A quiet bitcoin boom in Africa is being driven by payments from small businesses as well as remittances sent home from migrant workers by alexisak tomwilson1983
A bitcoin user buys bitcoins with naira on Bitcoin Teller Machine in Lagos, Nigeria September 1, 2020. Picture taken September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Seun Sanni
“You don’t have to pay charges, you don’t have to buy dollars,” the 30-year-old said, raising his voice above the sound of loud haggling and the honking horns of scooters. This represents a reversal for bitcoin which, despite its birth as a payments tool over a decade ago, has mainly been used for speculation by financial traders rather than for commerce.
In 2018, the Nigerian central bank warned cryptocurrencies were not legal tender, and investors were unprotected.A steady stream of customers comes and goes from Odunjo’s shop, one of a dozen units along a dark corridor in an indoor section of the market known as Computer Village. Gauging how cryptocurrencies are used in particular locations is tough, though. Digital coins offer a high degree of anonymity, and though the value of transactions can be tracked on the blockchain, the identity or whereabouts of a user cannot.
“Everything is oil. When the price of oil dropped, forex became scare,” he said. “That became a very big problem.”
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