

Don't forget that it is very easy to set up local exchanges with:
https://localbitcoins.com/country/Zw

(be the first in Zimbabwe!)

[virtualmaster]

This picture looks cool
 
http://www.techzim.co.zw/2013/04/bitcoin-a-currency-and-payments-opportunity-for-zimbabweans/