First African country adopts Bitcoin as official currency

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Frankly speaking third world countries shall be focusing on valuing their own fiat first before they could barge into something like this.

How do they value their currencies, then?

I mean, they have failed to do so after all those years. Trying a new approach won't hurt, would it?

With bitcoin, things could worsen for them.

....or they could get better, you can't predict what the future hold for sure.

Have they made it clear how they will track the transactions and get the taxes if it is going to be national monetary part?

Have the current taxing policies helped the country anyway?
You are still intensifying at it as a poor Third World country, which means things have not been good so far.

[Cryptomiles1]

~ Everyone knows I am a skeptic and have speculated these countries accepting bitcoin as legal tender are only doing it for publicity. However, I am presently not certain of this anymore hehe.

Understandable. They probably do not have the technology yet to fully implement this.

To be honest, I didn't know that such country exists in Africa (no offense to those who live there). Upon looking it up, it seems they do not have their own local currency just like El Salvador and also a country trying hard to recover economically. Bitcoin won't solve all their issues but it might attract some foreign investors and tourists.

Though the development will foster their economic growth and also pave a way out for foreigners to over the country and you know what that mean?
It will be a rapid and max development, since lot of country don't accept Bitcoin and permitted to associate the local bank with Bitcoin; for instance, my country was restricted from associating out local bank account Bitcoin transaction and if any does it will be automatically frozen and all other related bank will be frozen meaning they won't have access to bank anymore.

[Dunamisx]

accepting bitcoin as legal tender are only doing it for publicity.

We need to be specific about this claim, they stated that they have accepted bitcoin as an official currency to be traded for exchange and I think this is different from an official statement that will state the acceptance of bitcoin as a "legal tender". We need to understand the weight and meaning behind the word "legal tender" once its comes to economics and financial settings it mean alot, therefore to me i believe they only allow citizens and their commercial banks to perform crypto trading and transaction with an official statement, unlike some countries that ban such.

[stompix]

The below article is one of those that states that:
-   BTC has not become legal tender in the CAR

Nobody read the articles anymore, it's one tweet laser eyes and the horde will repeat that ad nauseam without even caring what the real news is about. But still funny how lately we've seen these initiatives from the poorest of the poor like Honduras, the poorest region of Portugal, and now CAR which beats all records to date. That aside, if the If that "authorized entities" wasn't worrying enough, the next paragraph:

The new crypto law has also made provisions for offenders who break the laws. According to one report, offenders could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined between 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 Financial Community of Africa (CFA) francs.

Central African Republic is the 2nd poorest African country, having only $988 GDP per capita,

That's PPP, it doesn't matter when we talk about Bitcoin, the average nominal is $500, yes you can afford more food for those in CAR than in the US, but it will only get you $500 worth of Bitcoins. Not to mention tx fees will not be related to the purchasing power either. 

[Lucius]

Nobody read the articles anymore, it's one tweet laser eyes and the horde will repeat that ad nauseam without even caring what the real news is about.

Maybe people read articles, but there is a big difference between reading and understanding content. Some may say that some things are lost in translation and there is truth in that, but there are very few who will dig deeper to check the accuracy of the information.


Even if it was about Bitcoin being a legal tender in the first country in Africa, it wouldn’t mean much at the moment - but one such event would be a good starting point for some other countries to start thinking in that direction. Africa is said to have huge potential in terms of development, although it is lagging behind the Western world due to widespread corruption and lack of infrastructure. When these things start to change for the better, I have no doubt that many countries will accept Bitcoin, perhaps not as a legal tender, but definitely as an alternative to their residents.

[Findingnemo]

Still not as a legal tender right so we can't say this until it happens, just the process started but still has a long way to go for complete implementation but the country has the infrastructure to make bitcoin as their official currency? I am not sure how many people got internet and smartphone there ?

[thepriceinsats]

To be honest, I didn't know that such country exists in Africa (no offense to those who live there). Upon looking it up, it seems they do not have their own local currency just like El Salvador and also a country trying hard to recover economically. Bitcoin won't solve all their issues but it might attract some foreign investors and tourists.

Agreed, I had to google it, who knew the country name would be so obvious. But yes, I think it helps attract interest to the region whether that is tourism, business or even just a google search to learn more could open some economic doors.

[SpenserReed]

Are we witnessing only the beginning of bitcoin's adoption as legal tender around the world?

Africa first, then South Asia, then Eastern Europe, than the whole world 

[Sterbens]

Glad to hear that Central Africa is drafting for Bitcoin adoption and I hear the bill has been approved by parliament. Regardless of the effectiveness of implementing Bitcoin as an expansion alternative, maybe all will face difficult times and there will be a lot of resistance from those who don't really like Bitcoin. There is always an opposition ready to oppose its implementation. In the past, El Salvador also experienced the same thing, so it is possible that we only need to look at Central Africa's consistency in responding to rejection in the future.

[Vaskiy]

Central African Republic isn't known much to the outer world. The decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender is a good move. With population around 5million the adoption of bitcoin could make good progress in the countries economy when majority start using it. So many small countries are adopting bitcoin as legal tender. This needs to happen with growing countries too.

Central African Republic being a poor country the law has been supported by National Assembly of Central African Republic to help with economic recovery and peacebuilding efforts. We don't know how this gonna happen, but surely the country will experience good progress in the long term. The country lacks technology and initially government needs to focus in educating people as well as getting people connected through internet.

[avikz]

Not being skeptical but a country with 4.2 billion USD GDP and with 824 USD as per capita income, not sure how they will make use of cryptocurrency. If they are trying to include unbanked population into financial system, that might help to some certain extent but nothing else!

For such a poor country, paying transaction fees of 3% - 8% is not really feasible. Probably they need to adopt LN to avoid this. Let's see how it pans out!

[qwertyup23]

~ Everyone knows I am a skeptic and have speculated these countries accepting bitcoin as legal tender are only doing it for publicity. However, I am presently not certain of this anymore hehe.

Understandable. They probably do not have the technology yet to fully implement this.

To be honest, I didn't know that such country exists in Africa (no offense to those who live there). Upon looking it up, it seems they do not have their own local currency just like El Salvador and also a country trying hard to recover economically. Bitcoin won't solve all their issues but it might attract some foreign investors and tourists.

Oh I definitely agree with your statement.

Not to discriminate the whole continent of Africa but majority of the countries suffer from poverty, lack of infrastructures, etc. so their way of implementing BTC as a form of legal tender is nothing but a showcase and a message to all countries worldwide. I also doubt that the government would consider implementing BTC exchanges or ATMs considering that a fund must be allocated specifically for this goal, where there are other problems/issues they must first tackle.

[goldkingcoiner]

Are we witnessing only the beginning of bitcoin's adoption as legal tender around the world? What would the world be like if more developing countries and 3rd world countries adopt bitcoin and begin trading each other using bitcoin? Everyone knows I am a skeptic and have speculated these countries accepting bitcoin as legal tender are only doing it for publicity. However, I am presently not certain of this anymore hehe.



The Central African Republic has become the first country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as a payment currency. In a worldwide first, the National Assembly unanimously adopted the bill to help put the country’s plan for economic recovery and peacebuilding on track.

The minister of digital economy, post services and telecommunications, Gourna Zacko, and the minister of finance and budget, Calixte Nganongo, initiated and submitted the draft law establishing both the legal framework for cryptocurrency regulation and Bitcoin as an official currency in the Central African Republic.

Read in full https://forbes.mc/article/first-african-country-adopt-bitcoin-legal-currency-central-african-republic

I very much doubt that any country would adopt Bitcoin just for publicity. Although the publicity it comes with is definitely a bonus for the country, albeit something not that without its critics, I think the point that needs to be made here is that Bitcoin is being adopted by countries nowadays. Thats not something thats happened before last year, September. This is a mass adoption of Bitcoin on a global scale. Get ready or stay coinless.

If anything has taught me in the past, its that we have to trust Bitcoin. I got my Bitcoin bags ready and waiting for liftoff.   And frankly I don't care if you get left behind.

[OmegaStarScream]

For anyone interested in reading the bill, you can find it here[1] (with its translation in english[2][3] as well).

The 10th article mentions that merchants are required to accept cryptocurrencies if asked to, how would that work exactly when they're talking about cryptocurrencies in general and not one specific coin?!

[1] https://twitter.com/noufsmith/status/1518982872773931009
[2] https://twitter.com/noufsmith/status/1519003557441196033
[3] https://twitter.com/noufsmith/status/1519004426794586115

[NicNacCoin]

Major countries will not adopt bitcoin as a legal tender because they want to take advantage on the power of their currency. However, those countries that are underdeveloped or struggling from hyper inflation, crypto is definitely a big help for them so we can expect an adoption of these countries and overall, I would say it will help them economically as they can trade with the world using a powerful currency, which is crypto.

Of course there are many countries that can legalize Bitcoin but will not. Because they want to keep their money in their country and keep all transactions through their money.If Bitcoin is legalized, all these problems will occur. This is the only reason why many countries are not legalizing Bitcoin. But a time will come when all countries will legalize Bitcoin.

[Smartvirus]

Every positive step is a step to it's progress. I won't say I get what it meant by specific legislations but I would say, the fact that it is even considered at all is a good one. Putting the world on every lip and as a food for thoughts on every mind within Central Africa. It is a big plus as this would also help the African nations to think ways of improving the African continent in issues of technology and not be the late adopters or dump for every failing or out dated advancement in the tech world.
It's bitcoin on another continent, perhaps that's how it's meant to go and in time, we are sure to see the progress we so long for.

[The Cryptovator]

It's a good and positive thing for the Bitcoin community, but a hard decision for Central Africa. Before announcing Bitcoin as an official currency they should adopt it by full legalization (I am not sure if there was fully legal from the beginning). All the citizens should aware of the risk of investment in Bitcoin. They should familiar with how to use it and how it works as well. Just accepting Bitcoin as a legal tender for a developing country isn't going to change the economy there. However, let's hope for positive movements.

[AakZaki]

In 2019 I read that central Africa is a poor country. But what about the development until this year I didn't read much new news. Of course, I actually like this news, there are countries that believe in bitcoin.  But if I look at the state of the economy I am curious about their decision. Covid-19 also makes their economy worse, the level of state spending is increasing so that the economy is hampered to develop. They are a country that has a lot of Gold, Oil, Uranium and Diamonds but they cannot make good use of it. I read that 60% of the people there are poor people. So the application of bitcoin as a means of payment does not seem to be able to run effectively because of economic factors that are not supportive.

[bbc.reporter]

This looks like yet another case where terminology leads to jumping promptly to conclusions, without knowing full well the underlying details. The term "adoption" is often maximized to the point of linking it to legal tender. Nevertheless, it can also be tied to softer meanings such as setting a legal framework for it to be used, but not as legal tender. This happened recently when Portuguese island of Madeira was echoed as adopting BTC as legal tender, when in fact, the intent was to make the conditions more favourable on the island, but not reaching the legal tender status.

I’ve gone over dozens of articles clearly stating that BTC has become legal tender in the CAR, whist a few have now started pointing to having overdone it again with the interpretation, promptly hitting the headlines.

The below article is one of those that states that:
-   BTC has not become legal tender in the CAR
-   What has actually happened is that the CAR has approved a framework for crypto usage in the financial markets.

The new law would reportedly allow traders and businesses to make crypto payments and also make way for tax payments in crypto through authorized entities.

In any case, I’d wait for "someone" to fully dissect the approved bill (if the can find it – I can’t) to see the extent of the implications. Some frameworks are more favourable than others, and we’ll have to see where this case really falls.

See: https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-central-african-republic-reportedly-passes-a-bill-to-regulate-crypto-use

I am very sorry for causing this confusion. However, I also searched for other articles, all of them not from the circle jerking bitcoin news media, to confirm this. They all published articles of bitcoin as being accepted as legal tender by the Central African Republic.

https://www.businesstoday.in/crypto/story/central-african-republic-accepts-bitcoin-as-legal-tender-331077-2022-04-25

https://gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/central-african-republic-bitcoin-legal-tender-bill-el-salvador-2918953

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t_WKc7zZR0

Also, on the argument if the Central African Republic has adopted bitcoin or not, it is very clear that it has adopted it. I reckon any country that recognizes and allows a currency to be used to pay for their taxes and to conduct business activities is adoption.

Is bitcoin legal tender in the Central Africa Republic? I do not know because of that article published in Cointelegraph. But search for the definition of legal tender.



Legal tender is anything recognized by law as a means to settle a public or private debt or meet a financial obligation, including tax payments, contracts, and legal fines or damages.

Source https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/legal-tender.asp

However, you are correct. It is still a mistake to assume until we read the details of the law.

[pooya87]

For such a poor country, paying transaction fees of 3% - 8% is not really feasible.

Bitcoin transaction fees aren't computed based on a percentage of the transaction value! They are computed based on the size of the transaction (as bytes). A transaction worth $10 million would pay the same $0.07-$0.09 as another transaction worth $10 if their byte sizes are the same. Even if you wanted to convert it to percentage neither of it is even close to 3%-8% either (it is about 0.9% for $10 case).