Bitcoin. My Thoughts on Why Monero and Litecoin Are Up? Bitcoin in Nigeria News.

All prices are given in USD.

Hello everyone. My name is Nick, the host of Sobuka where I give commentary and opinions on what is going on in the cryptocurrency industry with respect to the southern and eastern hemisphere. This includes covering regions like Africa, Latin America, Middle East, and the South Asian Pacific to include Australia. For people already subscribed to my channel, I only alert you on 1 new video per day. So make sure you check into the channel from time to time for full videos.

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So before I jump into some news about Nigeria, I want to talk for a few minutes about this market. The price of a Bitcoin has been holding steady at about $4300. The two coins that have really exploded during the past 24 hours have been Monero which is currently priced at $140.00 and Litecoin which is priced at around $60.00.[3] For people out there, this is not regular buyers purchasing these coins at all. This could be huge wales and institutional investors. The time when I saw a huge market cap increase within a 24 hour period was when it was confirmed and announced that JP Morgan was involved in ZCash and Ethereum. At the time, both cryptocurrencies was around the $100.00 price level, thus doubling their market cap days later. And please, I am not saying that JP Morgan in involved here. All I am saying is that this is not your ordinary investor at all. And so the floodgates that was meant to keep these prices suppressed at their former levels the past few months have been let open. These cryptocurrencies have helped the current overall coin market cap to jump to $160 billion which is an 800% percent increase within the year. But not just that we are seeing new ICOs being released and a lot of crazy prices like in IOTA, NEO, and even small market cap cryptocurrencies such as Monaco, kick serious butt during the last couple of days.

How High Can It Go?!

I would like to tell you guys how high these prices are going or when we will have a major pullback/correction, but I cannot. And no one out here has a crystal ball to say what the prices of these cryptocurrencies will be tomorrow. The whole thought of hearing about $15,000, $100,000, and even $1,000,000 (USD) is frankly not unlikely but still yet very ridiculous for the price of a Bitcoin. But the good news is that not much people are that naive to believe these inflated prices. I am not saying that we won’t see these high prices. But to be quite honest, I would like to see them go higher. However when you have the same pundits on mainstream media who were just touting Bitcoin but now trying to pump the price even higher, one has to be a little bit skeptical here. Okay, so that is my take on the current markets as of this time. I will now transition into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news with respect to Nigeria.

Impact of Blockchain Will Be Felt In Africa

There is news from Nigeria on how maximum impact on blockchain will be felt in Africa but not in the west.[1] But I am not sure on whether the article is referring to the "west" being the United States to include Western Europe or West Africa. But regardless, the article brings to mention interesting points about the banking system in Nigeria with respect to blockchain. So if you guys do not already know, Nigerian banks are not allowed to transact with Bitcoin similar to everywhere else around the world. So normally what folks in Nigeria would do is cash out their Bitcoins or switch it for fiat currencies like Naira or USD via online peer-to-peer exchanges like LocalBitcoins. Alternatively in some cases, Nigerians can use local on-line exchanges like BitPesa to buy and sell Bitcoins.[5]

The article does not say much of anything new about the cryptocurrency atmosphere in Nigeria, but it talks about how the banking system is slow to change. And I think in most part, it is not just the Nigerian banks, but the global banking system. One of the excuse I keep on hearing of why banks do not want to transact with Bitcoin is fear of being tied to money laundering activities which to me is a valid excuse. And I get it, because you do not want a bank transferring funds back and forth on managed criminal activities. So right now, what we have in Nigeria and other western African countries is businesses and people working behind the scenes with Bitcoin merchants and peer-to-peer transactions instead.

But I do feel that banks not just in Nigeria but elsewhere in other parts of the world will slowly adapt a Bitcoin-friendly awareness and attitude in the near future to avoid the fear of missing out or FOMO for short. There are special banking platforms that are already coming out such as Ripple. Their platform would offer services that will speed up remittances where people do not have to send funds back and forth. So honestly, it’s a matter of time before banks can avoid being behind the 8 ball. Now I am not certain if Ripple is a blockchain technology or just a centralized database, but whatever the case, folks have tested it in places like the Middle East and even China. And the testers have loved the platform.[2] (To folks who are not aware, Ripple is a company specializing in banking platforms to help speed up monetary transactions. Some of the top banks in the Asian Pacific are involved in this technology.)

The other items the article brings to light is the erratic price of Bitcoin and some of these other cryptocurrencies, making it hesitant for banks to assume this risk. Which again I can understand. If a piece of investment fell to more than half one day, you can understand that people would be panicking. But I sense for most folks who have been in this Bitcoin environment that they are already use to the high volatility of the market. And so I sense that they are willing to take that risk. But as for new investors, probably not. They might be a little bit more risk averse. All I can say for anyone new to cryptocurrencies is to keep on learning what you don’t already know. Because once you learn a concept, there is less panic. And maybe you might become more informed to not get into cryptocurrencies, as to why I tell people to just do their own research.

So as far as all that, there’s really nothing new in Bitcoin Nigeria. People currently are speculating into Bitcoin and using it to transact to buy goods or make a living for a business. We will have to see on what the government will do next. Maybe the Nigerian government would like to take the path like South Africa by offering a sandbox experiment to allow them to learn about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in a vacuum like environment.[4] But hey who knows?! Time will tell if banks in Nigeria and on the west coast will be fast to adapt to the growing changes given the huge Bitcoin and cryptocurrency tide sweeping the continent.

That’s all I have for Nigeria folks. If you like this content, please click the Like button or Upvote on Steemit. You can follow me here on Steemit or subscribe on YouTube. For more deeper content, below are sources.

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Nick is a content creator for Sobuka with a background in programming, information technology, finance and digital forensics. He shares interest in cryptocurrencies by reporting on International Affairs. You can find myself, B, and Sarah here from time to time.

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Relevant Sources

[1]. “Maximum Impact Of Blockchain Will Be Felt In Africa, Not In The West: Opinion." By Iyke Aru. 8/27/2017. https://cointelegraph.com/news/maximum-impact-of-blockchain-will-be-felt-in-africa-not-in-the-west-opinion

[2]. "Bitcoin Countdown. 7 Days Till Aug 1st. Middle East and Ripple Meet. Coinbase Bans Cuba. Tanzania." By Sobuka. 7/28/2017. https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@sobuka/bitcoin-countdown-7-days-till-aug-1st-middle-east-and-ripple-meet-coinbase-bans-cuba-tanzania

[3]. "Coin Market Cap." By Coin Market Cap. 8/28/2017. https://coinmarketcap.com/

[4]. "Korea Legalizes Bitcoin South Africa Regulates BTC Trump Trade Impacts Latin America and DubaiCoin." By Sobuka. 7/28/2017. https://steemit.com/korea/@sobuka/korea-legalizes-bitcoin-south-africa-regulates-btc-trump-trade-impacts-latin-america-and-dubaicoin

[5]. "1 Bitcoin = 2.60 oz of Gold. Australia Venezuela Mexico South Africa India and Kenya." By Sobuka. 8/7/2017. https://steemit.com/gold/@sobuka/1-bitcoin-2-60-oz-of-gold-australia-venezuela-mexico-south-africa-india-and-kenya