Africa is the new frontier in the crypto adoption revolution, and more people are beginning to recognize this. One of them is the pro-crypto Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. Jack, who is also the CEO of payments processor Square, has been toured a few countries, engaging in Bitcoin meetups and inspiring thousands of young people.
Dorsey has spent a few days in Nigeria and Ghana, two West African countries that interestingly, rank highly in Bitcoin interest. Nigeria has continued to warm up to Bitcoin as the people seek a better alternative to the inaccessible banking system. The country, which is Africa’s largest economy, has seen quite a number of startups spring up to take advantage of this interest, using crypto to solve day-to-day problems.
Although he believes that Nigeria still doesn’t have enough Twitter users, he sees massive opportunity in the country. He even pledged to live in the country for six months next year in order to get first-hand experience of the country’s tech scene.
He stated, “I want to understand the challenges of starting a company here and figure out a way I can support. I want to live here for three to six months next year, full time, no travelling.”
Jack pledged to offer more Nigerians remote job at Twitter and Square, stating that he too likes to work remotely. If he does, Bitcoin would be an excellent payment method, allowing the San Francisco-based tech giant to bypass the slow and expensive funds transfer methods available in Nigeria.
Mini bitcoin Ghana meetup with @atsudavoh @sy_boahen pic.twitter.com/vJ5a0P2q8e
— jack (@jack) November 11, 2019
Remote working has become an increasingly important sector of the African economy. When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Kenya a while back, he acknowledged the rise of the African remote working industry, stating that ‘the future will be built in Africa.’
Despite their large number, African remote workers still have a difficult time getting their payments. This is largely due to inefficient, slow, tedious, inaccessible and expensive funds transfer channels. As CoinGeek reported earlier this year, PayPal banned some of the freelancing sites which crippled the lives of many Africans. Bitcoin is the answer, and this is becoming clearer by the day.
It’s not just the remittance market where Bitcoin could impact Africa. The continent is home to a large number of countries with high inflation including Zimbabwe, whose monetary system has been on a roller coaster ride for the past decade. Bitcoin could give the people an alternative that’s immune to manipulation by the banks and other financial entities. With the real Bitcoin having real-time transactions and very tiny transaction charges, it could be the ideal day-to-day transactional currency.
Already, we have seen Africans take to crypto, with the continent being home to success stories such as Centbee, a crypto wallet which enables real-time cross-border transfers that were previously not possible. Centbee has used a creative voucher system that allows even those in remote areas to access Bitcoin and enjoy the benefits of the world’s new money.
Africa and Bitcoin are a perfect fit and as more people continue to recognize this, the continent will break many of the shackles that have held it back for decades.
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