Money makes the world go round, they say, but what if notes and coins were replaced with on line code?
Bit coin -- the world's much talked about cryptocurrency -- is just that. It can't be printed, it can't be directly controlled by governments or central banks, but it can be sent around the world instantly at a low cost.
And in sub-Saharan Africa, where 75% of the population don't have a bank account, experts say the currency could help millions of people pay bills and get to grips with their finances.
Transferring cash via a bank or a Money Transfer Operator (MTOs) like Western Union or Money Gram can be costly. According to the Overseas Development Institute, the average charge to transfer $200 to Africa using traditional money transfer services is 12%. If you send $200, you pay $24. The ODI added up all the transfers that happen in a year, and found remittance fees cost the African continent $1.8 billion a year.
What if that money could be spent on things, rather than fees?
As Bit coin is a virtual peer-to-peer currency -- designed to operate on the border-less Internet -- the costs of transferring money can be radically cheaper than traditional methods, and the process is much quicker.
"Bit coin can greatly alter the remittances industry and beyond," says Michael Kimani, who heads the African Digital Currency Association, a Kenya-based group launched last May to promote digital currency technologies. "From seven days [for a transaction to clear] using banks & Pay Pal, down to 20 minutes speaks volumes."