Topic: #BitcoinAfrica -- your help required! (Read 10979 times)

Safaricom is partly owned by the government (Kenya).  I would bet hell would freeze over before Safaricom would give  a Bitcoin wallet provider access to their local USSD gateways (which are required for secure communication of mobile-originated requests.)

Right now most new phones sold are smartphones.   This still means only a small segment of the population ... (like less than 20%) has a smartphone today but that's not as huge a hurdle as it may seem.  Families and neighbors are used to sharing resources.  Those that don't have a feature phone even yet today might have their own SIM card though.  With this SIM card one can borrow a phone to use M-Pesa, for example.   With an inexpensive hardware 2FA device a person without a smartphone can safely borrow someone else's smartphone to make a Bitcoin transaction.  Even paper-based wallet using BIP-38 might be useful with a borrowed phone (one that is provided by the merchant even), presuming the password is single-use (i.e., spend all funds in that wallet and the wallet is not re-used).

I have one of each in my pocket right now. They are available here and elsewhere in Africa.
When I've travelled through other countries in Africa I've used them as well.  In order of usability I'd rank them
1. Visa
2. MC
...
100. Amex

You have a bit of point there: Mainly in the less developed countries/ rural areas you are using them in towns to draw cash which you'll spend.  Most "shops"/places (other than big hotels or similar) don't directly accept the cards.  Travelling through Mozambique I did run out of cash at some point because I was on an island with a broken ATM. I remember speaking to an owner of a lodge there and he mentioned that he applied for a credit card machine from his bank .  That was 2 years previously and he was still waiting.  Had to pay him by paypal...  Bitcoin would have helped there, but that was a 1st world problem, paying for your holiday accomodation.  Would it have helped the unbanked locals in the town? Maybe, but probably not without some centralisation of wallets perhaps via an mobile operator.  Or if they had really cheap reliable data on their mobiles (which they don't).

Also the tech will have to simplified a lot.  All the addresses etc would need to be hidden away, and the apps made very simple.  Many of the people haven't even started high school so it needs to be simple and straightforward.

I was talking about bank card payment system : VISA, American Express & MasterCard.

Mpesa launched in 2007 pre-dating bitcoin.

Barclays bought ABSA in 2013.  ABSA is the biggest in South Africa (even before Barclays bought it)


South Africa is a weird mix of 1st and 3rd.  

He would also be VERY successfull if he used MPESA {It's very widespread and based on the Bitcoin protocol}

I think one of the biggest banks down there are backed by Barcley Bank. {Spelling might be wrong}

I have Skype friends living there, and they say ABSA is the biggest bank.

Just google those, and you will find loads of links.

South Africa hosted a FIFA soccer World Cup a few years ago, and I watched that, and they looked like a first world country.     

Maybe, but for Bitcoin to be succesful in many parts of Africa it will have to be able to operate on USSD/sms level mobile phones.  I would imagine this would be centralised wallets operated by a mobile service operator or similar.  This is how mpesa operates.  I.e. some centralisaiton in providing it to individuals will occur.  The limiting factors are feature phones (not smart phones) and limited access to mobile data (cost to the individual and infrastructure).  If I were a mobile operator I can convert people to my own currency (e.g. mpesa) or to bitcoin.  Of course I would do my own as I can capture people to my network  whereas if I launch bitcoin it does not hook people to my network.


Firstly there are banks accross africa.  Owned by Africans even so you are obviously making stuff up.  See Standard Bank quoted earlier in this thread or Equity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_Bank).  In fact some of our best banks offer better and more innovative services than in Europe or Asia at least.  I am based in Africa but have lived in Asia and Europe and have had bank accounts in all three.

Of course the poor (who limited money), or the rural people (who are difficult to reach) are difficult to service using traditional banking.  However we've seen the growth of non-traditional banking (micro lending etc.) and other models.  We also see mobile tech playing a role.  Banks have a role to play too, but they are switching to other technologies to assist.  Read up on Equity for example.


That's just a stupid comment.

Bitcoin is way more useful for Africans than Occidentals.
Africa doesn't have access to the banking system and all those services because bankers despise Africans.

Looks like Bitcoin is spreading in Africa... there are now 2 Bitcoin remittance startups:
https://www.bitpesa.co/   in Kenya and https://vip.beamremit.com/ in Ghana and Nigeria.

Well, there were two of them traveling together.  That makes things a little safer.

Also, if you read the OP:


So they were only selling bitcoins, in exchange for cash.  And since nearly each country had its own fiat, there was no point in holding lots of cash -- and thus risk was muted a little from that as well.

If I remember correctly, they had more concerns about their cash going to "checkpoint guards" than to thieves [edit: who don't work for the government] .

Check on the coinmap, there are a few places around cape town that accepts BTC as payment  There is a some coffee shop in observatory 

What's the risk Borja will run into someone who will want his cash ... but at the same time that person doesn't have plans to exchange bitcoins to get it from him?

Bitcoin Botswana
http://youtu.be/Iottcg7Gn0s

Sure, but:

Africa’s largest bank


http://www.coindesk.com/africas-largest-bank-trials-bitcoin-integration-system/

http://localbitcoins.blogspot.com.es/2014/01/bitcoinafrica-tour-completed-at-south.html

Congrats! 

Wow great guys:  

That's the most southern point of greater Cape Town -> http://goo.gl/ucFHli (google maps)

The most sourther tip of Africa is a couple of hours drive away -> http://goo.gl/Sgf1QF

http://www.coindesk.com/best-real-world-bitcoin-merchant-pioneers-this-year/
The Best Real-World Bitcoin Merchant Pioneers of This Year
December 29, 2013

Cape Town!

This is really an excellent response!
You guys are doing a wonderful job!