Topic: First African country adopts Bitcoin as official currency (Read 726 times)

The acceptance of the Bitcoin trading system is increasing day by day all over the world and slowly but surely different countries are recognizing its use in their transactions. It's a decent and positive thing for Bitcoin, however a hard choice for Central Africa. Prior to reporting Bitcoin as authority money, they ought to embrace it with full authorization. Every one of the residents ought to be mindful of the gamble of interest in Bitcoin. They should be acquainted with how to utilize it and how it fills in also. Simply tolerating Bitcoin as a lawful delicate for an emerging nation won't change the economy there. Be that as it may, hopefully for positive developments.

I don't wanna be a party pooper here but it would be good to check some facts about Central African Republic before writing stuff like "this is great thing etc".

The thing is, CAR is so poor that it's not even a 3rd world country but more of a 4th world country and it really baffles me that people think bitcoin with somehow magically help them when they don't have most basic infrastructure built in order to implement something like this.

On top of having only small percentage of people having access to electricity, they also have one of the most expensive Internet in the world. Combine those two things and then add bitcoin volatility which is not an insignificant thing when you can't even afford food on the regular basis and it will make you realize that chances of people using bitcoin in everyday life are slim to none.


While those two countries have loads of problems, situation there is nowhere near as bad as in CAR and its not comparable at all.

Third world countries adopting bitcoin is a good move, because they are in situation to overcome the inflation and the crisis happening within the country. Same time some third world countries have progressed slowly and has reached the level of growing countries. In those countries the adoption of bitcoin will have positive as well as negative impact depending on the market movements. So, CAR adopting bitcoin is a positive move and more other African countries need to take part in it.

The third world countries are realising the fact that their fiat is not going to help them a lot to lift them up in terms of some economic boost so why shouldn't they give btc a option to act as helping hand in their surviving conditions.This is great to see that btc adoption is increasing in these countries where it could really help the people to tackle with inflation but as you know many other problems also are there which btc can't solve like war.Hope African countries seek this as good option and consider the CAR footsteps.

Yes, there is no doubt that it is good news since one of the least developed countries in the world will be able to benefit from this digital currency, but there is a small problem, as I mentioned before, it is one of the least developed, so there are restrictions. In this case, the technology… I recently read a news story that talked about this country and the adoption of BTC (News:https://www.independentespanol.com/tecnologia/bitcoin-moneda-oficial-republica-centroafricana-b2067151.html), but thanks to this restriction, most citizens of this country will not be able to use Bitcoins. Since it is highlighted that only a small part of this population can only enjoy the benefit of having a telephone and this without mentioning internet services and of course electricity.


percentage of population using electricity, source:https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicador/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS?locations=CF

We hope that by 2023 several citizens of this country can be benefited or that the political entities reach them a little more by carrying out some activities that further modernize the aforementioned country, thus achieving that more citizens enter this investment opportunity.

I am not surprised by this particular development since the CAR has economic issues similar to countries like Venezuela, El Salvador etc which is why BTC and other popular cryptocurrencies could help alleviate these issues to some extent.

This is a positive step forward for the crypto world on the whole no matter what though, but I expected the market to rally for a short period which didn't happen.

Yes, this might looks like the first African country to officially adoption the use of Bitcoin for payment of goods and services. I think there are other African countries that have not done that publicly but never compromise the use of Bitcoin by their citizens. I just wondered what could prompt this CAR to public admit the use of Bitcoin bas a currency.

Could it be as a result of their falling economy?
Although this is another Victory to Bitcoin community but can they maintain this claim?
What could be behind there adoption of Bitcoin?
Does there technology support and facilitate the use of blockchain?

So many things going on my mind.

Central African Republic has worked silently on this matter, because until the bill's final approvation nothing was heard in crypto news, at least not in evidency.

CAR is a chaotic country, disputed by rebel groups and a weak government which is connected to Russia. Local authority actually relies on russian mercenaries to recover the cities controlled by rebels, especially now with bitcoin adoption, that must boost the country's economy, strengthening the government.

With BTC adoption as legal tender, USD also loses territory and domination. At same time this fact pleases russians, it also enables more efficient funding and raising of russian forces through crypto payment method.

Money is power, and in this case I suspect the introduction of bitcoin in CAR isn't good news, because it will be actually helping Russia after all.

As you mentioned only countries struggling economically and have an unstable government is adopting BTCitcoin as a legal tender thinking that it will change their financial issues if they adopt them. The problem here is that, with countries having people with monthly wages below $100 how can you expect  everyone to adopt to a high volatile market like cryptocurrency. In the end i think these adoption will have an negative impact rather than having a positive one.

The government are still useful, if the government support adoption, there will be more adoption. If the government of Americas, Asia and Africa all go against bitcoin, the adoption would have been slower than this, it is not only about making bitcoin a legal tender, it is also about how the government are friendly with bitcoin which helps in adoption. As only two countries and an island in Honduras make bitcoin a legal tender, only 12 countries among hundreds of countries are hostile to bitcoin.

Am commending the Central African Republic for taking the bold step of adopting bitcoin as a legal tender in their country despite being among the poorest country in Africa. This is a step toward a new beginning of breaking their citizens free from advert poverty. This demonstrates how the recognition of digital currency is spreading

I hope they have the infrastructure to accommodate this development and some cyber laws to help protect its citizens from any cyber related crimes, but overall this is a great development not only for Central African Republic but the cryptospace as well.

Bitcoin adoption is truly happening slowly all around the globe. And even though Central African Republic is one of the world's poorest country based on my research, I doubt that it won't make any difference on other third world countries out there. And for sure nearby countries and other poor countries will look and keep an eye on this certain country and on their steps in adopting bitcoin as their official currency and what impact and changes it can bring to their economy. This might turn out very interesting and I can't wait to see the possible results of their bitcoin adoption.

               While I love to gear new countries adoption the use of bitcoin and other currencies as a crypto enthusiast myself, I wish that these countries have already made plans and counter measures that would support itself when their bitcoin adoption fails so they can still support it and would not have to resort to abandoning the thought of bitcoin adoption. Of course to keep the reputation of bitcoin in a positive light without hurting their own citizens. Half-assed planning and decisions will only do temporary good for both Bitcoin and the country that is supporting its adoption.

Africa is a huge and diverse continent, and treating it an a unified region isn't doing justice to it. Some countries might follow Central African Republic's example, of course, but others might not. For example, while crypto usage in Nigeria is famously very high, and Nigeria also has one of the highest Internet penetration rates on the continent (73%), the policies of the government haven't been exactly crypto-friendly there. But there are also countries that can struggle a lot because of low Internet penetration. Speaking of low penetration, it's at 11.3% in Central African Republic.
To be honest, I really don't think crypto adoption can work when so few people use the Internet and have access to it. So declaring Bitcoin legal tender is something they can do, but when the vast majority doesn't have Internet, there's no way they'll use or be interested in Bitcoin. I was initially optimistic, but not anymore.

It's exciting to hear that Central Africa will accept bitcoin, and I did some research as well as discovered that they are already utilizing bitcoin as a payment currency. This means that Bitcoin will be accepted as a form of payment in the Central African Republic, making it the first African country to do so and the world's second after El Salvador in North America.
https://coinnewsextra.com/central-african-republic-becomes-the-first-african-country-to-adopt-bitcoin-btc/

I believe that our neighboring countries would be interested, as it is new to them, and I hope that Central Africa would be successful throughout their bitcoin journey. This is their fresh start.

El Salvador is one of the countries that has implemented crypto as a legal adoption in that country and this will again be done by countries on the African continent where they will switch to digital currency and we really hope that the process of switching to the crypto world can soon it can be realized that users will return to recovering the price of bitcoin on the stock market which has fallen drastically in recent years, and we really hope that this will be a good first step for the bitcoin world even though the African country's currency is not one of the popular currencies but if it can happens then it will be an extraordinary thing

Africans do not really need too relocate before they can use Bitcoin or any other Crypto Currency.
Most Africans barely have a good source of power supply and not even a good smart phone but they have pushed on as they are know for embracing technologies.
The government representatives are not useful as I find them old fashioned, a Bitcoin aware politician wouldn't want to hurdle information about Bitcoin and Crypto. Great news but still won't push Bitcoin price a little bit further or forward to 100k

It is one thing to accept btc or other crypto and another to legalize it, could it be that this news source are misrepresenting the two! perhaps the government of central Africa are exploring the option of crypto acceptance for payment before taking that bold step of legalizing it as a currency. and if this is the part they are taking, then yeah, the decision is largely on the business owners to decide which cryptocurrency they are willing to accept.

Until such currency is officially with all due procedures legalize as a legal tender, performing all the above functions (even if it seem legal) does not makes it a legal tender.
 

Is there no Government official social media or any of their offices Seen the links posted above.

How about you reread the quote I was replying to before you comment?

Here:
Do you want me to expound on it? I find it understandable that @bbc.reporter is skeptical about such news because for a poor country to adopt something *that's probably* beyond their technology and infrastructure is not logical. How would they implement it?

Do you get it now?

Well, I saw Franc as it's currency when I first looked at it (as I said in my post) and assumed that it's the same Franc of France.

And where in my post did I condemn it? I'm amazed how you come to such conclusion.

I don't understand this kind of policy. First, it will allow the use of cryptocurrencies instead of money, then this country will be denied loans and assistance, and then the population will say who cryptocurrencies are their main enemy. It was enough to allow trading in crypto-currencies and abolish taxes for several years.

It is, and apparently, that is what they are doing (I’ve come around to believing it to be true now), although as stated before, the bill is inconsistent with only making bitcoin legal tender in the country, as it speaks of cryptocurrencies in the broad sense.
 
My feeling is that they are not too good at being formal and transmitting the specifics. Some articles, such as this one even quote things like:
Note the confusion, quoting cryptocurrencies (and not just bitcoin) as legal national currencies, which seems absurd (although it was not an official quote).

Possibly, what they’ve done is:
-   Legalized cryptocurrencies and developed a sort of framework.
-   Given bitcoin the status of legal tender.

But they also seem to:
-   Have overdone it in the framework in article 10, stating that "Any Economic Agent is required to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment when offered for the purchase or sale of goods or services."
-   Perhaps have yet still to develop some bitcoin specific rulesets (?). I’ve seen this hinted on an article I’ve now lost track of.
 

I speculate that what it might be is the government of the Central African Republic is making their jurisdiction open to all of the cryptospace and not favoring only 1 cryptocurrency. Does this imply that it is on the business owner to make the decision of which cryptocoin he wants to accept? This would be similar to gambling sites in the cryptospace where they can accept bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin and many others to choose from.

You are correct that this news is being blown out of proportion again. However, my argument before is if a government recognizes a currency by law as a means to pay taxes, settle debts, payments and other financial obligations, does this not imply that the currency recognized is legal tender?

This is very exciting news that Africans have been waiting to hear, with the economy of central Africa Republic they need bitcoin and the you will have more access to invest which other African nation find it difficult to use bitcoin . This adoption of bitcoin in central African Republic motivate other Africa countries to take a step just like central African Republic took. Neighbouring countries around central African Republic would want to relocate because this is the kind of opportunity they have been looking for.

Not totally beginning because it wasn't the first country outside africa that made btc a legal tender but I wonder why it took them so long before deciding that they will follow the footsteps of el salvador. Is making btc a legal tender really a serious thing? But if they are doubting, I think it's still possible to retain fiat and for sure there are still people that will choose it over btc.

I can imagine a better world after that. People are now less dependent on fiats, which can be a good thing as it can cut down the inflation rates.

We don't know actually that you are skeptic but why? This is supposed to be a good thing even if they are only doing it for publicity because they are still hyping or promoting bitcoins. If el salvador did it then why not others? For sure they will did it too. They are just waiting for the right signal.

I believe that this is a great move by CAN even though the adoption have no effect on bitcoin price today, One day the world will look back and praise countries like El Salvador and now the Central African Republic as visionaries and first movers. This is just the beginning, more countries will adopt bitcoin probably more smaller countries before the developed nation starts adopting also

Not necessarily. I’m currently more lenient to remaining sceptical, being there a lack of proper official source so far. I often try to go to the root source (or nearby) as a habit on relevant news, but it seems quite a task so far to move away from some stray tweet from a non-official source.

The amount of noise on the matter from all sorts of media, reputable and whatnot, suggests that there is likely something that is taking place, and it could turn out to be true, but we have seen recently how some new get blown out of proportion in a widely fashion, and how bitcoin legal tender was being attributed to Madeira, when the reality is a watered down version, closer to favouring its use there than anything else.

My scepticism may well be proven ungrounded in the aftermaths, and I really hope it is by finding a proper source and the real details behind of how it is going to be played out. Amongst other issues, the estimate of population with internet in the country is only 7,1%, which is a massive handicap to address in the bitcoin as a legal tender scenario.

Edit:
This seems to be the president's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FA_Touadera

And this the press release found on a post on his account, which brings officiality to the matter:
https://twitter.com/FA_Touadera/status/1519300171615592448?cxt=HHwWgICzxZvd0ZUqAAAA

Bill: see complete law here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-legal-tender-in-central-african-republic-5396366

Looks real now, although I don't get the incongruence between making bitcoin legal tender and the bill that verses on the term "cryptocurrencies" in general (look at articles 10 and 11 in prior link).

You do not know anything about the country and yet you said understandable they do no have the technology. Even if you do not know anything about the country but a quick type on Google research would have given you an idea that CAR is a country with its own currency before now. We do not have to condemn everything coming from Africa because it is Africa without researching it. Again we call for bitcoin adoption and we have the mindset of where it will kick start from?

Does that imply that everything about this is only fake news from sauces? I am presently shaking my head because much of the articles from mainstream media writes that it has been adopted as legal tender or a national currency, however, you might also be correct that we should be more skeptical about this.

In any case this is the latest article I can find that published the news without confirmed sources except for that letter signed by the chief of staff of the president of the Central African Republic. It is not the president that signed the letter. If this is fake news, my compliments to the sauce hehehe. He tricked influencers, bitcoin news media, mainstream news media and much of the cryptospace community.



The Central African Republic has adopted Bitcoin as an official currency, the presidency said on Wednesday, making it the first country in Africa and only the second in the world to do so.

A bill governing the use of cryptocurrency was adopted unanimously by parliament last week, said a statement signed by Obed Namsio, chief of staff of President Faustin-Archange Touadera.

Source
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4/27/bitcoin-is-now-official-currency-in-central-african-republic

Nothing is certain here but in the midst of a monopolistic world, power is controlled by nations with large economies. For 3rd world countries like El Salvador, the Central African Republic has almost no way to help them change their own economy when sanctions, economic inflation increase. Bitcoin is almost the only option for them to save the country's economy.

Bitcoin adoption is a huge challenge but it's worth it for them to try with the development of bitcoin, in the long time I believe bitcoin will help the economies of these countries make significant improvements.

Bitcoin being the legal tender in a country doesn't provide any certainty of progress, but for longer and term it assure with growth. But as a country it cannot hold, it needs to make regular transactions. These countries can initially make investment plans on mining bitcoin and later could've adopted it. Same time there were talks going on, that Bitcoin adoption by El Salvador failed based on certain data. I'm not sure, but it is the beginning and someday it'll be discussed as the success model for sure.

I think there is a serious discussion about how positive it is that bitcoin reaches "legal" status and then the addition of the asset or currency it is already an exceptional result, like saying the icing on the cake.

There is nothing that can be said with certainty about the fate of the countries that adopt bitcoin, this by itself is not a messiah in the achievement of improving economies, I think that the fact of adopting at each government that is added to the initiative mainly It is providing the right that individuals have to access the management of our assets.

I guess the government should be responsible about that and should provide mass education first about bitcoin to avoid scenarios like what we heard about El Salvador's citizens on refusing to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. There is still a long way process to go before everything will be set and before people will be totally convinced. But i know, the country itself has anticipated all of these before they come up to adopt and legalize bitcoin.

the current continent of Africa will be able to keep up with other developing countries if they take action more quickly in adopting bitcoin. There are many beneficial things that they will get if they adopt bitcoin, one of which is that their country is highlighted by the media and investors will enter their country. el salvador is already feeling the tremendous benefits of adopting bitcoin, other countries should follow them.

I was also surprised seeing the name of that country, first to heard it though. But i believe that bitcoin will certainly make improvements in their country later on, for now the citizens might still find it hard to grasp about bitcoin and how to use it, especially if most of them are not tech savvy. But everything will be learned in bitcoin as long as the government support them all the way. And seeing they don't have official currency, i guess everyone should need to learn on how to use bitcoin to buy and sell.

My country Nigeria is full of smart people, just that we are lead by corrupt leaders and when the youths(smart guys) want to explore into new ideas and other currencies option, they becomes an enemy and who will like to fight a government? That's suicide and the number 1 problem youths are facing with this leaders, they wouldn't do and wouldn't want the youth to do it, I don't know what they are scarred about with accepting the concept of Bitcoin and other Altcoins.

What is it like with the state of tax on crypto in Central African Republic? If it's a friendly place, there is going to be Lots of flow of citizens from other neighboring African countries and will strengthen their GDP as well migration.

Central African Republic CAR should be commended by all Bitcoin lovers for this great development. While countries like Nigeria, China, and others are seeing the threat and yielding to FUDs, smart countries can see the wonderful opportunity that Bitcoin offers.

There is still a lot of confusion on this matter, with recent headlines still stating that bitcoin has indeed become legal tender in the country. There are some alleged documents around that back this, although, as far as I’ve been able to see, there is still doubt on their authenticity:

1) Alleged official press release:
https://twitter.com/AnitaPosch/status/1519209997212819456

The tweet does not state where the poster got the document from. It also cast’s a doubt as to whether it is in effect, or planned to be in effect.

Google lens translation: https://twitter.com/bluefish_79/status/1519245407854989314
(likely not too precise -> i.e. "establishes bitcoin as the official currency" should, in any case be "establishes bitcoin as an official currency")

2) Alleged crypto law for the CAR:
https://twitter.com/FxEnablers/status/1519270144555507713

Note that it seems incomplete (despite the poster labelling it as complete), and looks like a regulation of crypto in any case, and not specific to bitcoin.

Both the above are being echoed by the media (and me now), although I’m substantially sceptical about the authenticity of either until I see it in an official media (as opposed to someone’s sourceless tweet).


Of course, having abandoned the usage of some of the official communication channels does not help whatsoever (unless they’ve changed them and Google still show old ones here and there):
https://twitter.com/GouvCF
http://gouv.cf/

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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 ?

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.

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:


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. 

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.

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.

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?


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

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.

That will be merely be one of the illustrations/examples of Bitcoin weakening, and breaking down political and financial strongholds. There will be entities that will use every means they have/own to reject Bitcoin and its use, but like the invention of the Telephone or the Internet, they must adopt it. The cat is out of the bag sers.

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.


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 think you can still be a skeptic, even I don't really feel these are such big developments in the big picture, unless a country really does it and builds the infrastructure to actually encourage a Bitcoin economy, and the way it's done so far, it's not working.

Look at El Salvador, martial law and rocked by violence. They need to fix those things first before just adopting BTC as legal tender. IMO...

It appears that this is a passed law, not a draft. If there is anyone from from the CAR here who can confirm this? However, I agree that there is still a long way to go.

Source: https://www.rjdhrca.org/centrafrique-le-projet-de-loi-regissant-la-cryptomonnaie-vote-a-lunanimite-par-les-elus-de-la-nation-%EF%BF%BC/

The rapid development of Crypto in Africa up to more than 2500% in 2021 made many countries now legalize Bitcoin, I believe the Central African Republic will be followed by other countries such as Congo, South Africa, and so on who will legalize Bitcoin.

There should at least one in Africa because there is already on in South America. Its mostly needed in parts of the world where the unbanked people are.

I can not remember where I got the argument about it that Bitcoin today are used by politicians to win a position in the government. Not really the type of things you want to happen but its possibly what politicians are doing today and it has to start somewhere even in a shady manner. Even in US election, there were politicians claiming to turn their cities into crypto city.

Good point, whatever struggles economically exist in the country, its difficult to see
how Bitcoin can solve these in the short term. If they ^{generally speaking} need to transfer
funds, Bitcoin will be a benefit.


If some other neighbouring countries can make the same move maybe they will strengthen
each other rather than a single country on its own.

But still the big issue exists, for example, how does the country grow financially
today after adopting Bitcoin yesterday so to speak?

In the case if El Salvador they know that much the same problems exist even after
adopting Bitcoin, creating a Bitcoin City creates a big economic opportunity.

Frankly speaking third world countries shall be focusing on valuing their own fiat first before they could barge into something like this. The problem with their world countries is they don’t have enough tax payers and most of the big lords within country always earn put money overseas because they know they have beautiful life out there. This way nation always underdeveloped and progresses very slowly.

With bitcoin, things could worsen for them. There will be everyone accepting and paying bitcoins but does this nation has proper channelling of whole thing?

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

Actually, it was backed by gold until 1971: Nixon shock.


We are likely witnessing the beginning but just with regard to poorer countries that have more to gain than to lose by adopting bitcoin as a currency.

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.

To be fair part of that hype was because they were giving away free money to anybody who downloaded and used their closed source centralized wallet. I think it was $30 and considering the exchange rate and low cost of living there, it was a sweet deal.

I think some more years have to pass before we can look back and make a good conclusion. So far we aren't impressed.

I usually don't trust such news,but Bitcoin getting adopted as legal tender by another small and underdeveloped country was pretty much expected.
BTC would never be adopted as legal tender by the big and developed countries,because there's no need for them to adopt BTC.
Good luck to the Central African Republic with this decision.Maybe more African countries would followup and decide to give Bitcoin a chance.Unfortunately the Central African Republic isn't a good place to build crypto mining facilities(not that it matters that much).I really hope that African countries get industrialized and adopt high technologies ASAP.

Central African Republic is the 2nd poorest African country, having only $988 GDP per capita, and only Burundi being below them so yeah, its safe to assume that they don't have the technology yet to properly implement this. I mean, its of course a good news to hear countries being more and more open to bitcoin but it would be nice if those countries have the basic things sorted out before they move on bitcoin otherwise its nothing but a cheap gimmick imho.

El Salvador is a good example because we can see how early hype in that nation occurs and how it disappears months later. It is more easily for their citizens to accept Bitcoin in early days that combined with the bullish market. Who don't like to receive Bitcoin and months later, it has a double value. Oppositely, it is less acceptable for them (as non-Bitcoiners) to take Bitcoin from customer payments and months later, its value is halved.

There are minor proportion of their citizens successfully converted from non-Bitcoiners to Bitcoiners by legal tender in that nation. I am not optimistic but I believe it's just a minority of El Salvadorians have become Bitcoiners in last 2 years.

It is a bit complicated in my opinion.

On one hand we have bitcoin that this kind of adoption (real adoption as currency not just a speculation tool) is good for and it can benefit these countries as they lack some infrastructure specially in their foreign trades. It also creates more incentive for more countries to do the same. But also the volatility is somewhat hurtful when bitcoin is used for trades in large scale. I'm very curious about how they are going to deal with it.
These countries usually have other economic problems that makes it hard to see what the real effect of bitcoin adoption is going to be in their country.

On the other hand what you said could be a little dangerous for those countries. We know that anybody who has ever thought of dumping US dollar has been canceled throughout history. Because simply US dollar and economy is big but one of the weakest since it is not backed by anything at all except some weird faith in this currency that started after WWII. When more countries dump USD, the US economy could go under specially if US dollar continues tanking.

Take El Salvador for example. It is a tiny country with one of the weakest economies in the world that doesn't even have its own currency (their national currency is US dollar!) they didn't dump USD, they just added an additional option called bitcoin. Suddenly previously known democracy is no longer referred to as a "democracy" by the propaganda machine known as media and there are mass protests for no reason in El Salvador against Bukele government!!!

The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_Republic

They do have their own local Fiat currency ==> Central African CFA franc (XAF), Bitcoin (XBT) and they have +/- 4.83 million (2020) people living in that country.

Let's hope this spreads to the rest of Africa and that it will replace digital currencies like MPesa in Africa.... if all of this is true.  

https://cryptotips.eu/en/knowledge-base/what-is-the-abbreviation-xbt/  <=== Explains XBT

From draft laws to official one and fully implementation of it nationwide are a long journey. In order to have a fully implementation and adoption, it requires lot of things, from national infrastructures by governments to easy access to Bitcoin for their citizens. If governments can implement the first part, then second part will play its role to convince citizens to use Bitcoin or reject it.

Convenient access and use cases for Bitcoin nationwide will be keys to convince citizens. Personally I don't think that process will be easily built in short term.

I am not that well informed about that part of the world but a quick search tell us that in total six countries are using the Central African CFA franc which is pegged to the euro, so it would be interesting to see what will be the reaction of the remaining five countries? Will they follow the move of the CAR or will they oppose it? It would be interesting if the whole block of countries took the same stance as the CAR as this will mark yet another milestone in bitcoin’s history.

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.

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