Blockchain adoption in Nigeria

I really took my time to see if I could write this to educate minds on Blockchain technology . In the past few days people have asked what is BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND HOW CAN IT PROFIT ME?? So this are the questions I would be answering now, what is Blockchain technology,
What is cryptocurrency, and Smart Contracts ? How does it all work? How can blockchain be used to drive business growth? How will blockchain impact the Nigerian digital economy? How will blockchain better the world
Now to my first question.

What is BlockChain?

Permit me to start this way, i was talking to a couple of friends last week and one of them asked this question and I simply answered Blockchain is the solution to Africa's problems. Blockchain can be seen as a diary that is almost impossible to forge. The blockchain is an undeniably ingenious invention that has revolutionalized the Financial Technology Industry. Since its inception, the blockchain technology has evolved into something greater and more powerful having an estimated market size of over 540 Million DOllars in 2018 .
BlockChain a digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly.
Now in 2008, Satoshi Nakamato conceptualized the distributed blockchain. It would contain a secure history of data exchanges, utilize a person to person network to time stamp and verify each exchange, and could be managed autonomously without a central authority. This became the strength of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

BlockChain adoption in Nigeria.

Now to the second, Blockchain adoption in Nigeria. Many governments around the world have frowned upon blockchain while just a few are making plans to incorporate its applications to improve their economies. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has cautioned Nigerians, discouraging the use of cryptocurrency, they are asserting that virtual currencies are not accepted legal tenders in the country.
According to data from LocalBitcoins , Nigeria came second in the world’s peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin transactions in 2017 outpacing major European countries, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. This data shows us that the adoption of BlockChain and Cryptocurrencies can be great in Nigeria if the government can find innovative ways to leverage its usage.

BlockChain And Business Growth.

This is the main reason for writing this, Blockchain technology affects business growth in many positive way, even S.M.E's would not have issues with meeting up with a lot of
needed targets. When finally matured, the decentralized BlockChain system is going to change the way we transact business or manage assets. Along the way, it will transform banks and other financial institutions, hospitals, companies, and governments among others. Now this are the ways I see Blockchain technology transforming our business space.

1. Cross-Border Payments.
   We all know that Making global payments is very slow, costly, error-prone and open to money laundering. It can take days if not more for money to move from one country to another. Blockchain makes global payment fast and secured making it easy to transact businesses with customers in other countries and get paid instantly .
2. Improved Digital Security.
   Digital security is a massive problem. In the world today data either gets stolen or mixed up, most times its even difficult to access. Thousands of hackers are out there trying to steal peoples identity. Now imagine never having to worry about your digital(data)security or that of your customers ever again. Blockchain technologies make tracking and managing digital identities both secure and efficient, resulting in seamless authentication and reduced fraud.
   Be it banking, healthcare, national security, citizenship documentation or online retailing, identity authentication and authorization is a process intricately woven into commerce and culture worldwide. Blockchain technology offers a solution to many digital identity issues, where identity can be uniquely authenticated in an irrefutable, immutable, and secure manner, is this not amazing?
3. Supply Chain Tracking.
   Most of the companies in the world have ERP and supply chain management software yet, there are limited visibility and details about the whereabouts of a product at any given moment. Blockchain can ease the tracking of items across the global supply chain.
   The product can be tracked at every stage creating the record of the location, who handled it and when. It can also record details like temperature, internal pressure at each point to help retailers be assured of product safety. This could solve the problem of lost or damaged products in the shipment and increase accountability of product at each point. Due to an accurate, specific and immutable nature, retailers can resolve issues very easily.
4. Smart Contracts.
   Smart contracts very easily solve the problem of intermediary trust between parties to an agreement and can make it easy to transact business without the fear of been duped by a business partner. It defines a set of conditions to which all parties using the contract mutually agree upon. Once the required conditions are met, certain actions are executed and all members of the network get to the same result by executing this action.
   There are multiple ways in which Smart contracts can be used. For instance, in case of insurance claims, all claims can be recorded on a blockchain, thus eliminating multiple claims being registered by one user. Concurrently, the user is also not scammed out of a claim by the company stating that they have already issued a payout.
   Conclusion.
   Now looking at this vivid picture One could say that BlockChain is going to be adopted in Nigeria very soon and it is important for business owners to be educated and prepared for the digital revolution that is coming.
   The takeaway from this is that FinTech solutions such as BlockChain can definitely play a part in driving both business and economic growth in Nigeria. However the technology cannot achieve this alone, the government has a greater role to play by quickly adapting to changes in technology and providing the right regulation to guide we as Nigerians. I stand for the adoption of Blockchain in Nigeria, what about you?