What's happening in The Central African Republic?

[stompix]

Everyone is talking about Salvador but there is almost no interest here from the other country that has adopted Bitcoin, little news coming from the Central African Republic, and I was quite surprised when visiting a topic I happened to come across this piece of news:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/central-african-republic-eyes-legal-framework-for-crypto-adoption

A 15-member committee is tasked with working on a legal framework that will allow cryptocurrencies to operate in Central African Republic and expedite the development of the national economy.

All nice and so on but, wasn't Bitcoin already legal tender here, so what kind of "framework" do you need to approve?
And then, this thing :

https://african.business/2022/07/technology-information/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-central-african-republics-adoption-of-bitcoin/

On 26 July the Central African Republic (CAR) froze the application of its law adopting bitcoin as an official currency alongside its local currency, the Central African CFA franc, until the the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) issues regulations for cryptocurrency throughout the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

https://www.theafricareport.com/226880/car-backs-down-from-implementing-cryptocurrency-law-in-exchange-for-beac-engagement/

Bangui agreed not to implement its cryptocurrency law in exchange for BEAC regulating crypto assets. This common ground was reached in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala on 20 and 21 July. While the worst was expected, the CAR came out of it relatively well.
No implementing decree
“Bangui has undertaken not to publish the decree implementing the 22 April law. This is equivalent to freezing its implementation. In return, it will have to wait until the BEAC develops a regional regulation on crypto assets to comply with it,” says our interviewee.

There is a complete gap in news from July and I really can't find anything about the current situation, so what is from a legal point of view the situation right now there? I know we have quite a few users from Nigeria and other countries in the area but do we have members from CAR around? Would be interesting to hear from somebody who lives there!

[1714505218]

1714505218

[1714505218]

1714505218

[1714505218]

1714505218

[1714505218]

1714505218

[1714505218]

1714505218

[Artemis3]

Simple: they talk about cryptocurrencies not Bitcoin. Bukele knows better than them...

[jackg]

Simple: they talk about cryptocurrencies not Bitcoin. Bukele knows better than them...

Yeah... But maybe they don't. A 15 person task force sounds small but perhaps making suggestions that get them in the media might make people know they exist.


I think a CBDC that comes out of CAR would be very corrupt and highly centrally controlled and manipulated for what they want. El Salvador and CAR should probably both have made their own tokens to attract investors as well as recognising bitcoin as legal tender (they can easily do both of those and actually look like they're getting somewhere).

[1miau]

One would expect that Africa has quite a lot to gain from early Bitcoin adoption since Africa suffered hard from European colonies (and it'll take even more time to recover for them). Even then, there's still climate change which will hit Africa directly because droughts are already a big problem. If Africa's food production would suffer from this (which is likely), Africa will be forced to import more food.
And early Adoption of Bitcoin (yes, it's still early  ) could help here, but no surprise, many local leaders are more interested to create benefits for their own bags. Which is really sad for all African people.

However, it's stil possible, that a large number of Africans will learn about Bitcoin and start to accept it due to bad local alternatives.
At least here on Bitcointalk, the African community is growing. 

[Solosanz]

I think we should know if Central African Republic is one of the poorest country in the world, since the minimum salary in this country is just $60/month [1], not to mention there are a lot people are get paid smaller than that. So my assumptions not a lot people have access to electricity and afford to buy cellphone with the internet connection. That's might the problem why we're not hearing any usage Bitcoin from Central African Republic.

From the quoted below, it seems the government doesn't force every business to accept Bitcoin payment. Also they're trying to create their own token named Sango coin. It's ridiculous the government don't want to buy Bitcoin using their fiat money, but they're trying to buy Bitcoin using their own centralized token which the funds will come from foreigner's funds. More or less, Central African Republic's president didn't really trust and willing to take risk to buy Bitcoin.

“There was no not even a single business that accepted Bitcoin. I gave my guide a tip in Bitcoin. I paid my host in Bitcoin.”

Ly explained that Sango is a “government project.” Money raised through the sale of Sango Coin will be used to buy Bitcoin, which can then be used to acquire the materials necessary for development projects, as well as to pay for labor and other expenses.

In the CAR, “e-residency can be obtained [...] by locking a fixed collateral of SANGO Coins in the amount of 6000$ for a period of 3 years.” Plus, foreign investors can directly access the country’s strategic resources through the use of the crypto token, Ly explained.

[1] https://wagecentre.com/salary/africa/central-african-republic

[348Judah]

Everyone is talking about Salvador but there is almost no interest here from the other country that has adopted Bitcoin, little news coming from the Central African Republic, and I was quite surprised when visiting a topic I happened to come across this piece of news:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/central-african-republic-eyes-legal-framework-for-crypto-adoption

A 15-member committee is tasked with working on a legal framework that will allow cryptocurrencies to operate in Central African Republic and expedite the development of the national economy.

All nice and so on but, wasn't Bitcoin already legal tender here, so what kind of "framework" do you need to approve?
And then, this thing

Everything has been working alright not until they begin to introduce their alternate distractions through the Sango projects whereby they intends to launch in something new aside bitcoin, a Sango projects coin was brought up and this begin the journey of lose of interest on their entire bitcoin adoption by the public, they were in for what they never prepared well for, at least they would have allow the difference to be felt with bitcoin adoption before diving into tokens and the likes, this is one of the things they fail to learn from El-Savador and now the CAR is not known for the bitcoin adoption as popularly known before because there were no tangible results yet and there have been lots of deviations.

[stompix]

“There was no not even a single business that accepted Bitcoin. I gave my guide a tip in Bitcoin. I paid my host in Bitcoin.”

Hmm, this line is a bit contradictory
Not a single business accepts Bitcoin but he did pay in Bitcoin, so they can still deal unless that host thing was also just extra, and the main fee was paid in cash.

It's ridiculous the government don't want to buy Bitcoin using their fiat money, but they're trying to buy Bitcoin using their own centralized token which the funds will come from foreigner's funds.

I don't think it's ridiculous, it's the only way to fund that!
CAR doesn't have money to buy Bitcoin, funny thing, is they can't print money thanks to the CAF so their only way is to print virtual money and get real hard cash or coins in exchange for it. Either way, Sango is a failure.

Everything has been working alright

This is what I'm asking, what was working alright since we had no news after the law made it legal tender but we had those two articles which I quoted above where it seems they've backtracked on that issue. Well, I do understand the lack of information, with the current situation as they are more interested in war and disputes than building something is no surprise the number of tourists is probably abysmal.