Topic: How Africans Can Utilize Bitcoin... (Read 2132 times)

I dont think so

BTC is too expensive for Africans, maybe dogecoin is cheaper for them, and faster than btc. And scams will be more and more, because Nigerian scams are very popular.

hahaha

A lot of remittances happen via services like Western Unions and money exchange services in developing nations. I know this personally, cause my dad sends me money the same way. Hence, Bitcoin can prove to be helpful to cut down on remittance costs for Africans. It also eliminates them having to wait in long queues.

probably africans are to smart and not loss money on "mining" ponzi sites

im guessing your still watching those advertisments from oxfam, unicef and red cross that are using footage from the 1980's

here is a quick update


i hope you now feel more informed. if not, google is your friend.. not them adverts where the CEO of the charity is racking in $1m a year salary

Cool, it's nice to interact with people from around the world. 

Africa is perceived as a continent full of relatively poor countries by much of the rest of the world.  The question might be, how would countries that have trouble with hunger and clean drinking water find bitcoin useful.  Don't know if that's a fair question or not.  It has less to do with race than economic condition.  Unless bitcoin is accepted at stores I would think it wouldn't be widely used.  But that's true of the other continents as well.

Africans can utilize Bitcoin just like people from other countries, Bitcoin is decentralized and open worldwide, everyone regardless his country can own, sell and buy bitcoin without any problem usually.

I work on contract in some of these African countries for about 3 months in a year, and some of these countries have a pretty good communication network. They use M-Pesa very successfully, so why

not Bitcoin? M-Pesa are centralized services and they can be shutdown at any given moment, when these governments orders the cellphone companies to do it. Bitcoin gives them a alternative option

that cannot be shutdown. { You have sole control over your private key and thus your financial future }  ...Think about it. 

I think the same as other countries, they must utilize the bitcoin as a way to earn money easily. I think this can help them economically, as well as helping the economy of my family.

Note to Africans: Please ignore this advice. It is terrible advice.

I don't see this happening until we have the lightning network. By then it will more viable. Any guy with a SMS phone will be able to be a bank and send instant transactions for really cheap price.

i like the giveaway idea but there should be a place for them to spend bitcoin alongside the giveaway meaning shops should accept bitcoin first, otherwise it is just a waste of time and money because as long as there is no place to spend people won't keep bitcoin and will convert it to fiat as fast as possible.

just give a small amount for free and give the possibility to spend enough in a shop or to buy small things, and they will start to adopt it. if some others will send money to africa will use btc and not other money transfers, just for the simplicity to spend/store/save the funds!

Just like everyone else- IF they have internet, computer access, and more of the basic necessities. Most countries in Africa don't have subpar- if not nonexistent- internet. For these reasons, and the fact that no Internet =/= Bitcoin is basically unknown. A paper wallet could be used for purchases and such, though, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as they have Internet and computer access.

Yes, it will be great idea for them, both for faster and more secured payments and also as investment.
Unfortunately, in many African countries there is no basic conditions to start using bitcoin.
Many of them have no access to Internet, no electricity, language barriers, no education etc.
It's great idea but I don't think that Africa have foundation for it right now.

 

using and utilizing are two different things

i agree that things aren't as good in Africa as it is in other countries in technology front  but it is not as bad as you may thing. read this comment posted by OmegaStarScream above here and also you can use google to find that people are actually using bitcoin there.

I`m not sure if many africans  even have a computer.

Without computers and internet connection,without electricity it`s impossible for them

to utilize bitcoin.

?? virtually no fee's ??
to america 11cents is not "virtually free".
to africa 11cents definetly not "virtually free" infact it can be an hours minimum wage

putting aside propoganda and instead using real life scenarios
you do realise some africans who work in america get paid fiat.. they have to convert it to bitcoin at a commission.(many localbitcoin traders add over 1%)
dont believe me, this over 1% also occurs on the main central exchanges too, go check out the differences of many exchanges.. at a average $600 price point many exchanges are $3-$6 different(0.5-1%) in value compared to the competitors and thats just the spread. thats before you include the trade order fee, withdrawal fee.. thus the costs are over 1%

they then need to send that bitcoin to relatives in america(11cent onchain tx fee). and that relative needs to find an exchanger to convert it to mpesa or other local african currencies.
so sending $60 to africa would cost once you factor in everything $1

even if you convinced an african village to be pure bitcoin currency(no need to convert to local mpesa).. every transaction is still ~11cents

11cents in many african countries/area's is upto an hours minimum wage.

im sorry but reality vs hope differ. sorry but its true
bitcoin really needs to address this and stop falling into the western capitalist market of expensive fees and restrictive use simply because africans wanting to move an hours wage is "spam".. its even getting to the point even in america, trying to move $7 is becoming "spam"
many people dont want bitcoin to be used by people that want to move just a couple dollars (their mindset: btc= reserve currency not local electronic cash)

thus trying to enable an open currency for africa, india etc wont be a bitcoin achievement if bitcoin doesnt change and grow

P.S
its better to say bitcoin remittance is CHEAPER than mainstream fiat remittance, but never say virtually free.. as thats false advertising

EG
american relative wants to send you 1 day of their wage($60) which is ~ 3 months of minimum wage in gambia, but will cost you an hours wage in gambia every time you transfer bitcoin to other people so it might be better to take a hit of 6 hours minimum wage and convert bitcoin into local gambian currency and avoid using bitcoin for everything you want to buy each day as that would end up costing you more than 6 hours over the 3 months