Hey Africana! We are well aware of your busy schedule, it a whole lot of work when you’re in the busiest planet on earth. Yeah we know this too, we feel this too, and we got your back, I mean, what are brothers for!
While you were away and busy with your schedules, the CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world just hosted an interesting live question and answer session with African cryptocurrency enthusiasts, we know you wouldn’t just love to miss this, so we got some for you. To be frank, we were a bit late, do forgive us!
Fun fact: In 2013, Binance CEO sold his house and went all in into crypto currency, buying about 1500 (one thousand five hundred) bitcoins.
Alright, done with that (planning on selling my house right now…lol); lets take you through some important take-aways from the event, especially as it concerns Africa, lets go!
Q:On plans to expand and optimize cryptocurrency purchase ana sale services in Africa
A good number of questions were focused on how Binance hopes to expand some cryptocurrency services to African countries and optimize existing services in Africa.in response to this, Binance CEO have outlined current efforts by Binance to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions in the continent.
- Fiat-crypto gateways for African currencies: To facilitate cryptocurrency purchase using African fiat currencies, Binance have added gateway support for African fiat currencies, Nigerian Naira (NGN) and south African Rand. Credit options for cryptocurrency purchase have also been made available for African countries. Binance CEO have however stressed the lack of local crypto institutions as one of the challenges faced by his firm in expanding this services to many other parts of Africa, working with banks in Africa have been a herculean task for his firm.
- Auto-buy function: The auto-buy function allows crypto enthusiasts to periodically purchase a certain quantity of cryptocurrency directly from their banks automatically. Being automated, this function makes it pretty easy to purchase crypto at specified times with almost zero stress.
Q: On plans to roll out African currency backed stablecoins.
A: I’m sure I am not the only one who will be excited to see a stablecoin pegged to the value of an African currency, would be pretty cool! However, on this, the CEO have stated that there are currently no plans about this, even though there are possibilities for this in the near future, the pronounced fluctuiations of African fiat currencies remain a huge barrier to this, but he will make researches to know exactly how feasible this could be.Q: About how important Africa is in the cryptosphere.
I think I personally answered that question even before the CEO, and I was no where far from his answer. Despite the relatively slow technological development in Africa, Binance CEO stressed on the importance of Africa in the cryptosphere and stated that Africa is a very strategic place in cryptocurrency. The fact that only about 11% of Africans own a bank account will relatively simplify crypto adoption as this mass without bank affiliations will easily accept crypto-based financial system. Pretty classic assertion. To embrace the African market, he stated that they are already making plans as stated in the first question above.Q: Plans to build a blockchain university in Africa.
We’ll love to enroll into one ASAP!, I mean…a blockchain university, department of Directed Acyclic Graph blockchains!. Unfortunately, this won’t come anytime soon. According to the CEO, binance is currently unable to run a university system and doesn’t fully understand how the university works, however, they will be willing to offer educational resources to interested university via the Binance academy.Q: On South Africa as an emerging cryptocurrency market.
The CEO continued with his view on how important Africa as a whole is and have visited African countries to understand the market before establishing Binance-uganda. He further stated that opening new markets in Africa depends on availability of local markets in concerned regions. He also commented on plans to drive more participations from African cryptocurrency enthusiasts and influencers through incentivized affiliate system and P2P crypto trading , he encouraged more crypto influencers to take part in this. We encourage you too!Q: On how Binance is working to promote its presence in Africa.
The CEO mentioned different strategy through which Binance is working to promote itself in the African region, this includes provision of liquidity options which include fiat gateways for African crypto traders, providing educational resources in different languages including official languages of several African countries, charity works in Africa which is evidence in the magnanimous material donations by binance, building of schools in Africa, and other charity works in African countries.Q: On if he thinks Africa is untapped.
Of course, yes, he believes Africa is currently untapped (or undertapped, IMO). Due to the fact that Africa has a relatively weak coverage in cryptocurrency, he believes there are still many rooms to grow in the African crypto space. He stated that Binance is working towards improving the African crypto space by rolling out P2P platforms and adding fiat gateways. He mentioned some difficulties they are currently having as regards this which includes difficulties in working with banks in Africa due to poor technological system, another difficulty is the means of user verification.Q: On the issue of the Nigerian temporary National ID card use in user verification.
The Nigerian government has a delay period before issuing permanent ID cards to citizens who enroll into the national identification program. However, this document is being rejected by most cryptocurrency projects as a means of user verification; speaking on this Binance CEO have mentioned plans to tackle this by developing ‘Country-specific’ KYC (Know your customer) method.Q: On support for Cryptocurrency start-ups in Africa
Binance CEO stated the readiness of his firm to support smart cryptocurrency projects in terms of funding and technical assistance. However, he made it clear that are no regional preferences as regards this, selecting qualified projects to support is completely based on merits and feasibility of the projects, top quality projects can submit their proposals and prototype to BinanceEX, qualified projects will receive finical support of up to $10,000 and technical assistance. Binance is not interested in owning shares or equities in projects that wins this support.Q: On providing traditional financial services in the African region
Asked if there are plans to provide traditional financial services in the African region such as tokenization of certain sectors and offering of cryptocurrency securities in Africa, the CEO stated that they will currently focus on developing and offering technological solutions to cryptocurrency issues in Africa and will only make a move in this direction if a domestic institution makes a breakthrough, this is due to the pronounced regulations in issues of this typeQ: On post-COVID19 plans for Africa.
Asked about plans for the African region after the current pandemic COVID19, the CEO mentioned some of the impact of the pandemic which will likely favour cryptocurrency adoption after the pandemic has been defeated. He stated that the world will be more digital after the pandemic as many people have been forced to use the internet more and have discovered the possibilities and what can be achieved using the internet especially as it concerns financial transactions, also the current fiat hyperinflation due to national moves to relief the economic effects of the pandemic. These events are very likely to favour cryptocurrency adoption and the CEO have stated that his firm will be ready to embrace this opportunity to further push cryptocurrency adoption after the pandemic.
As you could guess, this report only covers major talking points as it concerns Africa and cryptocurrency. Get the full Question and Answer session here
Before you close this page, let us know what you think about these answers above.