Growing The Bitcoin Development Ecosystem In Africa
Bitcoin development in Africa, with a proper regulatory environment, could equally accelerate the continent and the technology.In this piece, we’ll be analyzing the current state of the Bitcoin developer ecosystem in Africa, ways to improve it and what the road ahead looks like. Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash. Since 2009, Bitcoin has graduated from an obscure open-source attempt at creating electronic money, worked on by a handful of programmers, to a global effort with almost a thousand contributors from varying parts around the world, tirelessly working on maintaining and building out a....
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Two experts have said they welcome South Africa’s planned regulation of cryptocurrency but warned this should not scare away investors. If the regulation is balanced between the need to protect investors and stimulating interest in crypto investment, this “could see funds stream into South Africa while growing the country’s burgeoning crypto ecosystem.” Crypto as a Financial Product South Africa’s impending cryptocurrency regulations as well as the central bank’s decision to regulate cryptocurrency as a financial product is welcome as long as this....
Bitcoin is a booming industry in Africa; a lot of startups and other digital currency business are growing exponentially. The digital currency ecosystem has found many followers in Africa and this week the continent's first Bitcoin conference is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. This first quarter of 2015 the Bitcoin industry has grown as never before. A record amount of venture capital has been placed into the digital currency on a global scale. The US$299 million invested takes the all-time total Bitcoin startup funding to US$676 million. Reports indicate The first quarter of this....
This April, the city of Cape Town, South Africa plays host to the first ever Bitcoin conference in Africa. The event is set to take place on the 16th and 17th April 2015 at the Atlantic Imbizo Conference and Function Studio, located at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. The Bitcoin Africa Conference will bring together merchants, investors, venture capitalists, startups and Bitcoin enthusiasts who are all looking to move Bitcoin forward in Africa. Bitcoin in Africa is at a decidedly infant stage. Subjects to be discussed include what bitcoin is, the blockchain, merchant adoption, and the....
Werner van Rooyen, head of Business Development and Growth at Bitx, one of Africa’s biggest Bitcoin exchanges, spoke to CoinTelegraph about the problems and potential of Bitcoin in Africa. CoinTelegraph: Bitcoin use in Africa has improved in the last couple of years. What has really changed? Werner van Rooyen: Bitcoin, as measured in the amount of transactions per day, is steadily rising in Africa as it is in the rest of the world. Trading between local currencies and Bitcoin is higher today than it had been a few years back and there’s a big increase in Bitcoin awareness and discussion,....
When the words Bitcoin and Africa appear in a sentence, the word remittance usually follows. When Bitcoin first hit the mainstream in 2013, its low-cost money transfer feature was hailed as the solution to the overly expensive remittance costs charged by the large money transfer operators (MTOs), Western Union and MoneyGram. This is especially true when it comes to transferring funds to Africa. However, in the eight years since Bitcoin was first launched, bitcoin remittances in Africa have not really taken off. Bitcoin’s Challenges in Kenya. Bitcoin is an industry that regularly likes to....