[ARTICLE] Marco Picardi on BTC, from Centre for African Development and Security

[BitcoinPorn]

A global currency free from government control that can be used almost untraceably sounds too good to be true. But, the currency Bitcoin is a reality, and it has the potential to transform African finance.

Bitcoin helps solve many of the existing problems with current methods of sending money home. Money transfer services are efficient, but expensive. Bank transfers can also be expensive whilst suffering a general lack of immediacy and at the same time useless to the millions of Africans without bank accounts. And, sending cash through regular postal services is almost unthinkable.

Bitcoin enables its users to bypass the exorbitant fees charged by banks and wiring services whilst providing a secure, anonymous and most importantly instantaneous service. These factors are clearly positive for the economic and developmental impact of remittance payments as senders freed from the shackles of high administration fees can deliver more money to their loved ones.

Also, the currency could bring heightened security for citizens of countries where poor economic and financial practices have rendered their currencies overly volatile or worse still worthless, such as Zimbabwe.

Full article is at http://www.africanbusinessreview.co.za/money_matters/bitcoin-an-african-finance-revolution

I feel whoever is spamming Africa with the good stuff should let them know that security needs to be beefed up, or at the least they need to invest heavily in personal security education since the way this is written, most people have never used a bank.  Still an awesome, interesting, article.

[westkybitcoins]

It would be great to see bitcoins take off in Africa. Being freed from the bankers' debt controls would be quite a triumph for the continent.

And if most Africans have never used a bank, I'm confident they'll do much better than us "first-world" folks in keeping hold of their bitcoins and avoiding scammers.

[guywhogotgoxed]

Atleast people will learn from the mistakes of those before them. Or, we can hope they do.

The bitcoin client really needs some encryption and a welcoming pdf that opens up automatically, with some basic information on where the wallet is, how to encrypt it, and perhaps functions like loading a wallet from a USB stick. I encrypt my files manually but know for a fact that most generation myspace/facebook people arent doing this.

On topic: the exchange rate of btc/usd is being manipulated by traders on mtgox. why would anyone have their savings in btc?

[error]

It would be great to see bitcoins take off in Africa. Being freed from the bankers' debt controls would be quite a triumph for the continent.

And if most Africans have never used a bank, I'm confident they'll do much better than us "first-world" folks in keeping hold of their bitcoins and avoiding scammers.

QFT. Personal responsibility is a lost art here in the "first world" which is probably the primary reason why so many people get scammed, lose their coins, etc. But in the "third world" it's the difference between life and death, literally. I suspect Bitcoin's introduction into Africa will be much smoother for this reason alone.

[foggyb]

......... most people have never used a bank. 

that statement is referring to most people of African nations, yes?

This is a short-cut to mass adoption Too many bit-coiners around here think every site that pops up is as trustworthy as their bank. Africans won't need to unlearn that.

[BitcoinPorn]

QFT. Personal responsibility is a lost art here in the "first world" which is probably the primary reason why so many people get scammed, lose their coins, etc. But in the "third world" it's the difference between life and death, literally. I suspect Bitcoin's introduction into Africa will be much smoother for this reason alone.

I hope so, I like that point.

[BitcoinBabe]

The bitcoin client really needs some encryption and a welcoming pdf that opens up automatically, with some basic information on where the wallet is, how to encrypt it, and perhaps functions like loading a wallet from a USB stick. I encrypt my files manually but know for a fact that most generation myspace/facebook people arent doing this.

Chances are that most people across Africa will be using mobile phones to access their bitcoins and the web, not laptops or PCs.

Just as most Africans by-passed owning a landline and went directly to owning a mobile phone, most of them have also never owned a laptop or PC before getting access to the web via their phones, and probably never will.

Also, with many Africans (particularly in Kenya and other parts of East Africa) already used to mobile phone payment systems like MPESA, bitcoin could take off quite significantly and spread more rapidly throughout the African continent than in Western countries.

[defxor]

Chances are that most people across Africa will be using mobile phones to access their bitcoins and the web, not laptops or PCs.

Just as most Africans by-passed owning a landline and went directly to owning a mobile phone, most of them have also never owned a laptop or PC before getting access to the web via their phones, and probably never will.

Also, with many Africans (particularly in Kenya and other parts of East Africa) already used to mobile phone payment systems like MPESA, bitcoin could take off quite significantly and spread more rapidly throughout the African continent than in Western countries.

Exactly. Devs who want to contribute to the success of Bitcoin need to put their effort into the BitCoinJ library rather than the Satoshi client.

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/