I want to convert my money to bitcoin because of our current banking system in m

[Oti147]

I live in Nigerian and since our presidential election,the our local fiat became scarce due to change in the newly redesign of the currency which makes it difficult for most people here to get physical cash for business and daily transactions because the banking system is overloaded with too many internet transactions making it hard for me to access my cash.  So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

Because literally in banking system for example, if you have $5000 that will be the value in 3 to 5 months and will add a little interest in it so my question is-  I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

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[hosseinimr93]

The amount of bitcoin you have in your wallet will remain unchanged. 1 BTC will be always 1 BTC, but the value of your bitcoin in fiat currencies may change over time.
Take note that what you get as interest from the banks isn't really a profit if you consider the inflation rate.

[Welsh]

Nope, you won't get any interest. However, if you anticipate the Bitcoin price to go up, then technically you would gain more in terms of converting it back to fiat. However, if you have 1 Bitcoin, and don't add to that it's going to stay at 1 Bitcoin forever.

Technically, Bitcoin is deflationary in the long term, and you could probably make the a somewhat confident assumption that it will continue to rise in terms of Bitcoin to fiat valuation. However, most interest on fiat currencies isn't worth it anyway, and usually the inflation rate is higher than the interest rate so you aren't gaining anything to begin with. If interest rates is what's keeping your money in the bank, I'd reconsider as it's worthless. Interest rate means absolutely nothing unless you have a ton of money which can make a whole lot of money in a year or so.

[Coyster]

This does not solve your issue in anyway: what you lack is physical cash as it has become difficult to withdraw cash from the bank due to the recent CBN policies on the naira, thus even if you convert all your naira for Bitcoins, you still do not have physical cash, but Bitcoins in your wallet. It even becomes worse in this case because you can hardly find any merchant accepting Bitcoins for payment in the country.

I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

Since you don't know how Bitcoin works, i'd advice you hodl your money in the bank until you understand what you are doing to avoid loss.

[Welsh]

This does not solve your issue in anyway: what you lack is physical cash as it has become difficult to withdraw cash from the bank due to the recent CBN policies on the naira, thus even if you exchange all your naira for Bitcoins, you still do not have physical cash, but Bitcoins in your wallet.
Since you don't know how Bitcoin works, i'd advice you hodl your money in the bank until you understand what you are doing to avoid loss.

I'm not aware of what's currently happening in Nigeria. However, banks rejecting you access to your money is one of the biggest motivations I'd say to finding an alternative. At least, with Bitcoin they'd never be rejected their right to their money. Obviously, paying with Bitcoin, and using Bitcoin really does depend on your local situations. Although, cities tend to offer a decent amount of services, and goods for Bitcoin. So, if you live somewhere which Bitcoin is popular in you can probably get by. Potentially, renting or mortgages would be the only limiting factors.

Since you don't know how Bitcoin works, i'd advice you hodl your money in the bank until you understand what you are doing to avoid loss.

I think I'd prefer to hold my wealth in my hands, than a bank that's rejecting access to your money. If you can't withdraw your own money, then that's a red flag too me that the banks struggling or abusing it's power. You should always be able to access your own money.

[Plaguedeath]

Because literally in banking system for example, if you have $5000 that will be the value in 3 to 5 months and will add a little interest in it so my question is-  I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

Even you get little interest from your saving account, but if you calculate with the inflation rate, I believe the inflation rate is higher than your interest. In the next year your will earn $20 interest from your $5,000, so it would be $5,020. But the value of your $5,020 isn't same like $5,000, it might already become $4,970. So it's mean you're lose the value.

Bitcoin doesn't work like that because Bitcoin isn't Proof Of Stake, it's Proof Of Work where there's a maximum supply. The price is determined from demand and supply.

[Coyster]

I'm not aware of what's currently happening in Nigeria. However, banks rejecting you access to your money is one of the biggest motivations I'd say to finding an alternative. At least, with Bitcoin they'd never be rejected their right to their money. Obviously, paying with Bitcoin, and using Bitcoin really does depend on your local situations. Although, cities tend to offer a decent amount of services, and goods for Bitcoin. So, if you live somewhere which Bitcoin is popular in you can probably get by. Potentially, renting or mortgages would be the only limiting factors.

The CBN recently rolled out new cash/withdrawal policies, this created cash scarcity and restrictions to physical cash use, not to get into too much details but it has resulted in hardship for the people of Nigeria. Of course this is a very good reason to use Bitcoin, because with Bitcoin no institution can restrict your money: it is permissionless, but how do you spend Bitcoins in Nigeria, it is almost impossible, you can't find merchants that accept Bitcoin for payment, and if you want to convert your Bitcoin to cash through P2P, you receive your fiat in your bank account, and face the same problem over again. OP is considering converting all their money to circumvent this problem, but it doesn't solve it because they still do not have cash. What OP should is to convert a part of their money to Bitcoin and leave the rest of it in their bank for spending.

I think I'd prefer to hold my wealth in my hands, than a bank that's rejecting access to your money. If you can't withdraw your own money, then that's a red flag too me that the banks struggling or abusing it's power. You should always be able to access your own money.

We share absolutely the same view, i was only pointing it out to OP that converting all their money into Bitcoin doesn't solve the issue of available cash for spending in Nigeria. Do not forget that the only restriction here is on physical cash use, you can use mobile transfer to nearly an unlimited amount, but the banking network is usually a problem and quite a lot of merchants prefer payment with cash.

[joniboini]

Do not forget that the only restriction here is on physical cash use, you can use mobile transfer to nearly an unlimited amount, but the banking network is usually a problem and quite a lot of merchants prefer payment with cash.

Is there no other channel for payments over there? In my country, we have various digital fiat wallet that doesn't necessarily rely on banks to process the transaction. I'm somewhat surprised that it is not the same there since online payment has become popular. Not the ideal solution but can be an alternative for small spending, definitely don't use them to store most of your money though. If Bitcoin stores are easily accessible, this would be the best time to use them for daily needs.

Bitcoin doesn't work like that because Bitcoin isn't Proof Of Stake, it's Proof Of Work where there's a maximum supply. The price is determined from demand and supply.

Whether a coin use PoS or PoW has no correlation to its max supply afaik, as it's a number that can be changed. How easy or hard it is to change will depend on many things, including but not limited to community consensus, how distributed the network control is, etc. Even if you hold PoS coins/tokens, you also need to do something if you want passive income.

[Cantsay]

So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

I don't know how the adoption of Bitcoin is in your area but mine is quite low so if I should convert all my money to Bitcoin I'll end up not being able to purchase anything because no one accepts Bitcoin as a payment method in my side, so I'll advice that you look for a means to withdraw your money from the bank we have POS services that does that without you having to visit your bank ^{although some charges are added} it will be better to have cash than to put your money in banks that restricts how you go about with your spending.

If not for online business, to receive funds from P2P trades and also because I need to debit card to buy coins online I don't see any use for bank.

[hd49728]

I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not.

You can not convert your Naira to Bitcoin directly with your bank account. You must use your Naira to buy Bitcoin, it's not convert.

If it is your first time to buy Bitcoin, let's try with small Naira as your first practice. If it goes well, you don't make any mistake, you can proceed a next one with bigger value.

Buying Bitcoin then storing it in non custodial wallet like Electrum wallet that is free and does not need big storage space in your computer. It is available for mobile devices too.

https://electrum.org/#download
[GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum

[AbuBhakar]

Converting in Bitcoin is the best thing to do if you are uncertain on the future of your fiat money. But since your concern is the delay to access your funds is it will be just the same with Bitcoin if you will plan to spend it since Bitcoin is not a legal tender on your country while you still need to convert it to fiat when you will use it? The problem is your banking system delays of processing your cash which means this problem will be the same on crypto the moment you will use it to purchase goods in your country.

For safety precautions, Converting to Bitcoin is the right thing to do if you are scared that your fiat will be turn into shit right after the election.

[Odusko]

Ops at the moment it's better to hold all your balance in bitcoin and in your personal wallet with private keys, exchange is not recommended.
Hold your balance in bitcoin and spendable amount on an exchange wallet where you can easily convert and send to any bank card for pos withdrawal, at this time were banking transaction both cash and online transfers in Nigeria is down decentralized finance is the way to go and at the moment quite a good number of Nigerians are already benefiting from all this.

[Davidvictorson]

I see that you are a newbie, welcome. To your question. If you were in a country where most businesses have no issues accepting Bitcoin as a payment option,then I would say you should go ahead but this is not the case in Nigeria.

In Nigeria one of the aims of the new cash redesign policy according to the Central Bank of Nigeria is a  cashless economy. This hasn't been achieved because we still have people who are unbanked, our bank internet servers needs to be upgraded to handle several requests and many more. Besides not everyone uses or accepts Bitcoin I'm exchange for goods or services. In my estimation, it is about 0.1% of the population that do.

So before you make the big move, ask yourself
- how many businesses would accept Bitcoin for payment?
- would I need to convert my Bitcoin into cash, the Nigerian currency before I can make any purchase?
- can I pay the cab/Uber driver in cash?

The answer to the question will tell you what to do.

What I will tell you is to put some percentage in Bitcoin, some percentage in precious metals, in real estate and in stocks(if you wish). As a newbie remember, invest only what you can afford to lose.

[leonair]

I live in Nigerian and since our presidential election,the our local fiat became scarce due to change in the newly redesign of the currency which makes it difficult for most people here to get physical cash for business and daily transactions because the banking system is overloaded with too many internet transactions making it hard for me to access my cash.  So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

Bitcoin investing plans are always admirable.  But before investing in Bitcoin you must understand its risks and find a good non-custodial or a hardware wallet and store it there. And of course you need to hold those bitcoins for a long time otherwise you won't get very good profit from here and you may face loss as well.  Because Bitcoin will not guarantee you this profit all the time. To get profit from this you must hold it for long time

Because literally in banking system for example, if you have $5000 that will be the value in 3 to 5 months and will add a little interest in it so my question is-  I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

When you deposit money in a bank, it is held as collateral and you can withdraw it whenever you want without any loss. And after a certain period of time the bank gives you interest at a certain percentage rate but in case of Bitcoin your money will never be stable like the bank. If you keep your money on Bitcoin then your money can decrease or increase every moment, as if you buy shares of a company from the stock market, if the price of that company's shares increases, then you will profit and if the price decreases, then you will lose, in this case, the price of your shares will never be stable.  Similarly with bitcoin investing your money will not be stable it will always go up and down so if you keep your money on bitcoin for long time in this case you will have high profit potential. i am not giving you any financial advice. so do anything from your own research

[hosseinimr93]

When you deposit money in a bank, it is held as collateral and you can withdraw it whenever you want without any loss. And after a certain period of time the bank gives you interest at a certain percentage rate but in case of Bitcoin your money will never be stable like the bank.

Take note that the fiat currency you hold in banks isn't stable in value.
The bank show you a number as your balance and increase that number as they give you some interest. But this doesn't mean the value of your balance increases. The government prints more money and decreases the real value of your balance.

[Lucius]

~snip~
Buying Bitcoin then storing it in non custodial wallet like Electrum wallet that is free and does not need big storage space in your computer. It is available for mobile devices too.

In general, any non-custodial BTC wallet is better than custodial options, but only if certain prerequisites are met.

• That the computer or smartphone on which we will install the wallet is clean of viruses/malware, and that we do not use it for those activities that carry potential risks (cracked software, torrents, pornographic websites).
• That these devices have at least some kind of protection against the aforementioned threats, and that they are up to date regarding their operating systems.
• That whoever uses such a wallet knows the importance of a backup, and does not save it in an inappropriate way (as plain text on a computer, in the cloud or e-mail).

For someone who wants to convert all their funds into Bitcoin, all the above mentioned things are extremely important, with the note of course that volatility should always be kept in mind - because not so long ago the price of BTC exceeded $25k, and today it is close to $22K, which is not easy to accept for most beginners.

[Franctoshi]

I live in Nigerian and since our presidential election,the our local fiat became scarce due to change in the newly redesign of the currency which makes it difficult for most people here to get physical cash for business and daily transactions because the banking system is overloaded with too many internet transactions making it hard for me to access my cash.  So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

Before you do this conversion please get this clear, if you only want to convert your money into crypto due to the stated reasons and you are afraid of having your money go down in value, please don't convert into Bitcoin there are stable coin out there like USDT , USDC etc to do that, but if base on this your experience and this reason you want to invest the money into Bitcoin in order to have full control of your funds be aware that Bitcoin is volatile and sometime you either have your funds decrease or increase in value as a result of supply and demand in the price. In the overall idea Bitcoin only rewards patient investors and not fearful investors due to its Volatility.

[Issa56]

I live in Nigerian and since our presidential election,the our local fiat became scarce due to change in the newly redesign of the currency which makes it difficult for most people here to get physical cash for business and daily transactions because the banking system is overloaded with too many internet transactions making it hard for me to access my cash.  So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

Because literally in banking system for example, if you have $5000 that will be the value in 3 to 5 months and will add a little interest in it so my question is-  I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

It will better you know more about bitcoin first before you just decide to convert all your money to bitcoin, don't just jump into bitcoin investment because you hear people investing in bitcoin so that you won't endup losing your money.

I think the Supreme Court just order that the old #200, 500 and #1000 should remain in circulation till December 31 2023. am sure with this news things will go back to normal gradually (https://twitter.com/channelstv/status/1631616327562428416?s=46&t=JQaZa0X1IpqmjaFtOjOY8Q).

Also Nigeria is also having a local board on the forum already, I think it will be better if you can be active on the local board, am sure you will learn lots of things from the local board and how you can easily convert the money in your bank account into bitcoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=275.0).

[un_rank]

So now I want to convert my whole cash in my bank account to bitcoin but don’t know if is a good idea for me or not. I know in crypto world, it will be easy to access my money but the issue is, will my money be same value when I invest all of it in bitcoin .

You would still have to sell Bitcoin for your local currency to be able to make purchases daily. Bitcoin adoption is not advanced enough to enable one to survive entirely on bitcoin or any other alternative payment method.

Because literally in banking system for example, if you have $5000 that will be the value in 3 to 5 months and will add a little interest in it so my question is-  I don't fully know how bitcoin works. Is it the same way with the banking system? Will I get more value or less value in future times?

Fiat suffers inflation and Bitcoin does not. If you are bothered about what asset would retain the value of your savings, Bitcoin is the obvious pick.

- Jay -

[Sandra_hakeem]

I don't think it's gonna be profitable the way you want it; especially for the fact that the naira - Dollar rate ain't even friendly, the big difference is clear and I don't think you'd wanna risk you cash.
Secondly, I'm sure you wouldn't wanna take  -- the fact that you aren't able to withdraw your funds -- as an excuse to conceive this whole idea, Cus how will you survive if this is prolly the whole funds you've got? The situation is bad and we all know, but there are revenues to get to a common resolution. Remember, when HODLING, it's advisable that you don't choose to HODL outta fraustration or for some economical traumas in FIAT. ^{I'm NOT discouraging you dude, but just be careful out there.}

Sandra 🧑‍🦰