Bitcoin and M-Pesa: Why money in Kenya has gone digital
When thinking about the future of money, many of us now invariably have thoughts about bitcoin. Where is it going? What role might it play in our financial lives? No matter what you think about it, bitcoin is great for starting a debate on where digital money is heading. Africa is a place where bitcoin has major potential. But what you might not realize is how important electronic money already is to countries there such as Kenya. First, a little economic information about this East African nation. Kenya is one of the region's largest economies with a GDP of $41 billion dollars. Fifty....
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In a recent article appearing on SecurityWeek.com, the author David Holmes discussed virtual currency around the world in all its current forms. The article also discussed M-PESA, an SMS based system through which mobile subscribers in Kenya and a growing number of countries can send virtual money through a mobile operator's phone number. Either by circumstance or happenstance, I have been privileged to watch M-PESA grow from its soft launch at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi in late 2006 to what it has become right now. Though this can at times sound clichéd, M-PESA has revolutionized....
Michael Bumann has been in Nairobi, Kenya for several months updating himself on the tech scene there. He noticed the widespread popularity of feature-phone enabled M-Pesa fiat transfers, and realized that by combining a few open-source tools into a bot, he could send Bitcoin through a messenger to deposit fiat directly into his cab driver's M-Pesa account. Bumann says: CoinTelegraph tracked down the world traveler and picked his mind about his secret (yes, still currently secret) bot, Kenya's tech scene, and his vision of the future. CoinTelegraph: What gave you the idea to connect....
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has warned that virtual currency is insecure and could fund terrorism, according to the Daily Nation. This comes a day after a court ruled that Safaricom, the nation's largest cell phone provider, will not have to reinstate access for BitPesa, Africa's largest bitcoin trading platform, to M-Pesa, the mobile payment service. BitPesa, a bitcoin payments and remittance service which uses the Safaricom telecom, and Lipisha, the payment gateway for both BitPesa and M-Pesa, are suing Safaricom in Kenya, CCN recently reported. Safaricom stopped Lipisha from....
Regular followers of mobile payment technology know that Kenya stands as one of the most successful mobile payment stories, thanks to the widespread use of the M-Pesa mobile payment service in that country. Kenya's success in this area jumped onto the global spotlight this week thanks to a report on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes." Whether or not the "60 Minutes" segment, which gave an overview of how average Kenyans are conducting mobile commerce using their smartphones, catapults M-Pesa as a mobile payment service remains to be seen. The report explores the many benefits that mobile commerce can....
Kenyans using popular money transfer service M-Pesa to get bank loans can longer do so. The bank involved suddenly cut the service following a legislation update. M-Pesa Loans ‘On Hold For Now’. Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) gave neither warnings nor comments on the move. The decision followed the enactment of the country’s new Banking (Amendment) Act 2016....