There is a quiet revolution happening worldwide. Until now, governments and corporations have controlled the rules of money. That is changing. gladstein writes
How financial privilege blinds dollar users to Bitcoin’s importance
While Western headlines focus on Coinbase going public, Tesla buying billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin and tech bros getting fabulously rich, there is a quiet revolution happening worldwide. Until now, governments and corporations have controlled the rules of money. That is changing. As a result, Aderinokun said the country struggles with unemployment, especially among the youth; 62% of the population is under 25 years old. Out of this crisis, however, are upsides. She credits Nigerians with being incredibly entrepreneurial. People do what they need to do to get by and having a side hustle, she said, is natural.
Beyond the exchange itself, Buycoins also released an app called Sendcash to help Nigerians abroad send money home. Perhaps a family member moved to the United States and wanted to send dollars back. The recipient in Lagos would normally need a domiciliary account in dollars, but Aderinokun said those are difficult to open. Even then, the bank wire or using a service like Western Union can be costly and slow, and exchanging from dollars to naira can be difficult.
They do not understand, she said, how important Bitcoin is for those who cannot get dollars. For billions, they are trapped in a flawed currency that does not fulfill the purpose of what currency is supposed to do. For many in Nigeria and beyond, Bitcoin is providing another option and solving real problems.
And building on- and off-ramps matters because the Nigerian government has Buycoins and other exchanges in its crosshairs. In February 2021, the regime pronounced that bitcoin was not legal tender and said banks should not hold or treat it as such. They later clarified that individuals could still trade but have pressured regulated financial institutions to stay away. Buycoins has been struggling to hold naira because banks do not want to work with it.
It was a great learning experience, she said, as many young people learned about Bitcoin in this moment as a tool for activism. The experience renewed and strengthened her belief in products she is building at Buycoins. People saw that Bitcoin was cool and that the government could not stop it. Because of this, Aderinokun thinks that one day Bitcoin will be talked about in the same way, with the same importance, as radio, TV and the internet.
Mo told a tortured history of his country. Sudan, he said, has been living through a vicious cycle of military coups and authoritarian rule ever since gaining its independence from the British Empire and losing its fragile first democracy. It was not always like this. Mo said that under the gold standard, three Sudanese pounds once bought a dollar. There was a middle class, and Khartoum was known as the London of North Africa. But in 1960, the Sudanese central bank took over and devalued the currency, the first instance of what would happen many times over the coming decades.
As far as the currency itself, Mo recalled several times in his life when the system was overhauled. In the late 1980s, his family was living abroad in Saudi Arabia, and when they visited home, a quarter of a Sudanese pound could buy a sandwich or a tasty snack on the street. But after 1992, when Bashir changed the haram and colonial pound for the Islamic dinar, those quarter pounds became worthless.
It is clear that, in some places, a political revolution is not enough. Toppling a tyrant like Bashir is a historical and incredible achievement; but the political situation remains difficult and people are still suffering. So, some, like Mo, are turning to Bitcoin. Where there were once financial walls cutting off Sudan from the world, Bitcoin has made bridges. It is now easy for Mo in Europe to send money back to his friends and family. What once took days now takes minutes. And he does not have to trust any third parties or require his family to deal with thieves in government.
One of the darkest moments in his life was in 2013 after a peaceful political uprising was completely crushed. Mo left all social media. He could not bear to look at the bloody images and videos streaming from the violence. But now, with twin political and economic transformations, he sees the light at the end of the tunnel. When people say Bitcoin is hope, he says that he agrees.Kal Kassa is an Ethiopian businessman.
The government is afraid that people will dump the birr for dollars, pushing the price of the birr toward zero. But the government operates a double standard, wanting to retain as many dollars as it can for its own purposes. If, for example, an Ethiopian runs a tourist service, they are allowed to take foreign payments into a dollar account, which they can keep in dollars and use to pay for imported goods for up to around two months.
Kassa was born in Ethiopia, but left as a young child, growing up in California. He moved back at the end of 2013, as a senior associate for Grant Thornton, working on privatization on the buy and sell sides. He lived there until the summer of 2020 when the government shut off the internet. Kassa is focused on the Lightning Network and uses it to pay his contacts in Ethiopia. He helps them set up the open-source, free Blue Wallet and pays them directly with Lightning. He is amazed at how easy it is and how it transmits hard value instantly halfway across the world.
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