Like all technology arriving Africa, crytocurrency is here and we must take this opportunity. Cryptocurrency according to Wikipedia is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets.
Africa's economy is growing bigger and players in the game really need to step up regarding cryptocurrency but reverse is the case. From time immemorial, Africa major form of trading is the trade by barter by which one good is used in exchange for another then came money, now cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin became the first decentralized cryptocurrency in 2009. It is one of the cryptocurrency available in the world. There are more than 100 cryptocurrencies which include iota, Clubcoin, RXP, e.t.c used for trading and solving problems all over the world.
Blockchain is another important concept that needs to be defined. It is a continuously growing list of records called blocks which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to previous block, a timestamp and transactions data. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data.
For the growth of trading and Africa respectively as a whole we must trade amongst ourselves consistently. We must solve the problem of money movement and bring the unbanked people in our countries into an ecosystem that is easy and accessible immediately. Blockchain technology helps us solve some of these problems by providing smart contracts, security data solution, cryptocurrency and much more.
Although cryptocurrency has been in usage in East Africa as in BitPesa. In South Africa it is becoming particularly popular. Local traders and activists believe it is an opportunity to democratize the economy. But despite these, why is Africa yet to fully embrace this new money?
The reasons are not far fetched. The major obstacle is the problem of technology. In Africa, we are still yet to come to terms with the advancing technology involved in cryptocurrency trading.
Another reason is a lot of our policies or laws date back to the 60's, 70's and 80's and this is not helping matters.
Also, there is the problem of insufficient information on crptocurrencies. People are not well informed which leads to being ignorant of the basic need-to-know.
Finally, when an average African hears about cryptocurrency regardless of been educated or not what comes to mind is the ponzi scheme which invaded Africa like virus particularly West Africa. This made many Africans lost a lot of hard earned money which led to sensitivity to any online transactions which involves money.
These are problems we must tackle and I will proffer possible solutions in my next post. Provided we solved the problems then Africa's economy is destined for greatness.