Bitcoin Historian Kurt Wuckert Jr. hosts an hour-long CoinGeek Weekly Livestream covering Bitcoin-related topics. This week, CentBee Founder Lorien Gamaroff joined him to talk about Bitcoin as electronic cash, the state of things in Africa, and a whole lot more.
The CentBee Show
Wuckert begins by acknowledging that Gamaroff has started a show of his own—the CentBee Show. He compliments the South African entrepreneur on the production quality, which many new broadcasters usually struggle with when they start a show.
Gamaroff says Wuckert inspired him, and like the BSV Association, he aims to educate people about Bitcoin. As an OG who has been involved with Bitcoin “pretty much since the beginning,” Gamaroff fights on for Satoshi’s vision, and he plans to use his show to talk about it.
Is there a place for Bitcoin as a strategic reserve?
Wuckert zeroes in on one of the points made on a recent CentBee Show episode. In it, Gamaroff talked about RFK, Donald Trump, gold, and sound money. Wuckert says that, while he believes in Bitcoin as electronic cash, he does think there’s some case for holding it, although it’s overstated. Does Gamaroff agree?
The CentBee boss first clarifies that when mainstream U.S. Presidential candidates talk about Bitcoin, they speak about BTC. While Gamaroff is primarily interested in Bitcoin as electronic cash, he also believes in its sound money aspect. However, he believes in Satoshi’s massively scalable, low-cost ledger, and he thinks that is what gives the token its value. Ultimately, it’s the desire to write transactions to this ledger that will cause people to buy up the token.
While the BTC camp strongly focuses on security and decentralization, it has forgotten the most important aspect: utility. So, if national leaders want to buy BSV as a strategic reserve, Gamaroff is all for it, but he doesn’t feel BTC is worth it.
A wall of misinformation about Bitcoin
Wuckert notes that when people like Trump talk about Bitcoin, it’s evident to people in the know that he doesn’t understand it very well. He wonders how many other things politicians may discuss that cause experts to cringe.
Gamaroff says this is just the nature of mass media. He likens it to mass-produced food such as McDonalds. It’s not supposed to be a quality, nourishing item; it’s something to snack on quickly and feel good in the moment.
Ultimately, it’s the type of advisors who appear on these media channels, who are all trained on BTC talking points, that give people like Trump his talking points and information. It’s little wonder the world is full of misinformation about Bitcoin.
How can we overcome such a wall of misinformation and let people know there’s a system capable of solving problems related to identity, data integrity, and payments? Gamaroff says it’s all about spreading ideas and innovating. For example, CentBee already beats every mobile wallet and payment solution in Africa in terms of costs, but “build it, and they will come” doesn’t always work. So, he’s been busy giving demos, educating policymakers, and adding new features. Even after all this, he says the “veil of crypto” still hangs over most people.
How things are changing in South Africa and across the continent
As a South African and a Bitcoiner since the beginning, Gamaroff is well-placed to know what’s going on across the country and the wider continent.
Currently, South Africa is creating a licensing model to allow some digital currency businesses to operate legally. This is being done to improve the country’s reputation after it was placed on the FATF grey list, meaning it needs to take steps to improve its financial reputation. Thus, we are beginning to see AML/KYC rules adequately enforced, and the government is creating a framework for business.
However, Gamaroff warns that a licensing scheme isn’t necessarily good. People may think these businesses are legitimate because they have government approval to operate, but when the ‘crypto’ house of cards comes down, all trust will be lost, hurting even legitimate businesses. BSV has to distance itself from the industry, so he believes that being delisted from exchanges was a blessing in disguise.
Check out the livestream link here to learn more about South Africa’s role in using Bitcoin as electronic cash, CentBee’s potential integration with MNEE, and more.
Watch: Enabling BSV Payments to major retailers with Lorien Gamaroff of Centbee
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