Exploring Bitcoin & Crypto in Western Africa

from @jayurbzz: the money transfer industry is so easy and so fast and so ubiquitous in West Africa, I have no idea how the crypto revolution would hit any time soon (for something like money transfers). Not to mention the mobile phone & telecomms industries regulating a lot of that money transfer...

Also, outside of the main cities, not many people have TVs or devices to “get in the loop” on what's happening in the 'developed' world — what you see is what you get around there. Meaning, how would the masses even find out about Bitcoin or crypto as an alternative? Let alone learn how to use it... a lot must be done.

Bitcoin was accepted by this one money transfer booth I found, but that was it; in fact, the woman working there had to call the guy to text over the BTC wallet address. I doubt she even knew what she was doing. I’m sure if I asked, there may have been an alternative to use ETH or LTC or DASH or another coin; but otherwise I think Bitcoin’s name brand is what it’s got going for it on the global scale… interesting how that’s managed to happen.

I truly believe crypto is the key to a lot of the world’s issues; however it’s a lot easier to see that from the perspective of a fairly-typical Westerner with all our modern comforts and bandwidth and devices … getting out into the world I see that it’s a true dose of grounding to witness how much further we have to go. This paradigm shift requires much more than a simple technology; it requires implementation. It requires education and awareness of new ways of living.

There is so much to be done and I don’t know if the crypto space as a whole is moving fast enough with on-ground endeavors to make it happen–in fact, aside from a few projects I’ve seen, I’m actually concerned by certain aspects of the crypto space’s obsession with finance.